ATO systems and reliability?

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ThatNewFishGuy

ThatNewFishGuy

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May 4, 2010
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I've been considering getting an ATO system just to make my setup a little more automated and a little less hands on. I've been doing the daily top offs myself but im getting tired of it.

The one I was considering was the JBJ ATO

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/jbj-a-t-o-water-level-controller.html

It seems like this one is really common in the hobby. But I was concerned about the reliability. I'm worried that the float might get stuck and force the pump to dump in fresh water which would obviously be disastrous. Has anyone had any experience or heard of how reliable these systems tend to be?

I would really like to the one that works by optical laser but at 200 bucks, thats a bit out of my price range atm.

Another thing I was thinking of was to just get one of those home depot timers and try to guestimate my evap and adjust the timer with a pump accordingly
 
Ace25

Ace25

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I have used the JBJ top off for at least 8 years myself.. never once had a single issue with the float switches on my setup. Also, there is a built in timer on the controller which stops it from pumping water after a few minutes. If you use something like a Tom's Aqualifter as the pump for the freshwater it is so slow that I have had the timer kick in to stop it before it filled up to the level of the float switch, but a few minutes later it kicks on again to finish the job. I find using the aqualifter is a much safer method than using something like a Maxijet 900/1200 in respect to avoiding overfilling with freshwater, but I did use a Maxijet 1200 myself for many years before I starting using Kalkwasser in my top off water and never had an issue with that... as long as the output hose is ABOVE the water line in the sump, if it is below the water line it will back siphon the saltwater from the sump into the ATO container if the container is level with the sump. If the container is above the sump it probably wouldn't be able to back siphon.
 
greech

greech

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Benson

Benson

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I have both of these and they both work great. The Autotopoff is on my freshwater tank and the JBJ on the saltwater tank. Great peace of mind when I have gone on vacation! Plus I hate having to manually top off my tanks everyday... it's very dry here in AZ so that was a daily chore.
 
ThatNewFishGuy

ThatNewFishGuy

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May 4, 2010
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Wow 8 years without issues. That's pretty comforting. Those ATOs from ato.com look like nice deals as well plus someone else recommended their systems to me before. Guess I'll just mull over the features to see if I wanna drop the extra 30 bucks or so. Thanks guys.
 
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