ATO

[Twinn]

I have the autotopoff.com (or BWI) ATO with an aqua lifter pump and it works great. With the aqua lifter pump you can have a small fresh water container and if you run the pump dry it shouldn't wreck the pump.

This is my second saftey the way I look at it I would rather burn out a pump then flood my floor.

[mike31154]

If you don't have room in the sump for a top off bottle and don't mind having a bottle sitting next to your stand (visible), you can do a variation of the gravity feed. Use an air pump on a timer to pressurize the container and have a feed line to mechanical float switch in your sump. Simple, nothing to burn out really, the air pump doesn't care if it runs a little longer than necessary. Just takes a little experimentation to dial in the timings. I run my air pump a few minutes every few hours and it keeps up nicely. Pretty unlikely to cause any major flooding, only electrical part is the air pump, nothing with wires in the water.

[Wayne]

I am going to be picking up a JBJ ATO unit from a fellow Canreefer but it only has a min and max float switch. I am wondering if its possible to add 2 more switches? 1 for min level in my resevoir and a fail safe switch in sump? Can the Autotopoff.com unit work for this purpose with a mod?

[whatcaneyedo]

Originally Posted by Wayne

What kind of failures might occur with the contollers? Do they have backup safetys?

They can be as simple or as complicated as you want. I was able to pick up a Tunze ATO used for a steal a few years ago but I run it plugged into my Neptune controller for some extra protection. I also use a kalkwasser reactor and there is some risk of raising the pH too high so I came up with this:

Max Change 030 M Then ATO OFF
If pH > 08.60 Then ALM ON
If pH > 08.40 Then ATO OFF
If Switch1 OPEN Then ATO OFF
If Switch1 CLOSED Then ATO ON
If Timer KAL = ON Then ATO OFF