Reef Breeders Prism ATO.

[treedog5]

You want the return hose to remain above your water line, if not it can create a back siphon and pull water out of your tank.

 

[thewire]

You want the return hose to remain above your water line, if not it can create a back siphon and pull water out of your tank.

nvm. I just saw you elevate your too. I use ziptie. Reefbreeder told me it's ok under water when the return pump off but not when is running..not sure

 

[treedog5]

Trust me, don't risk it. I have seen it happen, it can't back siphon but a small amount but it's not a good thing to risk.

 

[Larry101]

I have just stumbled onto this thread so I thought I should share my experience that happened around 2 months ago. I purchased the prism ato from BRS, and when it arrived I hooked it all up and even tested it by raising the sensor above the waterline and watching the pump kick on. Fast forward 1 day I noticed that my ato reservoir was still full all the way to the top, so I decided to lift the sensor above the waterline again and nothing happened. The ato appeared to be broken already after not even 24 hours. I returned it to BRS and they tested it and said yes it appears that it is broken and won't work. In the end, got a refund and purchased the XP Aqua Duetto and haven't had any problems whatsoever. I want to have a reliable ato for my tank especially since I am running kalkwasser. I just don't see how I could ever trust this ato after it failed in 1 day of receiving it.

 

[treedog5]

Totally understand how that would discourage you from using it, my first one worked great for a few months and then started acting weird. Reef Breeders sent me a new sensor and I haven't had any further issues. I will say that any equipment can have some faults, I had a Tunze before the prism and is was not reliable at all for me even though everyone else swears by them. I can't remember how many times that tunze woke me in the middle of the night because it had gotten stuck on.

 

[threebuoys]

i just bought one and it came in today but a 1 inch water drop is not ideal. My tank won’t survive that big of a salinity increase! So I’ll have to look else wear

A 1" water drop in the return compartment does not necessarily equate to a 1" drop in the main tank. Only a fraction will drop there. You should be able to estimate the water drop based on what you add back manually. My 125 gallon, no top has about 1.5 gallons evaporation daily. My reservoir holds about 4.5 gallons. I've been very satisfied with the unit.

Mine came. So question, is the return hose underwater if the main return pump shut off is ok?

Keep the end of the hose coming into the sump above the maximum water level you will see if the return pump to the main tank is shut off. Otherwise, you run the risk of the sump being siphoned into the ATO resevoir, depending on the size of the sump, size of the resevoir, etc.

 

[Larry101]

Totally understand how that would discourage you from using it, my first one worked great for a few months and then started acting weird. Reef Breeders sent me a new sensor and I haven't had any further issues. I will say that any equipment can have some faults, I had a Tunze before the prism and is was not reliable at all for me even though everyone else swears by them. I can't remember how many times that tunze woke me in the middle of the night because it had gotten stuck on.

Was it the osmolator nano?

 

[threebuoys]

Also, be sure the water level between the display tank and the sump has stabilized completely before you turn the ATO on. I once prematurely adjusted the level for the sensor after moving the sump around some. Turns out, I had set the sensor too high in the sump return compartment and the water had not yet leveled out. End result, I almost overflowed the display tank because the ATO could never get the water up to the level where the sensor was. Fortunately, I caught it. I'm working on a backup float switch for the main tank that will turn off the ATO if the level accidentally gets too high.

 

[cadroved67]

What do you mean, 1 inch drop? You can raise the probe to prevent your water level from dropping that far.

But it will increase until it reaches the first sensor so wouldn’t it be too much?

 

[cadroved67]

And how will that increase your salinity?

If my water dropped an inch

 

[cadroved67]

A 1" water drop in the return compartment does not necessarily equate to a 1" drop in the main tank. Only a fraction will drop there. You should be able to estimate the water drop based on what you add back manually. My 125 gallon, no top has about 1.5 gallons evaporation daily. My reservoir holds about 4.5 gallons. I've been very satisfied with the unit.

Keep the end of the hose coming into the sump above the maximum water level you will see if the return pump to the main tank is shut off. Otherwise, you run the risk of the sump being siphoned into the ATO resevoir, depending on the size of the sump, size of the resevoir, etc.

