ATO reliability

[vetteguy53081]

Without bashing any manufacturers, I have gone through several ATO units/ brands and cant understand why many are short term reliable and then simply stop working. I have replaced or cleaned sensors and replaced small pumps to no avail. My current one when the sensor is in water and water as risen above sensor continues to ru, I have tried 5 different types and am now eyeing the Hydrofill by IM which utilizes conductivity sensors.

Which brands have others found reliable?
Has anyone had a unit they found reliable for lengthy time as in years?

 

[Om84]

Tunze Osmolator has worked great for me. This one is going on for almost 5 years now. However, I am thinking of adding another back up Tunze for redundancy in case it ever fails.

 

[Troylee]

Year and a half so far with a el cheapo off Amazon.. Aqua auto and pumped over a thousand gallons of kalk through it with zero issues… my favorite was always the jbj top offs but they’re discontinued… I have a brand new tunzee as a back up cause I figure the Amazon special would fail but it hasn’t this far..

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I've been using a Tunze Osmolator for almost a year and have never had issues with it

 

[vetteguy53081]

Year and a half so far with a el cheapo off Amazon.. Aqua auto and pumped over a thousand gallons of kalk through it with zero issues… my favorite was always the jbj top offs but they’re discontinued… I have a brand new tunzee as a back up cause I figure the Amazon special would fail but it hasn’t this far..

JBJ was my only long term reliable unit

 

[Dburr1014]

Tunze, many years old.

 

[iamacat]

Without bashing any manufacturers, I have gone through several ATO units/ brands and cant understand why many are short term reliable and then simply stop working. I have replaced or cleaned sensors and replaced small pumps to no avail. My current one when the sensor is in water and water as risen above sensor continues to ru, I have tried 5 different types and am now eyeing the Hydrofill by IM which utilizes conductivity sensors.

Which brands have others found reliable?
Has anyone had a unit they found reliable for lengthy time as in years?

Been rolling with the hydrofil by IM since 2020 and the pump and sensors are still the originals. Sensors are usually good for about 3 months before I need to clean off the sensor probes

 

[curt]

Autotopoff. Com has been working for me for about 10 years now. Yea 10 years. Double float switch.

 

[homer1475]

Just replaced my 10 year old osmolator 3155, with.......


An osmolator 3.

Hope its reliable as the old 3155?

 

[oldmonk]

Without bashing any manufacturers, I have gone through several ATO units/ brands and cant understand why many are short term reliable and then simply stop working. I have replaced or cleaned sensors and replaced small pumps to no avail. My current one when the sensor is in water and water as risen above sensor continues to ru, I have tried 5 different types and am now eyeing the Hydrofill by IM which utilizes conductivity sensors.

Which brands have others found reliable?
Has anyone had a unit they found reliable for lengthy time as in years?

Have been using the float type since the time shifted to Cade.

But for my earlier set ups , Tunze Osmolators have proved their worth.

Thanks

 

[Allenh427]

My $200 Tunze died after 1.5 years so I bought a few of the MagTool ATO's from Amazon for <$50 a piece. Have a couple on standby just in case they die. It's the same sensor that most ATO's use these days.

 

[dschuffert]

I have been using the Red Sea ReefATO+ since it came out about 9 months ago without issue. It is working well on my 900L tank.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have been using the Red Sea ReefATO+ since it came out about 9 months ago without issue. It is working well on my 900L tank.

This is one I am considering

 

[vetteguy53081]

Sound like many happy Tunze owners

 

[Gribbles]

Allenh427
Community Member
My $200 Tunze died after 1.5 years so I bought a few of the MagTool ATO's from Amazon for <$50 a piece. Have a couple on standby just in case they die. It's the same sensor that most ATO's use these days.

Just checked those on Amazon and I'm using the same thing with different label. Has worked flawlessly for about 2 years now

 

[homer1475]

Tunze sometimes gets a bad rap, but I think only because of the amount that are sold compared to others. And people tend to only complain when they have an issue.

Something like red sea tanks.

 

[GSPClown94]

Low tech DIY pressure regulated siphon ATO has been going strong for 6 years and I have no intention of upgrading to anything electrical.

 

[EricR]

Tunze Nano Osmolator for close to 3 years across 2 tanks.
Only issues I've had are:
1. Fried the circuit board with a minor flood -- Tunze repaired for free + shipping.
2. Animals interfering with float -- urchin pulling float down a couple of times and just recently a couple of micro brittle stars decided to wedge themselves into the float.

I consider it to be reliable, overall, so far.

 

[exnisstech]

JBJ was my only long term reliable unit

Same. I just woke up to air being pumped out of the return on one of my tanks yesterday. Ended up having to clean the optical sensor on the tunze. I always found it odd that they use an optical sensor as the main but a good ol float switch as the back up lol. Give me float switches any day. This one on one of my jbj units has been inside this sump for going on 7 years and has never been cleaned. Gotta a love a piece of womens stocking to keep crap put.

 

[Opae]

I like the Red Sea Ato, very convenient to access it during holidays, temperature is a plus !
Didn’t have it for long enough to speak about the durability.