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Yes, that's what the ATO does, but not what an AWC does...But
But doesnt the ato replace the evaporated water with fresh water thus leaving the salinity the same?
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Yes, that's what the ATO does, but not what an AWC does...But
But doesnt the ato replace the evaporated water with fresh water thus leaving the salinity the same?
ok, I should reword that...
The ATO just looks at the water level (i.e. in the sump) and it tops off with fresh water.
The AWC pulls out a specified amount of tank water and replaces with pre-mixed salt water.
...all of which sounds like the salinity shouldn't change...
But, as pointed out above, your salinity will not remain constant.
Why? Well, when are you doing the AWC and when are you doing the ATO?
If you are running constant ATO with Kalk, then you run the risk of pushing your pH too high.
And running ATO slowly at night is a good way to stabilize pH.
So assuming a night time ATO... then when is your AWC running?
If you are running your AWC right after the ATO cycle completes, then the salinity should not be affected (much). But I'd still monitor salinity because it's a big impact.
And if you run AWC many hours after your ATO cycle has completed, your salinity will go up considerably.
...hope I'm making sense....
The thing is this AWC unit and ato all in one either does a water change or topping off the water not both at the same time so there wont be a point when a water change is taking place and additional fresh water is being added thus not changing the salinity.
AWC Auto Water Changer (Plus ATO)
Auto Water Change Plus Auto Top Off Change your reef tank's water automatically with AutoAqua's AWC system. AWC & ATO All-In-One. Water changes are one of the most time-consuming maintenance tasks with saltwater aquariums. There has been plenty of debate over how much water you should change...www.bulkreefsupply.com
"During the water change, the output pump will pump water out of your tank our sump into a wastewater reservoir, or floor drain until the low water sensor is activated, telling the controller to turn on the input pump until the high water sensor is tripped, completing the water change and then reverting to a top off controller."
so im kind of confused on why you are saying, "If you are running constant ATO with Kalk,.."
And i think it will be fine to just have the ato run when ever it is needed to avoid having high spikes when kalk is released into the water from the ATO
Aswell i run a refudgium during the night what the DT lights are off to help aid in keeping a constant ph
so im kind of confused on why you are saying, "If you are running constant ATO with Kalk,.."
The 4th unit failed on port 3, but this time it failed ON. So the stupid thing pulled the entire volume of my topoff reservoir and dumped it into my tank. 20 gallons. Probably 12-15 gallons of overflow onto my floor.
By the way ... how do you know you need to dose? did you test your kH consumtion?
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I mean for a long term situation I will be dosing carbo- calcium because I do have a few lps in my tank already and I do plan on buy more now and having a mixed reef since i will be dosing.
If you are not going with sps - then use full all-for-reef or one of the balling products. You will not have to use gallons of the stuff and like I said it provides a better mix of elements than just plain 2 part.And since im dosing ofc I will need to monitor the water now. Before I wanted to do the least amount of maintenance thus planning on doing a softy softy dominated tank. But now since im going to be dosing and actually takeing care of the water Im thinking of just going mainly lps and softy and some acros here and there.
Yeah I’m in the same boat. didn’t think I would be attacked and told to get out of the hobby just because I wanted to try something new.A little surprised by the negative reactions so far.
75gal is prob a little large to do just AWC. But, I wouldn’t let that keep you from trying. You’ll need to still test in the short term to ensure that your AWC is meeting the needs of your tank. See if you can find a balance for 4-6 months and then you can likely reduce your testing to occasional.
Water changes alone have long been sufficient for smaller tanks. I never dosed my 29gal biocube and it thrived, including some SPS one of which was an acro. You may just need to do larger WC’s than you were expecting.
Yeah. If your comfortable spending $30-$50/month on salt to avoid having to test, more power to you lol! Or maybe it takes $75? Who cares if it works and the $ isn’t an object.Yeah I’m in the same boat. didn’t think I would be attacked and told to get out of the hobby just because I wanted to try something new.
I just started using this AWC/ATO system in December.I really don't understand why a lot of people are saying that if I run a AWC that I it will be very important to monitor the salinity. My thought process is say my tank is at 1.025 then i'll make sure that the barrel holding the saltwater is at 1.026 so that for what ever reason some salt gets lost it should stay around 1.025. And obviously after mixing the salt, making sure that salinity is where I want it to be.
Also for the AWC I plan on buying this
( https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/awc-auto-water-changer-plus-ato-autoaqua.html?utm_term=&utm_campaign=Shopping>Auto+Top+Off&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=7373341438&hsa_cam=2061909484&hsa_grp=75007229934&hsa_ad=363030124023&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=aud-332082194793la-806835800794&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkKnyBRDwARIsALtxe7gXp0x9Ac1RGXnwjr-pIMqJx3NxWzEbZ3k8gjjzLQ6i2Y3oz7--CIEaAmrREALw_wcB )
Which has a ATO system built into it so there wont be a problem where a water change is happening and the ato mistakes it as a lot of evaporation.
plus could I use a higher grade of salt where the calcium& alk is slightly more elevated So that calc would sit around 420 and alk around 11.
But honestly I think the best way for me to come to a conclusion is to have my reef tank fully stocked with all the lps corals I want and then see if the consumption of alk and calcium is greater than or less than of having a awc system could replace then see whether or not to continue with dosing.
FYI Bulk Reef Supply has an entire YouTube series for ULM tanks. They test several methods in 6 tanks. I was watching the recap today, good to hear you do not need to spend a ton of cash to have a nice tank