I don’t have a sump so how would i fix this?

 

[thewire]

But it will increase until it reaches the first sensor so wouldn’t it be too much?

Threebouys already answered that. Better yet, keep your water level as lowest point.

A 1" water drop in the return compartment does not necessarily equate to a 1" drop in the main tank. Only a fraction will drop there. You should be able to estimate the water drop based on what you add back manually. My 125 gallon, no top has about 1.5 gallons evaporation daily. My reservoir holds about 4.5 gallons. I've been very satisfied with the unit.

 

[threebuoys]

Remind me, what size is your tank? Your may be able to work with a couple of float switches to activate the ATO pump with a smaller drop in water level, but I don't have first hand experience trying to do that.

 

[cadroved67]

as

Remind me, what size is your tank? Your may be able to work with a couple of float switches to activate the ATO pump with a smaller drop in water level, but I don't have first hand experience trying to do that.

10 gallon

 

[cadroved67]

Threebouys already answered that. Better yet, keep your water level as lowest point.

A 1" water drop in the return compartment does not necessarily equate to a 1" drop in the main tank. Only a fraction will drop there. You should be able to estimate the water drop based on what you add back manually. My 125 gallon, no top has about 1.5 gallons evaporation daily. My reservoir holds about 4.5 gallons. I've been very satisfied with the unit.

I don’t have a return compartment. I have my dt that’s it.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

Quick question for an owner of this ATO. What voltage does it use for the pump? (Probably on the power adapter label).

I am interested in using one of these with an external powered relay to allow my existing peristaltic pump to be used. I plan to use the XP Aqua 'Smart' relay, which is a power outlet that has a 12V female power jack to energize it.

Dennis

 

[threebuoys]

12 volt

 

[3sgterror]

Just wanted to chime in on this thread as I also recently purchased the Prism ATO from BRS.

• Jan 5th - ATO received, installed same day
• Jan 5th through the 9th - Working as intended
• Jan 10th, it emptied my whole entire RODI reservoir into my tank. Reservoir is 2 gallons, my tank is the Fluval Evo 13.5. It completely blew past the high level sensor and the safety sensor and water poured over the sides of my tank. I caught it because I could hear water running. The reservoir still had water in the tank. I cleaned up the mess, cleaned up the sensor thinking maybe there was algae or something covering the sensors. Had to dump water from the tank and re-stabilize salinity.
• Jan 11th through the 19th - Working as intended again
• Jan 20th (today) - the ATO emptied by entire reservoir again. Overflowed my system again. Blew past all the sensors again. Only reason I heard it this time was because I could hear the pump whining because it was running with no water running through it. I go into the room and there is water everywhere again.

I am starting a return to BRS for them to test and replicate, which I hope they can. I just can't trust this ATO anymore and will be replacing with another brand. Some of the questions that BRS asked me was if it was exposed to direct sunlight which could interfere with the sensors, but my tank is in a corner with a cover over the sump area and black vinyl around the sides, so I don't think that is the issue.

At the end of the day, I think I just received a faulty sensor also, but I will be switching to another brand regardless.

 

[lowellb]

A 1" water drop in the return compartment does not necessarily equate to a 1" drop in the main tank. Only a fraction will drop there. You should be able to estimate the water drop based on what you add back manually. My 125 gallon, no top has about 1.5 gallons evaporation daily. My reservoir holds about 4.5 gallons. I've been very satisfied with the unit.

Keep the end of the hose coming into the sump above the maximum water level you will see if the return pump to the main tank is shut off. Otherwise, you run the risk of the sump being siphoned into the ATO resevoir, depending on the size of the sump, size of the resevoir, etc.

No sump, this is supposed to be a Nano tank ato. 10 gallons cant handle a 1 inch drop.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

No sump, this is supposed to be a Nano tank ato. 10 gallons cant handle a 1 inch drop.

Yes, this ATO is not going to be very good for your size of tank. I have it on a frag tank that has a stock tank as a sump and the drop required, when spread across the surface of the stock tank causes the salinity to vary by a substantial amount. They really need a small compartment where the drop can be localized.

Dennis