Hydros ATO help

[mjk42]

I am setting of the Hydros ATO and what seems like it should be straight forward doesn't seem to be working as it should. I have the ATO kit with the direct drive pump and the triple ATO sensor. Sensor is set in my return pump chamber and I have the water pump inflow tube into the overflow of display tank. I have the ATO set for pump max on time of 1min because it takes some time for the system to level out from water input to the display to reflect in the water level sensor in the return pump chamber. If I leave the sensor to drive the pump alone, by the time it hits the "wet" level and turns the pump off it will likely settle higher into the overflow level. The problem I am having is that instead of the pump hitting the max run time and stopping, waiting a period of time and then turning back on to repeat the cycle until the water level sensor reads "wet" to prevent it from turning on, the Max run time is forcing a "hard stop alert" that I have to override or reset to have the pump turn on again. This seems crazy and pretty useless but I cant figure out how to change this....

Please help!

 

[towels]

Why don’t you put the ATO line into the return pump section of your sump where the triple sensor is? That’s exactly what I do with your same setup

Regarding your last sentence, the hard stop alert is directly tied to the 1:00 minute maximum on time setup you have. If you were to make that 0:00:00 the ato pump would run until the sensor hits wet. It’s working exactly as intended. (Based on your setup)

There’s also the run passed max on time but that basically negates the 1:00 limit you have in place

 

[mjk42]

Why don’t you put the ATO line into the return pump section of your sump where the triple sensor is? That’s exactly what I do with your same setup

Regarding your last sentence, the hard stop alert is directly tied to the 1:00 minute maximum on time setup you have. If you were to make that 0:00:00 the ato pump would run until the sensor hits wet. It’s working exactly as intended. (Based on your setup)

There’s also the run passed max on time but that basically negates the 1:00 limit you have in place

I have my ATO container on the other side of the wall from my tank at an area that is slightly higher then the sump so was trying to pump up to the display to prevent setting up a forward siphon that would continue to flow RODI water into sump when pump was off.

For the stop time, I intend for it to stop after one minute but want to know if there is a way to get it to resume on its own after it waits the allotted period of time for the "max off time." Unless I manual reset it, it will not try to turn back on. I am trying to set up a system that will make a series of small "1 minute doses" until the sensor hits wet and then would keep it off until the sensor gets dry to repeat the cycle of doses.

Thank you!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

The sensor should be where the water refills IMO. IMO your sensor is in the right spot, I would move the water refill into the sump as apposed to display tank, they are too far apart.

 

[towels]

I have my ATO container on the other side of the wall from my tank at an area that is slightly higher then the sump so was trying to pump up to the display to prevent setting up a forward siphon that would continue to flow RODI water into sump when pump was off.

For the stop time, I intend for it to stop after one minute but want to know if there is a way to get it to resume on its own after it waits the allotted period of time for the "max off time." Unless I manual reset it, it will not try to turn back on. I am trying to set up a system that will make a series of small "1 minute doses" until the sensor hits wet and then would keep it off until the sensor gets dry to repeat the cycle of doses.

Thank you!

Do you have a siphon breaker installed on the Ato line? That should stop the forward siphon

There’s no auto ovverride, the closest option would be to turn on the run past max on time option until sensors wet. I’d see if you can adjust the waterline location, but if that isn’t an option, I would reach out to Hydros regarding the one minute set up that you’re looking to do. I know how to do it with multiple Ato pumps, but I don’t think you’d want to do that. (Dependency off if on to each other) meaning if one Ato runs max time, the other would remain off and then turn on if the first Ato pump didn’t make the sensor wet

 

[mjk42]

Do you have a siphon breaker installed on the Ato line? That should stop the forward siphon

There’s no auto ovverride, the closest option would be to turn on the run past max on time option until sensors wet. I’d see if you can adjust the waterline location, but if that isn’t an option, I would reach out to Hydros regarding the one minute set up that you’re looking to do. I know how to do it with multiple Ato pumps, but I don’t think you’d want to do that. (Dependency off if on to each other) meaning if one Ato runs max time, the other would remain off and then turn on if the first Ato pump didn’t make the sensor wet

Thank you. This is super helpful to know that there isn't really an option for an easy override. I do have the siphon break attached to the line that came with the set but was under the impression that this would prevent a back siphoned from the tank back to the ATO res? Not sure if it is a one way type break or would work for any siphoned in general? Looks like the best option will be move the input to the return pump chamber.

I also posted on the Hydros forum but figured the R2R community is much larger and quicker to help! As someone who is entirely new to this hobby, everyone has been so awesome!

 

[n2585722]

How big is your tank? i have 42 gallon tank but currently use a Sole for the ATO pump. It pumps from my garage up through the attic and then down into the overflow. It is a dosing pump set to 55ml a minute flow rate and I have a 3 minute and 30 second maximum on time. It could be that height on the small pump may be slowing it down quite a bit. Have you tried increasing the maximum on time a little to see if you can come up with a time where it will not go into the error mode. That is used as a backup to stop the pump just incase something were to happen with the water level sensor.

 

[mjk42]

How big is your tank? i have 42 gallon tank but currently use a Sole for the ATO pump. It pumps from my garage up through the attic and then down into the overflow. It is a dosing pump set to 55ml a minute flow rate and I have a 3 minute and 30 second maximum on time. It could be that height on the small pump may be slowing it down quite a bit. Have you tried increasing the maximum on time a little to see if you can come up with a time where it will not go into the error mode. That is used as a backup to stop the pump just incase something were to happen with the water level sensor.

My tank and sump is ~115 gallons.

I did a test again today to let the ATO system work as it should and when it turned fluid sensor "wet" and turned pump off, there was a good ~10min lag time until the final fluid level settled across the entire system into the return chamber. At this point it went just above the "overflow" sensor.

At this point it seems like I have 2 options:
1) leave it the way it is and just disable the overflow sensor (I have a 2nd single point fluid sensor I can use as a high sensor trigger). My OCD might kill me with this option hahah

2) Move the ATO input back to the return chamber to get much faster fluid level feedback. To do this I will need to have the ATO pump outflow tube flow into another piece of larger tubing to "water slide" down into the return chamber to prevent a forward flow siphoned as my ATO res fill level will be higher then my return sump water level when it is full. From what I can tell, the siphon break provided with the kit is to prevent a back siphon. This would actually be a pretty easy fix and I already have some excess 3/4 tubing I could use.

 

[n2585722]

The output side on mine is above the water level so no way to back siphon. Also my DI reservoir in the garage is a 20 gallon Brute can but with the output in the overflow I do not have an issue with siphoning either. The tank is 35ft from the garage. So I need to use a dosing pump. I have used the simple doser but when I got a Sole to try out I started using it instead. The doser would have a lot slower flow rate so that would give the water level more time to equalize so with a dosing pump you may not have the overflow issue but the overflow on those triple level sensors are really close to the full sensor. I don't have one. I just have the single optical sensor. I use two other sensors one for low level in the sump and one for high level in the sump. The high level sensor will also turn off my skimmer if it goes wet.