SUMP DESIGN?? / Best HOB skimmer??

A boat load of peopl run ATOs of all different sorts. Yes there are failures... but not to the point of them not being useful. They are quite simple and there is plenty of safety built in. Go to ATO.com and get what you want. If you really never want to loose a wink od sleep over it get a Tunze ATO. Best one around with planty of safety.

The other part of ATO is not hooking them up to endless supplies of water. All you do is hook it up to a jug of water and all that can happen is that jug goes in. I used a 7g jug and my sump could comfortably hold it even with the return pump off. If you had a 5g jug your sump could probably hold it if the return was running. Not like it will always be full either. that would lest probbly a week. ATOs are certainly worth it. 99.9% of the time your tank will be better off for it.

You know mechanical stuff does fail... but lets put this in perspective.... you are running a mechanical life support sytem to keep sensitive animals alive that WILL die with out it.... there is any number of stuff that can fail but, that has not stopped you from setting up a salt water aqaurium. If the power goes out for a day they will die, but I doubt you have bought a back up generator.