Is an ATO worth it?

[attiland]

Hello everyone, I have a 55 gal tank. Is it worth it to add an ATO to this tank? I do not have a sump for this tank. Just a filter.

In you experience was it worth it to add an ATO to your setup? Why?

No tank should be sold without it. Your first step to stability. It is as important as the lights on the top.

 

[dvgyfresh]

Get a gravity fed float valve. For a few dollars you can automate. No electricity, nothing to go bad. The only problem would be if gravity stopped working.
It's what I did

Thanks man I’ll have to try this! Would be perfect cuz jug sits next to sump

 

[G Santana]

Thanks man I’ll have to try this! Would be perfect cuz jug sits next to sump

Easy to set up, cheap and reliable.
Good luck.

 

[jmichaelh7]

If you want stability get one!

So much easier

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

yes it is. I manually topped off for a year, and I tell you, its always on your mind. Every time you leave your home, your checking the clock, thinking about getting home. If you need to go to a full day event, that stress is always in your mind and keeps your from fully enjoying your event, you just keep thinking about getting home to top off. Its a burden that I carried for year, luckily it was a covid year and I didnt have to travel.

Once I got my ATO (Tunze) it sat on my table for 4 months, because I was nervous about it. Until finally I had weekend getaway plans and had no choice but to trust it. And it worked liked a charm, and within a few days I got used to it, and that year of stress of topping off manually was off my shoulders.

 

[dvgyfresh]

Easy to set up, cheap and reliable.
Good luck.

Thanks man that’s pretty much all my equipment in a nutshell hahha!

 

[ying yang]

I had my ato sat in a box for months also like lordofcinder said was nervous it malfunctioned and if the 5 gallon drum next to tank that the ato pump was in pumped all 5 gallons in and my salinity went way down ( cant keep 5 gallon container full as water slightly higher than sump water so starts a slow gravity syphon so about 4- 4.5 g i think) so at begginning when set tank up which is 300 litre dt so 250 total water probably and exactly 70 litres in sump at level i want it at,i was checking salinity every other day whilst watching water level fall in return pump chamber getting nervous it would run dry and at weekly water change my salinity was exactly same even though water evaporated so was nervous when no ato for pump running dry and cutting off heater/ protein skimmer off in sump but nervous to use ato incase pumped all rodi water in but so glad i installed ato now and just keep roughly 4 gallons in rodi container just incase of malfuntion and its one less thing to worry about and top rodi up every weekly water change.
Now my worry is my largish hermit that wanting kill one my conch anytime he can and killed few my hermits and tries digging my nassarious snails up,he is in sump jail and worry about him climbing up wires and onto my ato making it malfunction ha ha but he naughty boy so he cant stay in dt as just making my snails burrow in sand and not come up to do there jobs.
But for the price of ato's i would just buy one.look the reviews of other users who bought and decide which to buy.the tunze that got mentioned above gets recommended alot and brs made video about reliability and tunze won in there opinion and a high % of all tanks in brs headquarters which is like 30 plus tanks i believe have one they was saying ^_^

 

[G Santana]

Thanks man that’s pretty much all my equipment in a nutshell hahha!

Me too, where ever I can, I will save money lol

 

[a.t.t.r]

People live without ATO? Savages!

 

[Goaway]

Hands down one of the best inventions for reef tanks. I've been doing this for over 20 years. Before we had to use IV lines and GUESS on how much water was evaporating by dripping it into the tank. ATO's keep the salinity very stable. I wouldn't run a tank without one!

I loved my drip line top off! it never failed, not once!
I just had to refill it every day other day. ;Bucktooth

 

[Joe31415]

Get a gravity fed float valve. For a few dollars you can automate. No electricity, nothing to go bad. The only problem would be if gravity stopped working.

Those do have another inherent issue. If it gets stuck on. Be it because some muck jammed up the pivot, a cord or hose laying on top of the float, the float breaking and filling with water etc.
If that's being fed from a bucket that's located higher up, the worst that can happen is that the bucket will empty into your tank. Lowering your salinity and possibly flooding your floor. However, if you have that float valve fed by a line from your RODI system (and ultimately your house plumbing), then the risk is that if something breaks, it'll just keep running and running and running until you happen to notice it.

