JBJ ATO Malfunction - Help

Connie · Jul 11, 2013

I installed a brand new, out of the box JBJ ATO yesterday. It was working fine when I went to bed. This morning I wake up to the water level in the sump 1" from the top and the skimmer outlet fully immersed! I checked the leveler part and there wasn't a snail or anything in the way. I has dumped at least 5 gallons of water over night. I turned the ATO and skimmer off. Had this been a smaller tank, it would have been devastating to the inhabitants. I'm gonna have to siphon out the excess so the skimmer can work. Has anyone had this happen to them and if so, what did you do to fix it? :Cry:

Mike J. · Jul 11, 2013

What's probably happened is you have the switch in the wrong mode or sensor plugged into wrong hole. I run a couple of JBJ ATO's. Maybe it is set on "min level" instead of "max level" or vice versa.

Dowtish · Jul 11, 2013

Mike J. said:
What's probably happened is you have the switch in the wrong mode or sensor plugged into wrong hole. I run a couple of JBJ ATO's. Maybe it is set on "min level" instead of "max level" or vice versa.

This^^^

Also look into the option of opening it up and changing the setting on the inside to where it will only run for 3 minutes in case it does malfunction.

Connie · Jul 11, 2013

I checked it and everything is hooked up correctly. One thing that did happen overnight was the socks filled up and needed changing. Maybe it filled up to compensate for the water being held by the socks. Is that possible?

I plugged it back up and am going to watch it today to see if it starts overfilling again.

Jlobes · Jul 11, 2013

Connie said:
I checked it and everything is hooked up correctly. One thing that did happen overnight was the socks filled up and needed changing. Maybe it filled up to compensate for the water being held by the socks. Is that possible?

seems feasible. if the socks were restricting the overall flow through the sump, then it would seem possible that the return area, wasnt running at its normal height. If that was the case...the ATO switch would be activated and fill. but that doesnt explain why it would keep filling once the switch was off.

Connie · Jul 11, 2013

Jlobes said:
seems feasible. if the socks were restricting the overall flow through the sump, then it would seem possible that the return area, wasnt running at its normal height. If that was the case...the ATO switch would be activated and fill. but that doesnt explain why it would keep filling once the switch was off.

Well, that's true. Didn't think about that.

doylef4i · Jul 11, 2013

is the out put from the line on the pump sitting lower than the water line in your top off?

Pumbooris · Jul 11, 2013

I get the same problem when I fill my top off bucket all the way full. When the water level in the bucket is higher than the sumps water level (if you are using a normal pump) it will cause the water to siphon up the pump and down the tube into the return area. In return emptying more than half my bucket

doylef4i · Jul 11, 2013

Pumbooris said:
I get the same problem when I fill my top off bucket all the way full. When the water level in the bucket is higher than the sumps water level (if you are using a normal pump) it will cause the water to siphon up the pump and down the tube into the return area. In return emptying more than half my bucket

that is what I was thinking.

Connie · Jul 11, 2013

That is exactly what happened. I filled the reservoir all the way up before bed last night and it equalized. It hasn't done it again because I haven't added more water. Thanks for the help!