Considering ATO

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by fishytime

two words......Tun Ze.........never plumb a never ending source of fresh water directly to your tank.......dont be lazy and use a reservoir

+1
Tunze

[Myka]

I won't use anything other than a Tunze Osmolator. Never had any issues with them. I have two that are 3 or 4 years old.

Originally Posted by fishytime

never plumb a never ending source of fresh water directly to your tank.......dont be lazy and use a reservoir

Agreed. 100%

Originally Posted by sphelps

I see little difference between filling a sump or a bin...

If there is a malfunction the difference is a wet floor vs a potential crash from sudden salinity drop. I know of at least 2 or 3 tanks that have had complete crashes this way. Redundancy is insurance, laziness is risk.

[wingedfish]

DIY
Couple of eBay floats in series with an aqua lifter.

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by Myka

I won't use anything other than a Tunze Osmolator. Never had any issues with them. I have two that are 3 or 4 years old.



Agreed. 100%



If there is a malfunction the difference is a wet floor vs a potential crash from sudden salinity drop. I know of at least 2 or 3 tanks that have had complete crashes this way. Redundancy is insurance, laziness is risk.

Malfunction is highly unlikely if even posible. The solenoids fail in off position and even if one fails the second one will prevent failure. Max on time is set with profilux or timer so even if float fails sump will only fill slightly over float. Profilux also has alarm for this case.

How would such a system fail? More likely one would forget to fill reservoir, pump runs dry and fails, tank crash.

Don't mistake laziness with convenience or progress for that matter.

[ALang]

Originally Posted by Reefie

I'm running one, just got sick of manually topping off. It paid for itself over the summer as my place has a ton of windows and lots of natural sunlight.

I'd recommend the Tunze Osmolator, super simple to install. Just keep the Top Off tube out of the water or use a check valve. I kept mine out of the water just because if you don't it will back-siphon. The instructions don't mention any of that, I had it submerged, so guess what happened to me? Haha!

Exactly what he said.
I'd never go without one again.
I have a 30gal top-off tank that I fill only about once a week. Great for going on short holidays.

[molotov]

I plan on using one of these.

http://www.conceptaquatics.ca/index....o-top-off.html

No solonoids, no pumps, no electricity, just plain physics. I can't see there being anything more reliable, simple and straight forward. Of course you'd want to have it plumbed to a reservoir. I cannot see anyone plumbing an ATO to an endless water supply.

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by molotov

I plan on using one of these.

http://www.conceptaquatics.ca/index....o-top-off.html

No solonoids, no pumps, no electricity, just plain physics. I can't see there being anything more reliable, simple and straight forward. Of course you'd want to have it plumbed to a reservoir. I cannot see anyone plumbing an ATO to an endless water supply.

Manual floats are less reliable than electronic. Electronic has endless capabilities for redundancy and safety back-ups. Salt creep alone is enough to keep a manual float from closing.

[doch]

CONSIDERING!?!?! Really? This is a no brainer. My Tunze broke a couple weeks ago, and it makes me angry to do it manually. That said, my whole tank makes me angry right now, but that's a different story.

[christyf5]

used to have a gravity fed system with a float valve that failed once a year. I'd replace it and it would be good for another year. Finally when I set up my most recent tank I decided to look into a float switch. Turns out one came with my controller so I set that up. Its failed on me a couple of times (small brittle stars get into the floating part of the switch and jam it) but my topoff tank is small enough and the main tank large enough that if the whole topoff tank ends up in the sump, its not a huge deal.

[intarsiabox]

I asked the same question a couple months ago and while most people responded Tunze everyone else just said what they currently had was the best. So I went a different direction and started googling what systems have failed and why. I couldn't find any instances were a Tunze ATO caused any damage or overflows. Lots of pumps dying but usually due to owner not filling up the water. Other systems had more problems but I'll leave you to research any particular methods you are interested in.