ATO recommendations

milo24 · May 2, 2020

Hey guys I hope everyone is keeping safe and well during these times.

Looking to order a ATO for my new Evo I think I’ve narrowed it down between two.

the Tunze Nano and the H2Ocean.

is one any better than the other? Or is there another i should consider. If you could explain reasoning behind suggestions that would be great or any personal experience you have.

Thanks in advance

Peace River · May 2, 2020

Tunze Nano is a strong option. Another option is the Autoaqua SMART ATO - I have a couple of these and have been pleased with their performance. Good luck with whatever you choose!

SR Reefing · May 2, 2020

Tunze nano had some bad review on BRS. I will go for regular Tunze. Only problem is cost. That ATO is too expansive.

milo24 · May 2, 2020

Ithanks! ’ll have a look into the autoaqua now. I haven’t seen much on the H2ocean one but as it’s similar in price to the Tunze I assumed they were of similar build possibly.

piranhaman00 · May 2, 2020

The Tunze Osmolator is the best ATO on the market hands down.

dopey · May 2, 2020

I've been running tunze nano for almost three years, no issues. Cleaned it a handful of times.

I would like to now have one with two sensors just for redundancy and peace of mind since upgrading tanks..but so far no issues with the nano so I've kept using it

My ato is also not that large where it would cause that big of a mess if it did stick on

milo24 · May 2, 2020

SR Reefing said:
Tunze nano had some bad review on BRS. I will go for regular Tunze. Only problem is cost. That ATO is too expansive.

Yeah I do really want to keep price below £100 but if there’s a massive difference in quality I might have to suck it up. Just after opinions right now and I’ll probably order one in the next couple days once I’ve properly mulled over all the options.

gotem86 · May 2, 2020

Full size Tunze Osmolator will probably get the most votes here.

For what it's worth, my XP Aqua Duetto has operated flawlessly for the past year.

SR Reefing · May 2, 2020

I had the same idea as you 2 weeks ago when I set up my nudi grow out in 14 gallon AIO. Tank only cost me $170, that ATO cost me $190, 100W cobalt heater $80. I want to keep cost down like u. I am like 1 ATO cost more than my tank@($(#-#-$. But at the end of the day ATO is one of the most important element especially with nano tank. So I can't think of the better ATO than Tunze Osmolator.

adromero · May 2, 2020

I have two aquariums running at this time. On my 34 I use xp duetto and on my 70 I use a tunze. I would go with the duetto. The tuner does the job, but you have to make sure all the mechanisms are clean. If not it will stop working. The duetto has less parts and I don’t think I ever cleaned it.

milo24 · May 2, 2020

dopey said:
I've been running tunze nano for almost three years, no issues. Cleaned it a handful of times.

I would like to now have one with two sensors just for redundancy and peace of mind since upgrading tanks..but so far no issues with the nano so I've kept using it

My ato is also not that large where it would cause that big of a mess if it did stick on

Thanks for the input! May be a stupid question but I’m a newbie, what is the benefit of having 2 sensors? I believe the h2Ocean mentions it has two sensors, might be wrong though.

milo24 · May 2, 2020

SR Reefing said:
I had the same idea as you 2 weeks ago when I set up my nudi grow out in 14 gallon AIO. Tank only cost me $170, that ATO cost me $190, 100W cobalt heater $80. I want to keep cost down like u. I am like 1 ATO cost more than my tank@($(#-#-$. But at the end of the day ATO is one of the most important element especially with nano tank. So I can't think of the better ATO than Tunze Osmolator.

Yeah, The ATO’s are the same price as my evo lol ;Dead and they’re not even the top end ones, I don’t want to completely cheap out on one but at the same time really don’t want to go over budget.

milo24 · May 2, 2020

adromero said:
I have two aquariums running at this time. On my 34 I use xp duetto and on my 70 I use a tunze. I would go with the duetto. The tuner does the job, but you have to make sure all the mechanisms are clean. If not it will stop working. The duetto has less parts and I don’t think I ever cleaned it.

