Avast Marine ATO w/Apex

Reeflogic · Mar 14, 2016

I'm posting this in our local forum to see if anyone around here has used this with success, but I'd love to hear from others as well!

My Tunze osmolator bit the dust last night after only 2 years of operation, maybe 3...I have 2 of them and one was purchased a year or so earlier than the other but they look identical and I can no longer tell which one is the oldest lol.

Anyways, I wanted to see what other options were out there, because, frankly, I did not want to dump another $200 bucks on a Tunze... So Google was my friend and led me to Avast Marine and after some reading, this seems to be an excellent ATO.

I purchased the ATO with the I/O connection to my Apex and hopefully I get it sometime this week. For $90 bucks and Apex control, I can't believe I didn't have one sooner! So that leaves me with... Anyone have one? How do you like it compared to other ATO's? It looks fairly simple to set up with the Apex, any complaints? Lessons learned? Secret programming tips?

Also, what style/brand pump are you using with it? I have an airlifter from an older ATO, but was considering using the Tunze pump and just picking up a DC adapter and hardwire it. Or I may just keep the Tunze pump for a back up to my other osmolator.

Reeflogic · Mar 14, 2016

I'd like to add that Tunze has awesome customer service and Roger told me to send the unit in to see if it can be repaired. So hopefully, he can figure it out and get it running again. I will then have a backup osmolator for my multi-tank syndrome

BlueDevil · Mar 14, 2016

I'm not much help on the question at hand (since I too use a Tunze) but I would, or rather my wife would appreciate it if you could keep the multi tank syndrome to yourself. I hear it might be contagious

Reeflogic · Mar 14, 2016

It's highly contagious and there's no known cure....

ksfulk · Mar 14, 2016

I run the Avast ATO using their peristalic pump off of my Apex. I initially bought it with the I/O connector as well, but ended up running it through my breakout box because I had some other things I wanted to run and I only had the one I/O connection. I think my favorite thing about the entire set up is that the pressure switch doesnt foul up, like optical sensors or float valve have a tendency to do. I have the Tunze nano ATO I use for my QT and it works fine, but for a big system, I worry about the pump itself burning up and the float valve fouling up on me. With the peristalic pump, the pump can run with nothing in the system without causing issues for the pump (aside from having to reprime it eventually) and Ive already spoken about the pressure switch.

Programming is easy. You just assign the float switch a "virtual outlet" then assign that virtual outlet to associate with the outlet the pump is plugged into. Takes about ten minutes or so. Here's what my program looks like. The delay function provides a buffer so that if there are waves in your sump for some reason, it wont trigger the ATO to turn on unless the switch has been open for two minutes. The last statement is so that the pump runs a minimum of 5 minutes before shutting off. I have a big sump (150 gallons), so I have mine set so the ATO runs fewer times a day, but for longer than most people would. I also only have a 10 gallon resevoir, so if the whole thing dumps into the tank, I dont have salinity issues either.

Reeflogic · Mar 14, 2016

THANK YOU @ksfulk !!! Exactly what I was wanting to hear / read! I considered the BoB, but decided to just do the I/O connection for now since I do not have anything else planned for it currently. This was a great read, thank you so much for sharing your fusion print out as well!! Curious, what do you use your I/O for?

ksfulk · Mar 14, 2016

I have the skimmate locker from Avast as well, which uses the same pressure switch and setup for when the locker is full, so it shuts off my skimmer. Cant plug both into my I/O port, so I needed to use a BoB for that.

Reeflogic · Mar 14, 2016

Ahhh, makes sense. Thanks again for sharing!!

Reeflogic · Mar 17, 2016

@ksfulk Could you please post up a couple of images for me, if you don't mind? One of the connection to the switch box w/ tubing from the sensor and then one of the pressure sensor tube in your sump, if that makes sense! Thanks!

ksfulk · Mar 17, 2016

No problem. The sensors in the far back of the sump under a cover, so the pictures are a little dark and fuzzy. But here's what you wanted I think:

Here's the switch. I have both the ATO (Blue line) and the skimmate locker (black line) next to one another on my board.

Wired to the breakout box

Shot of the sensor in the back of the sump. I used blue rigid tubing for the sensor and blue flexible airline tubing for the water 'out'

Avast peristalic pump mounted way above it all. Blue line drops straight down into the sump (water delivery line, next to the sensor in the picture above). Black line goes to my resevoir (water "in")

Shot of my dirty basement floor... and the line going from the skimmate locker sensor to the sensor box shown in the first picture.

Reeflogic · Mar 17, 2016

Awesome, THANK YOU!!!! I got it up and running and I LOVE this thing!! This was the first time I created a virtual outlet with my Apex and I was making it way harder than it needed to be lol, once I realized just how simple it was to create, voila... it worked immediately! I basically used your code, changed the defer to 1 min and removed the minimum timer, since my setup is smaller than yours. Again, thank you for your time and energy helping me with this project!!

Reeflogic · Mar 17, 2016

Oh and the guys over at Avast Marine are so awesome, sent me a free pen and sticker!!!

ksfulk · Mar 17, 2016

No problem- I did the same thing when setting up my virtual outlets at first. But once you get over than initial "Oh its really that easy" curve, everything kinda falls in place.

Glad I could help!

Dan and the guys at @AVAST Marine are awesome... Ive bought most of my big equipment from them, and everything is always top notch.

cmcoker · Mar 17, 2016

Don't have apex, just have mine plugged into a digital timer...
But wanted to say the avast ATO is awesome! Have two of them, neither has required any maintenance or caused any issues. One has been running about 3 years, the other over a year.

Reeflogic · Mar 17, 2016

Awesome! I wish I had stumbled across these sooner! Now to figure out where to put my cool Avast Marine sticker!!

Cristy17 · Feb 17, 2017

I am looking at purchasing the Avast ATO. I have also been reading about controllers trying to see which unit would be best. Does anyone know if the Avast ATO will work with any controller. I see that it has been used with the Apex, however, I am considering the Cerebra since it appears to be user friendly. Any input or ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

cmcoker · Feb 17, 2017

Cristy17 said:
I am looking at purchasing the Avast ATO. I have also been reading about controllers trying to see which unit would be best. Does anyone know if the Avast ATO will work with any controller. I see that it has been used with the Apex, however, I am considering the Cerebra since it appears to be user friendly. Any input or ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

The non controller version just plug into a regular power outlet, so if you are willing to give up a spot on your controllers powerbar for it then it can work with whatever system you have.. I can't speak to the apex version, I have no controller.. Yet... [emoji6]