When it comes to auto top off systems, there's two things that are very important, IMO. First that you have some type of protection in place to prevent it from siphoning water out of the tank and two that there's some type of stop gap measure in place in case the ATO doesn't shut off. What I do, and what I think is pretty common, is to have your ATO fed from a bucket and you refill the bucket from time to time. Sure, I could still end up with an extra 5 gallons of RODI in my tank (and probably tank water on my floor), but that's better than however much RODI my system can produce in the 8 hours I'm at work or asleep.
Also, come to think of it, the Tunze has 3 levels of protection to help guard against that. It has the IR sensor, a float sensor that's set a bit higher and if both of those fail, the unit shuts down after a few minutes on the assumption that something's wrong.

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

yes

 

[DeniseAndy]

Best thing for a tank to stay stable. I just use a gravity fed style. Easy peasy. My 6g is not ato, but it is almost fully glass enclosed. Fluval Edge system. so, it is not bad to do daily.

 

[SpankMonkey]

Hello everyone, I have a 55 gal tank. Is it worth it to add an ATO to this tank? I do not have a sump for this tank. Just a filter.

In you experience was it worth it to add an ATO to your setup? Why?

Im new to reefing in a 10 gallon nano... best purchase i have made i am told.

 

[G Santana]

Those do have another inherent issue. If it gets stuck on. Be it because some muck jammed up the pivot, a cord or hose laying on top of the float, the float breaking and filling with water etc.
If that's being fed from a bucket that's located higher up, the worst that can happen is that the bucket will empty into your tank. Lowering your salinity and possibly flooding your floor. However, if you have that float valve fed by a line from your RODI system (and ultimately your house plumbing), then the risk is that if something breaks, it'll just keep running and running and running until you happen to notice it.

When it comes to auto top off systems, there's two things that are very important, IMO. First that you have some type of protection in place to prevent it from siphoning water out of the tank and two that there's some type of stop gap measure in place in case the ATO doesn't shut off. What I do, and what I think is pretty common, is to have your ATO fed from a bucket and you refill the bucket from time to time. Sure, I could still end up with an extra 5 gallons of RODI in my tank (and probably tank water on my floor), but that's better than however much RODI my system can produce in the 8 hours I'm at work or asleep.
Also, come to think of it, the Tunze has 3 levels of protection to help guard against that. It has the IR sensor, a float sensor that's set a bit higher and if both of those fail, the unit shuts down after a few minutes on the assumption that something's wrong.

I have a 5 gallon reservoir that feeds it, my tank is 130 gallons and my sump is 30 gallons. If per chance it were ever to get "Stuck" in the open position my tank can handle 5 gallons no problem.
My ATO has been running for 8 months and does not require electricity, a pump and has no sensors that can go bad.
A power failure does not affect it.
How many threads out there of sensors going bad, pumps failing or any number of issues with automated top offs. And gravity is free until the government learns how to charge for it.
I check my ATO daily and clean it monthly as part of my maintenance. Again if gravity stopped working I might have an issue. Oh and it cost me under $20 and it came with spares.

 

[Little c big D]

Jumping on the best device ever built for aquariums

 

[Mjl714]

Yes, wouldn’t run a tank without one nowadays.

 

[captainbeardly]

Hello everyone, I have a 55 gal tank. Is it worth it to add an ATO to this tank? I do not have a sump for this tank. Just a filter.

In you experience was it worth it to add an ATO to your setup? Why?

Yes yes yes! Evaporation happens all day everyday and keeping your tank stable on the salinity with an ATO is by far the best and to me one of the most important pieces of equipment to buy.

 

[Grumblez]

Yes unless your running something like a fluval or biocube. My fluval evo doesn't even go through half a gallon a week.
If you don't have a sump I would buy one of those housings that looks like a overflow box to protect it from snails

 

[rhostam]

Most definitely worth the investment and setup.