My disaster of Tonight

[le0p]

Thought I'd share with you my story of woe. My evening started with a simple sump check... How's the skimmer, is the reactor tumbling right, etc.. etc.. Well, I notice the skimmer overflowing which is really unusual and it has a drain..

 

So, I'm taking a look at the skimmer.. and oh look the biopellot reactor is barely tumbling. Great.

 

Now, working on squeezing these things out of the sump and I finally notice, the thing is almost full. Somethings up with the ATO and it just dumped about 4 gallons into a 40b. I check the salinity it's down to 1.023.

 

So I finish my work on the reactor, going to switch out the pump for more flow.. I know have those adapters somehwhere.. Oh yeah, my dog ate most of them a few days ago.. fun.

 

I piece together some fittings and get to some gluing.and we have an upgraded reactor. Now getting it into the sump, finding a place.. it won't stay stuck.. i try to McGuyver everything it won't stay. So I put the skimmer back in and prop it up.. good enough for tonight.

 

Now to the water.. I drain the overflow, fill up the resevoir with salty water and plug everything back in.

 

Everything still looks good an hour later.. I even hear the ATO pop on and off.

 

I stop paying attention for a bit..

..

..

..

Hey, let me check out the tank.... WTF.

 

ATO reservoir dumped again. Something is wrong with the controller or sensor on my Tunze nano osmolator.

 

Salinity now down to 1.021

 

I don't want to cause any more trouble, so I'm leaving it for the night comforted by the few forum posts saying it's not the end of the world.

 

Tomorrow, I'll start slowly bringing the SG back up..

 

Good times.

[Chadf]

PM rvitko on RC. He'll guide you through any potential causes and if the unit is defective the warranty is done through him.

[badwhiskey]

The TUNZE is you issue..anything from them sux

[Alexraptor]

The TUNZE is you issue..anything from them sux

O Rly?

Huh.. my Tunze Nanostream as well as my osmolator have been working just fine for me.

[joy13]

The safest way I know to bring up the salinity is to top off with saltwater.

[le0p]

it just gets better, the return pump caught fire this morning. It's been on its way out and I have a replacement sitting in the box. I should have changed it out a while ago.

 

I'm thinking this might have been a power surge issue or something, they're both on the same plug.

[le0p]

Given the above, here's how my day went.

 

After realizing my return pump was literally on fire and filling the room with smoke, I cut that power.. walked away in shock and had about 5 minutes to think before my dog walked in with her face blowing up from some kind of illergic reaction. Time to rush to the vet. She got into some kind of trouble but it was nothing dangerous. Couple shots and she came home puffy face and all.

 

I take inventory of what I need to change out this fireball, head out to lowes and gather supplies. Keeping powerheads and lights running in the fuge and display all day so I hope it was enough.

 

I'm finally ready to do the install after a careful mock up and stand build for the new pump (way bigger), I planned this out so I had minimal gluing and cutting to do, used spa flex to avoid having to rework the upper section of plumbing.. then...

 

While threading the adapter to the old return pipe and I see the tank is cracked. I don't know when it happened, didn't hear it or see it happen. Seriously. It's barely leaking though, I stared at it for about 5 minutes, felt the area and maybe a halfhearted drop had come out since it happened, the stand and frame weren't wet.

 

So I decide I'm going to salvage this thing, for a day or two at least.. until i can get another sump drilled. This is my far from approved method for patching a cracked sump... I drain it then look for some silicon. All I have is superglue.. so I dry it off and spread the glue all around the crack hoping it will keep it from leaking while I find something to deal with this.Luckily, my dad had some aquarium RTV.. superglue kept it dry so I apply silicone along the crack, then took a small glass pane from a picture frame and siliconed it on top of the crack, making sure to seal it well.

 

At this point, I'm beat.. so I let it sit for two hours hoping the silicone cured enough to keep the crack from spreading then filled the sump first, cause if that blows up.. it's whole different story.

 

After holding water for about an hour I fill the display and cross my fingers. Flipped the switch and hoped for the best. Water pumping, no leaks in the plumbing and still leak free at the sump..was a little worried about the vibration causing problems

 

I'll probably be getting another sump ready tomorrow and doing another major switch. It's going to drive me crazy thinking about that tank blowing up in the middle of the night.

