Aquaforest oceanguard display tank water level problems

[johnmac28]

I am ready to pull my hair out. I got a new oceanguard 275 about 7 months ago. I have never been able to keep water level correct. No matter what, I get it stable, then within a day or 5 at best, ato goes off too much and display is too high and of course salinity has dropped. I have read everything I can find (no air bubbles affecting tunze 3155 sensor, I change socks every 2-3 days, etc). Return pump is a red dragon.
is this happening to any other Oceanguard owners?
What am I missing?
maybe gate valve problem?
Attaching pic of sump setup.

 

[blaxsun]

Where is your ATO and where is the water being added?

 

[johnmac28]

ato container is integrated with sump on right side. Ato level and return are in return section. I have supply line from ato above supply to avoid siphon. Pump setting on tunze is dialed down to nano setting.
anything sound off there?
Thanks for your reply.

 

[Rmike545]

Did you ever figure this out I got an OceanGuard 980 and having the same problem please let me know if you got a fix.

 

[johnmac28]

Did you ever figure this out I got an OceanGuard 980 and having the same problem please let me know if you got a fix.

Sorry you are having this problem. You won’t like my answer-
I could never fix it. Aquaforest sent me a replacement gate valve. No difference. I tried eliminating every variable, including changing return pumps, skimmer, etc.
In the end, I upgraded tanks and put this behind me.
I think you could fix it if you were to redo plumbing, including bulkhead, to imperial size with a spears gate valve.
I plumbed next tank myself and no issues. Life is good again.
Aquaforest tried multiple suggestions but nothing worked.
I hope you have better luck.

 

[Rmike545]

Sorry you are having this problem. You won’t like my answer-
I could never fix it. Aquaforest sent me a replacement gate valve. No difference. I tried eliminating every variable, including changing return pumps, skimmer, etc.
In the end, I upgraded tanks and put this behind me.
I think you could fix it if you were to redo plumbing, including bulkhead, to imperial size with a spears gate valve.
I plumbed next tank myself and no issues. Life is good again.
Aquaforest tried multiple suggestions but nothing worked.
I hope you have better luck.

Thank you for the response it’s sucks I just paid $7000 for that tank I am gonna go as far as I can with BRS to take that tank back and maybe swap it for a Redsea

 

[don.chaneaux]

Thank you for the response it’s sucks I just paid $7000 for that tank I am gonna go as far as I can with BRS to take that tank back and maybe swap it for a Redsea

I'm in the very early stages of setting up an Oceanguard 435 and was concerned about this issue. It might be related but I found this youtube vid where the fix was to remove the floating silencer.

 

[johnmac28]

I hope it helps with yours. While it helps with a water change, my water level still fluctuated without silencer

 

[don.chaneaux]

I see ... darn ... thanks for testing.

 

[johnmac28]

I see ... darn ... thanks for testing

While it about made me insane at the time, BRS was right there.
If I had a huge tank from Aquaforest, I would have kept it, got an imperial bulkhead, and changed out plumbing to imperial with a spears gate valve.
While I have no idea how they did not catch it in testing, multiple people have the same problem and there was no solution found using existing or warranty plumbing. I think re-plumbing is the best solution.

 

[don.chaneaux]

While it about made me insane at the time, BRS was right there.
If I had a huge tank from Aquaforest, I would have kept it, got an imperial bulkhead, and changed out plumbing to imperial with a spears gate valve.
While I have no idea how they did not catch it in testing, multiple people have the same problem and there was no solution found using existing or warranty plumbing. I think re-plumbing is the best solution.

I have a friend that has an Oceanguard 980 and he only has the issue after doing a water change. Though it took him a good while to get it dialed in.

I agree with you, if the issue was constant after trying everything, plumbing changes would be a good direction. A spears gate valve at least.

 

[GDiaz]

I have a friend that has an Oceanguard 980 and he only has the issue after doing a water change. Though it took him a good while to get it dialed in.

I agree with you, if the issue was constant after trying everything, plumbing changes would be a good direction. A spears gate valve at least.

Hello beautiful people! Unfortunately I’m having the same issue.. has anyone figured it out?

 

[johnmac28]

Hello beautiful people! Unfortunately I’m having the same issue.. has anyone figured it out?

To my knowledge the only way is to redo drainage part of plumbing to imperial with a spears gate valve.
I wanted a little bigger tank so I just got a different one. For those with a big setup, you could drain overflow and replace plumbing pretty easily.
If I learned anything from my experience, it is risky buying a tank made in Europe. There were massive lags in communication, receipt of warranty items, etc.
While it sucked for several months, I upgraded to an innovative marine tank that I plumbed myself to a trigger platinum sump. Almost double tank size and I have a rollermat. Life is good.
I do not know how this wasn’t caught pre-release with Aquaforest.
While frustrating, I do believe replumbing drainage part is a solution.

 

[GDiaz]

To my knowledge the only way is to redo drainage part of plumbing to imperial with a spears gate valve.
I wanted a little bigger tank so I just got a different one. For those with a big setup, you could drain overflow and replace plumbing pretty easily.
If I learned anything from my experience, it is risky buying a tank made in Europe. There were massive lags in communication, receipt of warranty items, etc.
While it sucked for several months, I upgraded to an innovative marine tank that I plumbed myself to a trigger platinum sump. Almost double tank size and I have a rollermat. Life is good.
I do not know how this wasn’t caught pre-release with Aquaforest.
While frustrating, I do believe replumbing drainage part is a solution.

Thank you for sharing. I will definitely keep this as one of my options. I went with this tank because it’s my first big build and I needed something easy. But this is very annoying.

 

[johnmac28]

Thank you for sharing. I will definitely keep this as one of my options. I went with this tank because it’s my first big build and I needed something easy. But this is very annoying.

I understand. Drove me crazy. Couldn’t keep salinity steady. Could not really go on vacation for more than a day. I hope you get yours sorted quickly.

 

[what_the_reef]

take out the silencer and have water trickle into the emergency, this will keep the system at a steady level consistently!

 

[don.chaneaux]

take out the silencer and have water trickle into the emergency, this will keep the system at a steady level consistently!

Thanks for the youtube vid about this! Just curious, did you only have the issue when doing water changes or was it happening sporadically while the tank was running? Thanks again!

 

[johnmac28]

If you h

take out the silencer and have water trickle into the emergency, this will keep the system at a steady level consistently

My experience w

Thanks for the youtube vid about this! Just curious, did you only have the issue when doing water changes or was it happening sporadically while the tank was running? Thanks again

My experience was that the problem was random but frequent enough that water level would not stay stable.
if I raised water level in overflow to trickle in secondary drain, overall water level would be so high it would become stagnant.
Hope you have better luck. I dealt with it for almost a year. Never solved problem

 

[what_the_reef]

If you h

My experience w

My experience was that the problem was random but frequent enough that water level would not stay stable.
if I raised water level in overflow to trickle in secondary drain, overall water level would be so high it would become stagnant.
Hope you have better luck. I dealt with it for almost a year. Never solved problem

It only happens if I don’t add enough water back into the system after WG and have the little trickle into the emergency. The silencer will effect the water level even with the trickle so remove that if you haven’t already

 

[what_the_reef]

It only happens if I don’t add enough water back into the system after WG and have the little trickle into the emergency. The silencer will effect the water level even with the trickle so remove that if you haven’t already

Water shouldn’t be stagnant maybe turn up the return power then just gate valve again, that’s should resolve any stagnant water