ATO and Snails

[Couesfanatic]

I'm having a strange issue. A new snail in the tank sits on the slats for the overflow eating, slowing the water to the rear chamber of my Nuvo 10. This causes my ATO to turn on for 5-10 seconds. A minute or two later the snail moves and more water moves to the rear chamber turning on the alarm for the ATO overfill. Any solution to this? I know the water will evaporate back down to the proper level so it's not too much of an issue but the ATO alarm in the middle of the night is a bit annoying.

[mcarroll]

He won't be doing this forever, so patience is probably all that's called for.  But manually clean the algae from that area if it's a real concern.  No algae, no snail.  👍

[Couesfanatic]

Thanks, I've been trying to keep that area clean but he keeps doing it probably once a day. 

[mcarroll]

So snails hunt based on memory, so maybe it's not totally surprising.

 

Try to place it somewhere that it won't get light anymore.  DIY some kind of opaque snail guard if you have to.

 

Also, try moving the sensor to a new location AND clean it yourself every day for at least a few days.  With luck that'll throw them off and they'll remember a new cleaning route that doesn't include your ATO sensor after that!

[Couesfanatic]

Thanks but its not the sensor itself, its the fact that the snail is large and covers half the return slats to the overflow, causing the water level to drop in the rear chambers. This makes the ATO think the water evaporated.

[jbb]

Put the ato on a timer to where it only activates a few times per day.  That might help