Great thanks, whatever one I go with I will be checking on religiously anyways when I do weekly maintenance, I’m not familiar with the duetto but will have a look into it now, I’m not sure if they are readily available in the UK as most of the places I’ve been looking at seem to stock the Tunze and the H2Ocean as their main ones

dopey · May 2, 2020

milo24 said:
Thanks for the input! May be a stupid question but I’m a newbie, what is the benefit of having 2 sensors? I believe the h2Ocean mentions it has two sensors, might be wrong though.

Redundancy and peace of mind. Incase one gets clogged it won't go nuts. Tunze nano is only a mechanical float. The larger one is a mechanical float and optical sensor.

General thought is mechanical floats will eventually get stuck either from just nasty stuff or a snail or whatever. Having both that and an optical reduces likelyness of failure by Allot.

Tunze in general people trust that if they do fail they won't fail "on".

Personally I've never had my nano float get stuck. Also the tunze nano only runs for a Max of two minutes (I think) by default. So even if it does get stuck it will not pump that much water....then the tunze brand gives trust that it will indeed stop after two minutes and not run *forever* due to a stuck float.

I can't see why I'd ever buy anything other than a tunze ato at this point. Then again I've never tried another since when I started all I watched about ATOs had tunze as the gold standard.

milo24 · May 2, 2020

dopey said:
Redundancy and peace of mind. Incase one gets clogged it won't go nuts. Tunze nano is only a mechanical float. The larger one is a mechanical float and optical sensor.

General thought is mechanical floats will eventually get stuck either from just nasty stuff or a snail or whatever. Having both that and an optical reduces likelyness of failure by Allot.

Tunze in general people trust that if they do fail they won't fail "on".

Personally I've never had my nano float get stuck. Also the tunze nano only runs for a Max of two minutes (I think) by default. So even if it does get stuck it will not pump that much water....then the tunze brand gives trust that it will indeed stop after two minutes and not run *forever* due to a stuck float.

I can't see why I'd ever buy anything other than a tunze ato at this point. Then again I've never tried another since when I started all I watched about ATOs had tunze as the gold standard.

Brilliant thank you!

enorl76 · May 2, 2020

I use the Icecap ATO, its a little on the high side ($125) but I inherited it so not a big deal.

It uses a magnet for the two optical sensors, one is the "water is low" and another is "water is too high". It also will only run for 5 minutes without complaining (annoying beeps).

Of note, the most annoying thing is when the ATO container is too low to pump, the Icecap will beep incessantly, so if it decides to try to refill middle of the night, and it runs dry, you get woke up... I would rather a periodic beep like the smoke detector low battery, where its like one beep every 5 minutes or something.

I was debating switching to the Neptune ATO solution, since you get more features like logging, turning off the skimmer if water level goes too high, etc. but for now its the Icecap ATO.

dopey · May 2, 2020

enorl76 said:
I use the Icecap ATO, its a little on the high side ($125) but I inherited it so not a big deal.

It uses a magnet for the two optical sensors, one is the "water is low" and another is "water is too high". It also will only run for 5 minutes without complaining (annoying beeps).

Of note, the most annoying thing is when the ATO container is too low to pump, the Icecap will beep incessantly, so if it decides to try to refill middle of the night, and it runs dry, you get woke up... I would rather a periodic beep like the smoke detector low battery, where its like one beep every 5 minutes or something.

I was debating switching to the Neptune ATO solution, since you get more features like logging, turning off the skimmer if water level goes too high, etc. but for now its the Icecap ATO.

Ha the number of times I've thought as I'm going to bed "it's been a bit since I refilled, I should do that now....nah it should be fine to do tomorrow! ....only to wake to the noise of the pump failing to pump in the middle of the night

X-37B · May 2, 2020

Tunze nano on my 45 frag system. It came from my 2 year old nano.
Going on 3 years with no problems.
Have 3155 on my 120 for 10 months now no issues.
Keep an extra pump on hand, they are cheap.
I have 3 extra that should last me.
I ran kalk on my nano for 2 years and still use the pump on the frag system.
Have not had one go out but its just insurance.