Red Sea ATA+ keeps pumping (photo's)

[CalypZooReef]

I hope someone here can help me because I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. I recently bought a secondhand Red Sea ATO+ and installed it in my sump. It had only been used for a few months, and the seller assured me it worked perfectly for them.

During the first test with RO (reverse osmosis) water, the autofill didn’t work, and I realized the system only functions with saltwater due to conductivity. However, even after filling the entire system with saltwater, it still doesn’t work. I’ve already replaced the sensor, but the issue persists.

When the water level in my return pump chamber gets too low, I first get an alert saying the temperature is out of range. This happens because the air in my room is cooler than the water in the sump, causing the sensor to cool down. Shortly after, the pump in the RO reservoir starts running to refill the evaporated water.

The problem is that the pump doesn’t automatically stop once enough RO water has been added. It only shuts off when the safety feature kicks in because the pump has run too long. At that point, I get an alert: “ATO pump ran too long and has been shut down.” It seems like the sensor isn’t properly detecting that the water level is rising. On the ReefBeat app, I never see the water level marked as “Above,” even when the water is clearly above the sensor.

In the app, I’ve set the pump return height to 15 inches since that’s the height of my sump (see photo). I’ve entered the hose length as 20 inches because that’s the minimum length allowed in the app.

I’ve also tried returning the water into a different chamber of my sump instead of the return chamber, but that made no difference.

Here’s what I’ve done so far:

• Replaced the sensor with a new one
• Cleaned the sensors with citric acid
• Adjusted the sensor to a different height
• Reset the pump monitor
• Updated the flow rate
• Removed and re-added the ATO to the ReefBeat app

Unfortunately, none of this has worked, and I keep getting the same error message. At this point, the system is useless to me—I’ve basically got an expensive leak detector and thermometer but no functioning top-up system.

Am I doing something wrong? Am I overlooking something?

I’d really like to get this system working. All my other Red Sea products work flawlessly, but I’ve been stuck on this issue for days now...

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Did you ever get this fixed?

 

[BryanM]

I would contact redsea, I'm feeling confident they've seen this before, and you've kinda replaced everything.

 

[Featherweight]

Mine did this so I dumped it. Tons of folks have this same stupid problem. I don't trust the red sea ato one bit

 

[CalypZooReef]

Did you ever get this fixed?

Unfortunately, no luck... I've been emailing back and forth with Red Sea support, but since my ATO is out of warranty, they won't replace anything. They did offer some advice on resetting the system, but I had already tried that. In the end, they suggested I buy both a new sensor and a new controller because a faulty sensor can sometimes mess with the controller settings.

Now I'm stuck trying to decide what to do. I'm tempted to try a new sensor first and see if that fixes the issue. I looked for pricing on a replacement controller but couldn't find anything, so I'll have to call a store to check.

Honestly, I might just go with a Tunze instead. I've seen this issue come up a lot on different forums and Facebook groups. Red Sea has a great product lineup, but their ATO seems to be hit or miss... I just don't trust the RS ATO at this point.

 

[BryanM]

Unfortunately, no luck... I've been emailing back and forth with Red Sea support, but since my ATO is out of warranty, they won't replace anything. They did offer some advice on resetting the system, but I had already tried that. In the end, they suggested I buy both a new sensor and a new controller because a faulty sensor can sometimes mess with the controller settings.

Now I'm stuck trying to decide what to do. I'm tempted to try a new sensor first and see if that fixes the issue. I looked for pricing on a replacement controller but couldn't find anything, so I'll have to call a store to check.

Honestly, I might just go with a Tunze instead. I've seen this issue come up a lot on different forums and Facebook groups. Red Sea has a great product lineup, but their ATO seems to be hit or miss... I just don't trust the RS ATO at this point.

Tunze for the win.