How do YOU protect against an ATO dump

[Joey waid]

I have ato's, but for some reason I still top of manually.

 

[Jem45472]

I use a spectrapure uplc-ii

Pressure sensor with backup float. It's pretty much a bulletproof setup.

http://spectrapure.com/Auto-Top-Off-System-UPLC-II-Liquid-Level-Controller

 

[RMS18]

My ATO holds 5 gallons, and my sump can hold an extra 5.5 gallons. So if mine does dump the entire ato container I'll be ok flood wise.

 

[jsker]

I went the simple rout and I have a overflow drain in my sump, yes yes I know most can not do this.

 

[NanaReefer]

No more water in my reservoir then my sump could handle all at once

 

[Mike in CT]

When I had my ATO I put it on a regular timer so it will have a max turn on time per hour or something like that to run the water for ATO if needed like a minute max at one time.

^^^^^ This is what I do.... I set the timer to go on when I'm home at night, so I will hear my pump gurgling if my top off container is out of water.

 

[TNT32D]

I set my timer to come on every hour for only a minute to prevent the ATO from dumping all the water at once if anything ever goes wrong

 

[JBradford]

Sucks this happened. I went the easier route. Got an ATO with an optical sensor. I also put a loop in my feed line that goes up and over a brace high up in my stand. Its higher than my ATO storage tank and my sump so neither side can pull a siphon.

 

[JoeIII]

My simple solution:

1) my top off resivoir is part of my sump. It will overflow back into the resivoir before it overflows into the floor.

2) it has enough capacity to last about a week but not so much that it will swing salinity to the point that it harms inhabitants

3) I use a very slow pump. This means any swing happens slowly (i think it will take an hour to empty the resivoir from full) As an added bonus it means my top offs are smaller and more often than when I used a "faster" pump. That pump would pump more water between the float triggering and the pump turning off than it was low to begin with. With the slow pump (aqua lifter) it cycles for 5-10 seconds multiple times per hour, moving "just enough" water each time as opposed to a few times a day with an mj.

 

[Jej34]

Never have more in my ATO Reservoir than would cause a disaster.
Backed up with Apex code to shot ATO off if exceeds 2 minute run time.

 

[Jizu Puentes]

I use two switches. I bought my ATO setup from autotopoff.com and just hooked it into an aqua lifter pump and a 5 gallon jug

 

[Martyd]

I use 2 floats, many leak sensors and the conductivity probe to guard against overflow. In Apex I set them all the shut off the ATO pump if anything goes outside of the norm.

Here is what my ATO config looks like,

SW4 & 6 are floats
SWx are leak sensors
Output DOS_eAWC dumps 10g as quickly as possible. There is other programming tied to this but basically it dumps 10g in case of emergency.
Salt is conductivity

If Sw4 OPEN Then OFF
If Sw6 OPEN Then OFF
If Swx3_1 CLOSED Then OFF
If Swx3_2 CLOSED Then OFF
If Swx3_3 CLOSED Then OFF
If Swx3_4 CLOSED Then OFF
If Output DOS_eAWC_10 = ON Then DOS_eAWC_10
If Salt < 34 Then Off

That's a good idea to just shut down the ATO if the salinity (conductivity) drops below the norm. If you don't have a controller, it's a good idea to not have more of a fresh water supply than your tank/sump can handle if there's a malfunction. Yes, your salinity will drop, but you won't overflow the tank and you won't kill anything.

 

[mcarroll]

Step 0) Be as clever as you can in planning. [see also: "best laid plans"]
Step 1) Assume the dump will happen
Step 2) Assess your tank/sump for space to hold "additional" water.
Step 3) Make your ATO reservoir equal to, or smaller than, this "additional" space.

* You can have another auto-filler keeping the ATO reservoir filled if it has to be super-small to the extent that it would be a pain to live with.

* The level sensors that are only exposed to RODI should have only an astronomical probability of failure, so I wouldn't apply extra worry about accidents there.

* No "additional" space means a re-design to me: lower water level or something.