 

The inhabitants seem to doing pretty well. they're out and about. the sump crew is in full effect.. so I'm hopeful but prepared for anything at this point.

[ninjamyst]

i unplugged my tunze nano ATO cuz it's been doing the same thing. it wont stop pumping water into the tank. hate that thing. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

[le0p]

Yeah, I'm hoping it's something like the sensor had a snail in it, preventing the switch from turning off.. I am going to clean everything and do a test run.. hopefully it's just a power thing

[Alexraptor]

i unplugged my tunze nano ATO cuz it's been doing the same thing. it wont stop pumping water into the tank. hate that thing. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Something I have noticed with the Tunze Osmolator Nano is that the holding magnets can be too strong so that they interfere with the float switch.

In my case I managed to solve it by slipping a piece of cardboard box betwee the glass and the outer magnet, and its worked without a hitch since.

[le0p]

Well, hooked up the ato again and watch it all day (I can here it kick on usually) and set it off a couple times to see if it was stuck on.. everything worked great.. woke up this morning with full sump and empy ato again. I give up on this thing.. never again will I Ato with one float switch.

 

Other than that, the tank was recovering well. My six line took a jump to his death but I think he got more freaked out about the work around the tank.

[ChickenoftheC]

omg talk about bad lucky. RIP six line

[ninjamyst]

Well, hooked up the ato again and watch it all day (I can here it kick on usually) and set it off a couple times to see if it was stuck on.. everything worked great.. woke up this morning with full sump and empy ato again. I give up on this thing.. never again will I Ato with one float switch. Other than that, the tank was recovering well. My six line took a jump to his death but I think he got more freaked out about the work around the tank.

 

omg, i did the same thing over the weekend. i cleaned out the ATO float switch thing, plugged it back in and it seems good. Woke up Sunday night to the sound of the pump making a weird clicking noise because it dumped all the reservoir water into the tank. Since I only have a 12 gallon tank, I may just go back to manual top off in the morning and evening. ATO convenience not worth flooding your house.

[Gooburz]

What model ATO are you guys using that is causing all these problems? I was looking at the Tunze nano 3152 that turns off after 1-5 min depending on adjustments you make on the controls.

[Chadf]

 

PM rvitko on RC. He'll guide you through any potential causes and if the unit is defective the warranty is done through him.

[le0p]

 

 

 

PM rvitko on RC. He'll guide you through any potential causes and if the unit is defective the warranty is done through him.

 

Tried, don't have enough posts on RC.. guess I'll have to go make some

[Tamberav]

Sorry to hear of the problems. I have the 3155 version and it has been working great for years.

[ninjamyst]

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/347065-republic-of-texas-reef-pico-20g-made-in-the-usa-tank-is-running/page-4#entry4783904

 

more reports of this Tunze ATO failing recently...

[iceet]

For now just scrap the ATO and do manual freshwater topoffs. It's not worth the stress it is causing you, this hobby is suppose to bring you happiness and tranquility.

[farkwar]

The Hydor gives me tranquility.

 

Ever think about using an RKL as backup. Like if the conductivity is 33 the ATO pump doesnt turn on. And then have it only turn on at set times per day.

[Polarcollision]

Tunze 5017: optical sensor with float switch cut-off. No chance of emptying reservoir. A pump burned out literally 4 days over warranty. I contacted Tunze directly. They went over troubleshooting over the phone and then sent out a replacement pump free of charge. Great customer service. Give them a chance - they'll make it right.

[atrox]

I had a jbj ato that I gave me hell. it would work, wouldn't work etc. got a cheap Home Depot timer that turns it on an off every 15 minutes. Works flawlessly now.

[NanoBiscuit]

Something I have noticed with the Tunze Osmolator Nano is that the holding magnets can be too strong so that they interfere with the float switch.

In my case I managed to solve it by slipping a piece of cardboard box betwee the glass and the outer magnet, and its worked without a hitch since.

 

This is what was happening with mine when I first set it up. I did the same thing, a piece of cardboard gave it enough room to freely float. The only issue I have now is the tiny cerith snails from reefcleaners hop on the float. It hasn't caused any major issues, I just notice it running longer than usual sometimes and have to knock them off.

[iceet]

I'll stick with manual top offs for now, I don't mind.

[Alexraptor]

Thing is though manual top offs is not suitable for all systems.