Turbo Snail activated my ATO sensor

[ryecoon]

I know most of you have your ATO set up into your sump. Well i thought it would be ok to set it up directly to my DT..Big mistake! One of my huge turbo snails crawled up and stuck to the sensor..to make it matters worse i just mixed a batch of Kalk...Luckily i caught it right before the tank was about to over flow..I quickly **** it off and my first reaction was do a water change. I syphoned 20% and mixed a new batch. Inspected corals and did tests. Salt level dropped a little bit. might do another water change tomorrow and add more salt to level it out. What would you guys have done? and what would you suggest i do from this point?

 

[alan.reef]

test Alk, might have raise a bit high side!! keep calm. observe your coral and fish.

 

[vlangel]

Wow, glad it didn't happen in the middle of the night so that it called for more water a lot longer! Sounds like you are handling it appropriately. My ATO does go to my sump but I have so many micro stars there sometimes they weight the float switch down. I have dual switches so even if the first one calls for water the second one which is set a little higher will shut it off.

 

[ryecoon]

Although I already have a hob Refugium I went to the petstore and bought a 10 gal tank. Im going to make a sump this time. I wonder if it would be a good idea to connect the hob regugium to the 10 gal sump? hmmm

 

[ryecoon]

test Alk, might have raise a bit high side!! keep calm. observe your coral and fish.

Yes will do. Actually a couple of my zoa frags arent opening :/

 

[ryecoon]

Wow, glad it didn't happen in the middle of the night so that it called for more water a lot longer! Sounds like you are handling it appropriately. My ATO does go to my sump but I have so many micro stars there sometimes they weight the float switch down. I have dual switches so even if the first one calls for water the second one which is set a little higher will shut it off.

Omg im glad that didnt happen also. I might set up up my ato like yours. My Reservoir would never drop low but i know the sump will drop more frequently.

 

[ryecoon]

Using the closet in the back of my tank as an easy accessible sump storage. Dont know how it will work out yet but well see. I dont ever wanna have the same incident happen again lol

 

[vlangel]

That looks like a great place for a sump. What size sump are you thinking about?

 

[vlangel]

That looks like a great place for a sump. What size sump are you thinking about?

Duh, if I'd looked at all the pics I'd have seen the sump. Looks like a 10g which is what I have. It gets the job done.

 

[ryecoon]

I just did a 10 Gal about 19" long. The Closet space is about 24". Didnt wanna make it too tight. I bought some pvc pipes. Im youtube looking for some diy overflow instructions lol

 

[ryecoon]

Duh, if I'd looked at all the pics I'd have seen the sump. Looks like a 10g which is what I have. It gets the job done.

Nice. Do you have any pics of your set up?

 

[vlangel]

Nice. Do you have any pics of your set up?

My tank is a 36g bow with the all glass stand. Its a single door opening so you can only see the middle chamber/fuge part of the sump. I set it up pretty standard though: first chamber is where the drain empties, nothing but rubble rock there and hopefully growing pods. The second chamber is the fuge with calerpa and just a cheap grow strip flo light fixture. Also some banished crabs and a serpent star live there. Last chamber houses my Mag 9.5 return pump.

 

[ryecoon]

My tank is a 36g bow with the all glass stand. Its a single door opening so you can only see the middle chamber/fuge part of the sump. I set it up pretty standard though: first chamber is where the drain empties, nothing but rubble rock there and hopefully growing pods. The second chamber is the fuge with calerpa and just a cheap grow strip flo light fixture. Also some banished crabs and a serpent star live there. Last chamber houses my Mag 9.5 return pump.

Nice!

 

[ryecoon]

Finally just finished adding the sump. Took me all day. Still need a few adjustments to the intank overflow and adding the ATO. My corals didnt respond well to the new change. Everything closed up. I will do a water test.

 

[Bad Company]

Nice! I put some snails in my sump to consume some of the algae growing there. But my primary ato switch has a cup around it with some holes drilled in to allow water level rise while preventing snail tampering

 

[vlangel]

Nice! I put some snails in my sump to consume some of the algae growing there. But my primary ato switch has a cup around it with some holes drilled in to allow water level rise while preventing snail tampering

Great idea!

 

[xthunderx]

If you have a controller w/ the Ph probe, you can set it up to turn off the ATO w/ Kalk when Ph raises above say 8.4 or 8.5. I've never had that condition happen, but it's nice to know that if it does it won't crash my tank.

 

[ryecoon]

If you have a controller w/ the Ph probe, you can set it up to turn off the ATO w/ Kalk when Ph raises above say 8.4 or 8.5. I've never had that condition happen, but it's nice to know that if it does it won't crash my tank.

Im setting up an Apex this week and im going to get a kalk reactor and a doser. I should have got it sooner.

 

[ryecoon]

still more to work on in my Sump closet.