ATO failed

My ATO has worked flawlessly for over a year keeping the water level within 1/8" in the sump. I woke up last night to the gurgling sound of my top off pump because the reservoir ran dry. Half asleep I poured a pitcher of RO water into the reservoir and headed back to bed. A few minutes later It woke me up again. This time I realize that the float valve is somehow stuck in the on position. I take the float valve out and clean it and work with it in a glass off water. Sure enough, it keeps getting stuck in the on position. Luckily I have a small top off reservoir so only about a gallon of RO water was pumped into my 65G reef. No harm to the system was done just dont like it when things fail on me. Im looking into a new ATO right now. Thinking about the JBJ Automatic top off system. Any other ATO suggestions and comments are very welcome.

 

mine did the same thing last night. pumped 6 gal into my sump. i just hooked mine up last night and seemed to be working fine until i woke up this morning.

 

what a strange coincidence. lol. Yours pumped a bit more water than mine did. Is your livestock still OK?

 

yeah everything seems to be fine. i just went ahead and did a wc and got the sg corrected.

 

I am going to get the aquahub.com kit they have one that has two float switches on it in the event that one fails for like $30.

 

I use the Ultra Precise Level Controller found on sale here:

SpectraPure Customer Appreciation SALE! 20% - 50% off

Both it and the standard liquid level controller use an electronic air pressure switch and its pretty bulletproof. The UPLC also comes with the same peristaltic pump they use in their popular LiterMeter controller. The level can be adjusted from 1/10 of an inch to 4" with the touch of a button and the fill rate can also be adjusted so it would be about impossible to flood a system plus it has a float switch high level backup which shuts the whole thing down.

 

I have the JBJ top off. I really like it. It has nice fail safe features and lights that tell me when I need to add water to the reservoir. Maybe most of them do that, I dunno, but before this I had a super bare bones one - so I find this stuff fancy and cool! Anyways, I really like it.

JBJ-USA Aquarium Products

This is where I bought mine - sale price and free shipping
ATO Automatic Top Off System A.T.O

 

I have the JBJ and hasn't failed yet. I cleaned the in-sump float switch with water and muriatic acid a couple of weeks ago, but it didn't really looked like it needed it. I just do it every 5 or 6 months as part of my equipment maintenance.

- Mag.

 

I'm not a fan of floating sensors. I like my Tunze ATO that uses a laser (with no moving parts). It has never failed.

 

Is getting a new ATO (like a JBJ) going to give you a different type of sensor than you are currently using?