How am I supposed to make my new redsea reef ATO+ auto top off system work properly?

[Blackwater guru]

So I recently finished setting up the equipment inside my brand new redsea reefer G2+ that I had to wait from February to April until it arrived and I have now filled it with water and sand but nothing living until much later and most of my equipment is now working as intended except my redsea roll filter as it's unfortunately missing one of the parts needed to advance the roll so I had to contact the aquarium store I bought it from and they in turn informed me redsea is looking into this so hopefully I should be sent a replacement part eventually. That and I am still waiting for my light armature for my redsea reef lighting to arrive as the aquarium store I ordered it from did not have it in stock at the moment so I will have to wait.

I did setup my auto top off system with the reef ATO+ that came with the system and I have the ATO pump setup in a small bucket with a siphon break just over the waterline as seen in the manual and I did make sure to shorten the tubing between my sump/return chamber and my reservoir although I have literally no idea how long the tubing is which could be one of the reasons as to what I am about to describe is happening.

My main issue is that no matter what I do whenever I check the water volume level in the reefbeat app it always says it's below no matter if I change the water level inside the return chamber to make sure it does not go past the sensors even if I try my hardest to make sure it stays within a reasonable amount of water even tried adding extra salt to the water but no changes . And even more annoyingly whenever I turn on the ATO pump not only will it always exceed the sensors but it will eventually overflow into the rest of the sump and it is driving me nuts and even then the freaking app keeps on saying it's still below and I have no idea why.

I am beginning to wonder if my ATO unit might be defective or not or if I am doing something else wrong here but I just can't seem to figure it out and I have lost so much sleep trying to fix the freaking ATO reservoir to make sure it does not keep on overflowing and for the app to actually update and stop saying the water level is low even when that is just blatantly false and incorrect .

I should mention I am new to reef keeping and in general the business of setting up a sump and ATO reservoirs although I have kept a 145 liter freshwater aquarium previously several years ago so there's that and I will send pictures if needed of my current ATO reservoir and setup for those needing pictures sorry if I come off as a bit ranty.

 

[Colin_T]

I don't know the unit or how it works but I would suggest going to the shop you bought it from and seeing how they have theirs set up. Most shops that sell certain brands of aquariums usually have one set up in store to show the customers. They should be able to help you figure out what is happening.

Considering the part that was missing you could have a faulty sensor or the app might be bugged. I would take those parts to the shop too and get them to check it.

 

[Blackwater guru]

I don't know the unit or how it works but I would suggest going to the shop you bought it from and seeing how they have theirs set up. Most shops that sell certain brands of aquariums usually have one set up in store to show the customers. They should be able to help you figure out what is happening.

Considering the part that was missing you could have a faulty sensor or the app might be bugged. I would take those parts to the shop too and get them to check it.

Got in contact with them earlier today on the phone and they too thought it might be something wrong with my ATO sensors and I also sent a short video of my sump and ATO reservoir setup as an email and I was also told they would bring this up with redsea so hopefully I will hear back from them sometime next week

 

[Ram419]

I'd be curious to know the outcome. I've had no success with cheaper optical sensors with them having the same issue of going way past the sensors level. I don't use the ATO sensor anymore I just manually turn on the ATO once a day. This is on a small 3 gallon reef only tank so no biggie. I bought a cheap gravity based ATO in case I need to be gone for a while, which I'll probably stick to because the size of the tank is so small.

 

[Blackwater guru]

I'd be curious to know the outcome. I've had no success with cheaper optical sensors with them having the same issue of going way past the sensors level. I don't use the ATO sensor anymore I just manually turn on the ATO once a day. This is on a small 3 gallon reef only tank so no biggie. I bought a cheap gravity based ATO in case I need to be gone for a while, which I'll probably stick to because the size of the tank is so small.

The weird part is that this one was brand new so it must have been some kind of manufacturing defect so hopefully I am able to get a replacement or a replacement sensor sent by mail.

My theory as to why this is happening is that when they calibrated it at the factory something probably went terribly wrong hence why it's always trying to fill up the water level as it always thinks the water level is too low even when it's not and earlier today I tried mixing some extra saltwater and adding that to my sump but nothing changed.