Hydros Triple Optical sensor failed. RIP

[Dragen Fiend]

Woke up at 4am to beeping. Immediately checked phone. Which is nice to not have to get out of bed if its something stupid.

NOPE. Sensor says unknown. And ATO pump went into fallback which I never configured or realized I should have. Thankfully it did not dump a lot of RODI in. Salinity only dropped from 1.26 to1.25.

Unplugged it and restarted. Then plugged it back in. Still dead. Real bummer this sensor died before my other ATO that I paid $35 which was cheaper than the sensor itself.

And of course I don't have a spare. So I retrofit my skimmer sensor for now lol. I think I'm going to stick with float switches.

Back to the main point. Anyone configure their fall back ATO when it fails in the future. This way I'm not dumping too much RODI in. I had it on defaults which clearly is too much. Also can I assign two sensors to a single output? I'm looking up the combiner stuff but nothing seems to match instructions.

 

[Schulks]

The optical sensor is apparently a lot more reliable if you wanted to try that one. I just had a triple fail and I had an optical sent for warranty.

What was your system alerting about exactly?
My ato setup doesn't seem to have a fallback setting.
But the max on time setting should send an alert if the ato stays on longer than 2 minutes.

You can assign multiple inputs with certain output types. I use advanced generic outputs a lot. There is an option to increase the number of inputs.

 

[Borat]

What is ATO? Is that Australian Taxation Office?

 

[Naturalreef]

I have a triple sensor that is causing issues. Keeps overfilling or doesn’t fill at all while showing the sensor is wet. Coralvue just did a quick check and said everything was operating normally. I’ll be going with a Tunze ATO

 

[Joe31415]

What is ATO? Is that Australian Taxation Office?

Automatic top off.

 

[Dragen Fiend]

The optical sensor is apparently a lot more reliable if you wanted to try that one. I just had a triple fail and I had an optical sent for warranty.

What was your system alerting about exactly?
My ato setup doesn't seem to have a fallback setting.
But the max on time setting should send an alert if the ato stays on longer than 2 minutes.

You can assign multiple inputs with certain output types. I use advanced generic outputs a lot. There is an option to increase the number of inputs.

Ah thanks! I see it now under advanced output selection then the new type shows as combiner.

Yea when the sensor goes into unknown. The ATO output switches to fallback mode which apparently continues to work. But it pumps water in every so often. I'm just not sure how its programmed to do it properly.

Mine was set to 2 minutes as well.

 

[Dragen Fiend]

I have a triple sensor that is causing issues. Keeps overfilling or doesn’t fill at all while showing the sensor is wet. Coralvue just did a quick check and said everything was operating normally. I’ll be going with a Tunze ATO

I'm using the float switch in another tank with hydros. Waaaay better. Likely to stick with that. Sensors can be great but also finicky at times.

 

[Joe31415]

I’ll be going with a Tunze ATO

Get the regular one, not the nano. The nano only uses a float switch and it has a tendency to get stuck in one position or the other. The optical sensor needs to be cleaned from time to time, but that's about it. It will also time out and shut the pump off if it's been running for a certain length of time (5 or 10 mins?). Both to keep the pump from burning out if it's dry and to keep the tank from overflowing if the sensor isn't working and thinks it's dry when it's not.

 

[Joe31415]

I'm just not sure how its programmed to do it properly.

I don't use the Hydros but I wonder if it tracks how much the ATO runs during the course of the day and if the ATO sensor fails, it adds about that same amount throughout the day.

 

[Naturalreef]

Get the regular one, not the nano. The nano only uses a float switch and it has a tendency to get stuck in one position or the other. The optical sensor needs to be cleaned from time to time, but that's about it. It will also time out and shut the pump off if it's been running for a certain length of time (5 or 10 mins?). Both to keep the pump from burning out if it's dry and to keep the tank from overflowing if the sensor isn't working and thinks it's dry when it's not.

I’m talking about the new Osmolator 3. Is that the same one you are referencing? Current triple sensor works well when it’s working. I like that I can set the max run time which is currently 10 seconds, otherwise my nano would overflow on the floor if it was set to 5-10 minutes. I’ll have to call Tunze and see if I can adjust the time.

 

[Dragen Fiend]

I don't use the Hydros but I wonder if it tracks how much the ATO runs during the course of the day and if the ATO sensor fails, it adds about that same amount throughout the day.

This was my thought process as well. Mine turns on every 15 minutes or so in about a 5-10 second pump time.

 

[Borat]

Automatic top off.

Why do people use those failure prone rubbish devices? My gravity fed auto top off uses float valve and has been running flawlessly for 6 years. No switches, no wires /electroics- and thus no failures. Just water trickling as and when needed..

 

[Joe31415]

I’m talking about the new Osmolator 3. Is that the same one you are referencing?

