Hydor smart level controller

cwb_reeftank · Jan 1, 2016

last Christmas I got a hydor ato. I hooked it up and put a pump with it. it was going great at first until I heard it going off in the middle of the night. it had dumped at least 2 or 3 gallons of fresh water into my tank so I stopped using it until I found a smaller pump. I finally found one that does 3 1/2 gallons an hour. I thought that would work perfectly. I was kind of wrong again. it did fine at first it filled it up to the max and stopped. it didn't mess up till the second day which is now and it had dumped half of the water from the jug I was using. I have noticed that it goes till it alarms but it keeps doing it. I need help on what I should do. anything will be grateful please help!!!

Defective_Weeble · Jan 1, 2016

The Hydor has a minimum run time. What size tank are you running it on? My bet is that you're using too large of a pump or you have a very small tank so the minimum time is longer than what your sump will hold.

I've been using one with an Aqua Lifter pump for a year or so without issue. But that has been in tanks between 80 and 180 gallons. The 3.5 GPH max of the Aqua Lifter is ideal for the Smart Level controller.

Viperdoug · Jan 1, 2016

I had the same problems with that controller. After 3 months, I threw it out and replaced it with the Tunze Osmolator. Been happy since. The above post references what I was told. I put a valve on the line to slow down the water filling rate as I was told it was filling g too fast. That did nothing. Good luck!

tigerdragon · Jan 1, 2016

It deals with wattage draw of pump sys works great with a brs 50ml dosing pump. It works on the principle of about a 10 min run time if it doesnt see a change in 10 min it shuts the pump off if it goes over upper it alarms and shuts off pump. Been running one for over 2 years and have learned that too much pump ie gph and too big of a wattage draw will not work very well with it it. The aqualifter works fairly well. Also depends on how big your section is that it is filling.

dbl · Jan 1, 2016

Agree with others...the minimum run time is tough to deal with. I ended up getting rid of it and went with the AutoAqua Smart ATO. It doesn't get a lot of love on here, but, for what it's worth, mine has worked perfectly for nearly two years now. Many other options beyond the Hydor.