ATO Opinions for a Pico Office Tank

officetank · Feb 3, 2023

Wow. First of all, hello to every single member on here. I have been browsing these forums since ... 2013 When I was 15. In a sense, you all taught me to be a better reefer and I've gone through the last 10 years of my life growing and learning with all of you. I feel honored to be posting here for the first time and I wanted to give a special shoutout to every member contributing to these forums and the advice you all share. Someone out there (without an account lol) is browsing these forums looking to better themselves as a hobbyist. So to that, thank you all, and welcome to my first post!

Ok, now time for the question:

I've recently set up a small Pico reef tank in my office on my desk. She's rather small, at only 3 gallons, but it is mainly going to be a display tank of coral (something to look at while I'm working!) My only issue is, I am not in the office everyday of the week and I really need a solid plan for my ATO. I have a cabinet above my desk and tank. I could go the gravity ATO route. I could also go the regular ATO route as well. Space is limited, however, in both the tank and in my office. I am just horribly afraid of the ATO's failing and flooding my space. That would cause a big BIG issue. Can anyone recommend me any products that are safe, true, and trusted? Or perhaps provide some words of reassurance that not all ATO's are out to get me??? Lol.

I am very excited to be more involved in this community. Thank you!

JaaxReef · Feb 3, 2023

So, I have a 5 gallon tank where I had similar concerns. I decided to use a cheap dosing pump that I set after letting the tank evaporate for a day and topping it off with a liquid measuring cup and seeing how much was needed per day. Split that up into 12 doses and set the dosing pump. It fluctuates a tiny bit and occasionally requires manual top off in small amounts every few weeks/months, but way more likely not to fail or flood the tank and keeps salinity pretty darn stable.

Rusty_L_Shackleford · Feb 3, 2023

If youre super worried about reliability, tunze is the way to go, but i havent used them personally. I have a reefbreeders ato on my 34g and its very compact.

EricR · Feb 3, 2023

AutoAqua used to make a Smart ATO "Micro" but I think it may have been discontinued.

I use the Tunze Nano Osmolator (but in 40 gallon tank) and the only time it tried to fill above desired level was when my urchin latched onto the float and held it down.
*has selectable MAX RUN TIME auto shutoff but even the shortest one is designed for larger tanks so not sure if that would save a 5 gallon tank from overfill.
*specs note about 0.4 gallons pumped for shortest max run time shutoff,,, so maybe?

...none of that probably helped but good luck

officetank · Feb 3, 2023

JaaxReef said:
So, I have a 5 gallon tank where I had similar concerns. I decided to use a cheap dosing pump that I set after letting the tank evaporate for a day and topping it off with a liquid measuring cup and seeing how much was needed per day. Split that up into 12 doses and set the dosing pump. It fluctuates a tiny bit and occasionally requires manual top off in small amounts every few weeks/months, but way more likely not to fail or flood the tank and keeps salinity pretty darn stable.

What type of dosing pump did you use? Would you recommend a hydros dosing pump? Also if I decide to place this above the aquarium, will it accidentally cause a siphon to form? I have heard somewhere that, that issue can be avoided in peristaltic pumps. Is that true?

JaaxReef · Feb 3, 2023

officetank said:
What type of dosing pump did you use? Would you recommend a hydros dosing pump? Also if I decide to place this above the aquarium, will it accidentally cause a siphon to form? I have heard somewhere that, that issue can be avoided in peristaltic pumps. Is that true?

I would always recommend placing the dosing pump and container below the tank, but less likely to deal with a siphon issue with a peristaltic style pump.

I used a cheap Jabao one. I didn’t care too much about accuracy given the use case and it has worked well for me.

brandon429 · Feb 3, 2023

trade the square three gallon tank for a 3 ish gallon vase with a common curved, fluted neck area

with that and a common plastic dish potted plant holder inverted as a lid over the vase, you can easily have a no topoff nano reef, that's no ato nor water needed added by you, for 5 days easily. it's due to the vase design, you can't get it with a square tank because all lids rest on top vs the inner diameter of the vase neck. that one changeup alone removes all ato needs from reefing. we can move over as a skip cycle transfer all your living materials into the new setup. everyone will like to see a 2-3 gallon big reef vase. far less machinery to run far more stable than a square nano tank. I routinely make my 1 gallon vase run a week with no topoff while traveling. you turn up and down the air input rates to alter evaporation rates. you could simply turn your air down slightly less strong on thursday and not even need topoff until monday again...then adjust it stronger for the mid week run.