No, I didn't know they had a newer one out. I was talking about the 3155 vs the nano/3152. I have no idea if anything I said is applicable to the one you're talking about.

My gravity fed auto top off uses float valve and has been running flawlessly for 6 years.

A gravity fed system wouldn't work well for a lot of people. I have a tank in my living room with no (nice looking) way to get a bucket up higher than the sump, especially not one that would hold more than a day's worth of water. I also have an AIO tank (so no sump near the ground) that I wouldn't want a bucket of water hanging over the top of.
Instead my reservoir is in my basement and the Tunze ATO pumps have no problem pushing the water up to the first floor. In fact, I even have a third tunze pump that I connected to a button so I have an RODI supply in a convenient spot (next to the sump).

The only problems I've had with either of my tunze ATOs is the occasional dirty sensor. I've had, maybe, one pump need replacing, but I'm not even sure about that.

 

[Borat]

No, I didn't know they had a newer one out. I was talking about the 3155 vs the nano/3152. I have no idea if anything I said is applicable to the one you're talking about.


A gravity fed system wouldn't work well for a lot of people. I have a tank in my living room with no (nice looking) way to get a bucket up higher than the sump, especially not one that would hold more than a day's worth of water. I also have an AIO tank (so no sump near the ground) that I wouldn't want a bucket of water hanging over the top of.
Instead my reservoir is in my basement and the Tunze ATO pumps have no problem pushing the water up to the first floor. In fact, I even have a third tunze pump that I connected to a button so I have an RODI supply in a convenient spot (next to the sump).

The only problems I've had with either of my tunze ATOs is the occasional dirty sensor. I've had, maybe, one pump need replacing, but I'm not even sure about that.

What you say makes sense to me (in terms of why you use ATO).

My RO water container is situated about 10-12 meters away slightly above sump level.. it's connected to the tank using RO tubing (that I ran through the living room along skirting board). The feed flow rate is very small (like a few drops a minute), I bet if you place the ATO container another 30 meters away from the tank - that would work equally well..
So if outside space is available (i.e. you living in a house, not in a flat), that setup can still be achieved in many different ways.

 

[skiergd011013]

Get the regular one, not the nano. The nano only uses a float switch and it has a tendency to get stuck in one position or the other. The optical sensor needs to be cleaned from time to time, but that's about it. It will also time out and shut the pump off if it's been running for a certain length of time (5 or 10 mins?). Both to keep the pump from burning out if it's dry and to keep the tank from overflowing if the sensor isn't working and thinks it's dry when it's not.

I just got a tunze nano last week and it does not use a float. It uses optical. Also, i believe it has other fail safes built in, such as it will only run for X amount of time continuously before it shuts off and requires a manual reset. I replaced my osmolator 3 with it on my 20 gallon. The 3 wasnt holding my water level dead on (i sharpie markered it). A Tunze rep said the 3 is a bit oversized for a 20 gallon. It has a longer run time and will fluctuate water levels in a small tank. They told me the nano would be better.

 

[Naturalreef]

5 minute emergency shutoff won’t workin my situation. I have a 20 gallon dropoff with a very small sump area that would overfill and flood the floor at 5 minutes. I have an old hydros optical sensor I think I will test and see how it works. I guess the best fail safe for my tank is the hydros max runtime setting that I can set. I have it set for max runtime for 10 seconds and it sends me a message. It saved me a few times when the triple sensor is acting up.

 

[Connor At CoralVue]

Make sure to reach out to our support portal! Support.coralvue.com

We can schedule a call, remote in, and really diagnose that sensor, then provide you with the best options to get you back up and running! If you have not reached out before, this would be a great opportunity for us showcase our support team in action!

 

[Naturalreef]

Thanks Conor! Your support has always been great. I already created a ticket about the triple sensor. Support said it was working fine , which it was at the moment. But, I have woken up to the sensor indicating wet when it was dry many times without triggering the ATO pump. I’ll reach out again.

 

[towels]

If you 100% had the Ato pump on with a maximum run time of 2 min and 2 minutes of filling wouldn’t cause the overflow - I would look into your hydros controller as that’s where the power should have been cut after the 2 min

 

[Dragen Fiend]

If you 100% had the Ato pump on with a maximum run time of 2 min and 2 minutes of filling wouldn’t cause the overflow - I would look into your hydros controller as that’s where the power should have been cut after the 2 min

No I think that's the maximum it could run before it auto shuts. But it doesn't run that long. More like short bursts. I'm pretty sure it uses the data from ATO graph to decide how much to dump if the sensor failed. So it at least keeps up with evaporation. I just don't think its capable of doing it accurately.

To be fair. The sensor failed at 2am. I woke up at 4am to the alarm. So in the 2 hour time span it was still topping off. Just not accurate enough. It dumped about 1/4 a gallon.