High Tide Aquatics

ATO advice needed

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Bginose94015

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So I have purchased a JBJ ATO system for my 50 gallon cube build. I am pretty confident that I will be getting an Apex Neptune system within the next 2-3 weeks. Should I sell the JBJ and use the Neptune for ATO? Would I need to buy any expansion modules to make it work as an ATO? Any recommendations on float switches that work with the Neptune system?

thanks,

Eric
 
If you sell the ATO, you'll recoup a lot of that cost. With your Apex, you'll need the breakout box, a float switch, a pump, and some sort of probe holder to mount the float switch.

LFS should have standard float switches that will work for you.

Besides cost savings, another benefit of using the Apex breakout box is that you can further install a couple more float switches, to shut ATO pump off during high water level event in case ATO might stick on, maybe ATO pump cavitation or something so you can set a low level switch to shut ATO off so pump doesn't burn, and email notification.

You can put a light in your cabinet and hook it up to a switch connected to breakout box, it'll turn on when you open the door. Possibilities are endless.
 
Spoon said:
If you sell the ATO, you'll recoup a lot of that cost. With your Apex, you'll need the breakout box, a float switch, a pump, and some sort of probe holder to mount the float switch.

LFS should have standard float switches that will work for you.

Besides cost savings, another benefit of using the Apex breakout box is that you can further install a couple more float switches, to shut ATO pump off during high water level event in case ATO might stick on, maybe ATO pump cavitation or something so you can set a low level switch to shut ATO off so pump doesn't burn, and email notification.

You can put a light in your cabinet and hook it up to a switch connected to breakout box, it'll turn on when you open the door. Possibilities are endless.
Click to expand...
The exact info I was looking for. JBJ ATO for sale in the for sale section now ;-)
 
Cool! ATO kits are nice because you just plug them in and go. But since you plan on Apex, you will enter a land where just about everything is customizable. You're going to spend some time getting sensors and float switches placed and calibrated and all that, but in the end you'll have a system thaaat can do much more than a simple ATO kit soluuution can do, and you'll be very proud of yourself once it's all set up and running.

(Say the above paragraph in your best Ryan from BRS TV voice)

You can even throw a float switch into your ATO container to send you a text message when your reservoir level gets low.

You can even plug a set of Christmas lights into your EB8, route it somewhere in your house, and have Apex turn them on when ATO reservoir gets low. ;)
 
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Spoon said:
If you sell the ATO, you'll recoup a lot of that cost. With your Apex, you'll need the breakout box, a float switch, a pump, and some sort of probe holder to mount the float switch.
Click to expand...
That's what I thought, from the initial post I thought Neptune came out with their own ATO device.

That said, I would lean the other direction, you already have a top off controller, are you really gaining anything from going with the Apex? What I do is I have a standard float switch top off (although I'm thinking about changing it) that was plugged into one of the controller ports and only turned on for 20 minutes a day (Aqualifter pump), 20 minutes was long enough to fill the water up as necessary, however if one of the float switches failed to trigger/got stuck (and they do regardless of what safeguards you put into place) the channel would shut off well before any overflow was done (again Aqualifter pump so the flow rate was quite low), so there was a sense of double redundancy there not only did my float switches need to fail but so did the controller.

That said, it probably wouldn't cost too much more to go the other way, I don't have an Apex (older system AC3 that Neptune let slip away) so I don't know how much the components for that cost.
 
I'm a software engineer by trade so I tend to rely on dedicated hardware for life critical things like ato.. All it takes is a firmware crash or bug to overflow your tank. :)

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
 
I have an Apex and I use a JBJ ATO connected to a AquaLifter.

I love the Apex but it's not 100% reliable. Every once in a great while it goes stupid. When that happens it needs to be rebooted by power cycling. Of course it only seems to get stupid when I'm out of town! Murphy at work?

So here's my logic on the system. JBJ ATO will only run for about 4 minutes before shutting down. There is, with the AquaLifter, little chance of it flooding the sump. I have had issues with this but putting the ATO on a Apex controlled outlet let's me cycle the power on the ATO if it can't keep up with TO (mostly because I forgot to add water to TO res).

When the Apex goes stupid all control is lost. The ATO, being somewhat independent, should keep up with TO. It's Apex outlet is set to default to ON when stupidity reigns! :)

I will be adding two float sensors to the Apex just so it can warn me if the sump is getting too high or low.
 
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