Red Sea reefer 250 ATO Question

[Lucas Lembke]

I have a Red Sea reefer 250 and am new to saltwater. I understand the function of the Auto top off and everything, but how does it work and where exactly is the water supposed to drop from on the Red Sea ATOs? Mine drips about once a second from the white piece on the right side close to the reservoir (white piece seen in picture 1). Is this correct? I am also able to twist this white piece to either increase or decrease the drip. It seems like it is where it is supposed to drip from, but I just want to make sure.
-Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Cuong]

It operates on a float valve. When the water in the return compartment gets low, it drips out from the ball. The valve with the twisty knob thingy is for turning off/on the ato, say for when removing container to refill with fresh rodi. Just make sure nothing blocks the ball so that if can do it's job. Also, take the float out to clean once in a while, especially if kalkdosing.... Happy reefing....

 

[Lucas Lembke]

H

It operates on a float valve. When the water in the return compartment gets low, it drips out from the ball. The valve with the twisty knob thingy is for turning off/on the ato, say for when removing container to refill with fresh rodi. Just make sure nothing blocks the ball so that if can do it's job. Also, take the float out to clean once in a while, especially if kalkdosing.... Happy reefing....

How do I know for sure it's working, how do you take the float out, and should I twist the knobby thing all the way tight then?

 

[SeaCreature]

Did you ever get this to work correctly?

I am new also and I am having difficulty maintaining the water level in my sump. I believe it is because the Ato is not keeping up with the evaporation. Level of water in display is stable. I have been holding off on adding bacteria to start the cycle until I resolve this issue.

 

[KirstenB]

Did you ever get this to work correctly?

I am new also and I am having difficulty maintaining the water level in my sump. I believe it is because the Ato is not keeping up with the evaporation. Level of water in display is stable. I have been holding off on adding bacteria to start the cycle until I resolve this issue.

I too am having issues and cannot find information on how to troubleshoot this ATO.

 

[Thom24]

Morning all, I am new also and had an issue with my 350 ato, was advised here to remove that shut off valve and it works great now.... seems to be an issue for some

 

[Ironworm]

You can see the water dripping into the return chamber (when it is low)

 

[Ironworm]

I think the supplied ATO is not the best, I am having to fill mine up every few days and it still has trouble keeping up.

I see an upgrade in the future

 

[Thom24]

I see many upgrade the ato with these because of the size, I get about 3 .5 days when I fill

 

[Thom24]

Also, balancing the sump pump with the skimmer flow is crucial to stabilizing water flow... if I explained that properly lol

 

[IslandLifeReef]

What worked best for me was to take apart the float valve assemble and drill the hole out so it was almost twice as big.

 

[Ironworm]

Do you have a picture of what that looks like after you drilled the hole out?

 

[IslandLifeReef]

Do you have a picture of what that looks like after you drilled the hole out?

No, but I was planning on cleaning the valve tomorrow anyway, so I will take a picture then. I use to have to clean it once a month, or it would clog. Now, I only clean it because it starts to look disgusting.

 

[Tastee]

I have a RSR 250 and use the stock ATO. I have an Apex on my tank and use the ATK to keep the ATO full. I run the PMUP once a day to refill the ATO to reduce the wear on the PMUP and hopefully reduce the chance of it failing (reviews are not great on this pump but it is a very convenient pump for me).

I also use an optical sensor in my sump to alert to low level (i.e. the ATO float valve has gummed up and is blocked). As the ATO lasts 2-3 days I have plenty of time to address this if it happens. If I go away on holidays I clean the valve before I go for safety.

The FMM that comes with the ATK only uses 2 of the 4 ports for the ATK so I use the third for the low level sump monitor and the last for a leak detector on the floor next to the stand. Covers all the important bases.

I find I need to clean my float valve every 6-8 weeks so try to do that every 4 weeks in my regular schedule. I like the stock ATO as it continuously refills the tank for evaporation maintaining constant salinity. Here’s a pic of my setup.