I am now entering my 2nd week of auto-water changes, though I went with the Kamoer this video gave me the idea to look for a system that can do it. It changes 2 gallons a day in my 100 gallon. So far things are looking good.
Im just confused how this doesn’t affect the water level in the return pump section during a change. I would only be able to change maybe a gallon without making my return pump run dry.
Hey I bought this product after watching your video. Not clear on how water changes work in auto mode? I just saw the timer go from 1 hr remaining to 12 hr and no water change. I have ato enabled and i think it works differently when ato is enabled. Can you please explain as the instructions aren’t clear
Hey no worries! The way it works is that in auto made, once the timer has run out (and goes back to 12 hours in your case) the waterchange will initiate and run immediately after the next time the ATO function occurs. If the ATO is disabled, it will run immediately following the timer. If the ATO doesnt trigger within the next 12 hours (unlikely, but possible if you dose a lot and the weather is preventing evaporation), that wont matter either as it will keep a tally, so when it finally does trigger it will run the waterchange X times in order to catchup for however many cycles it missed.
@@farrukh181 No there is no gap and they run immediately one after the other when it is doing a group of consecutive water changes due to missing a number of cycles (this only occurs when the ATO does not trigger for the entire time period of your cycle, such as 12 hours in your case)
I blast my rockwork and any areas that detritus builds up with a turkey baster, and vac a third of my sand every weekly WC. Until i get an automated system that does all that as well, ill continue to lift buckets, sweat and curse every sunday morning
Hi, thanks for the review videos. I bought a similar products after watching this video's. How ever. I would like to use the rigid 1/4 tubing as you described. However I can't fit the anti siphoning tube into it? How did you make yours work? Thanks
I have a question, with the stored salt water would I need to keep a pump in there and a heater to heat and circulate that water? Also with the evaporation the ATO would replenish with RODI as normal, but if I’m going to be changing 1.5% tank water with fresh salt water everyday is it possible that my ATO from the RO stored water not be used as much as I don’t have a lot of evaporation from my tank, I have a glass lid.
When storing salt water, yes it is recommended to heat and circulate it. This helps prevent precipitation and ensures it remains stable for long periods of time. Any cheap wavemaker and heater from ebay will do nicely for this purpose. Auto waterchanges wont effect your ATO or amount of fresh water top off required at all. With the Smart AWC it pauses the ATO function while its actively doing the water change (a few minutes per day..) but outside that the ATO function operates as normal. Although if you have a glass lid on your tank, as you said you wont get much evaporation anyway... although I imagine the salt creep and scum on the lid that builds up is a bit of a pain? Not many people run full glass lids on salt water tanks for that reason.
Great Video, I’m one week into my cycling of a reefer 170. I’m the market for an auto water change system. I’m in Sydney, they go for $420 but if I get in the US via eBay I can get it for $330. Where did you purchase yours and do you still recommend this?
Absolutely still recommend it, mines been running flawlessly since I got it which is nearly a year now. I purchased mine from Reef Galleria Aquarium in south melbourne.
Thanks for the info mate, I had no idea about about the ability to use another pump with this product! Would you suggest daily water changes? I have an IBC, would you then say I should do a once a week 20% ? I have a 130 Gal tank so 20% would be 26 gal a week.... that seems a lot, about 100L
I have been running approx 1.5% waterchanges daily for the majority of my tanks life.... you can dial it in to your tanks needs based on nutrient load and trace element consuption etc... every tank is different
Looking at your sensors placement, does the water level change in that chamber enough to activate the ATO? My sump usually stays the same level, the return pump chamber is the only one that changes. Can you explain in detail where your sensors are placed and why?
This product does both auto water change and ATO duties. So when it’s doing a water change the ATO function is disabled. Best place for the sensors is a location that under normal circumstances has the most consist water level. The high sensor is used for ATO duty when not doing a water change.
@@ReefNerd So only the upper sensor is used for the ATO function. Then what triggers the start of the ATO function & what triggers the stop of the ATO function if the lower sensor is not used?
Not really as I had this setup long before I considered adding a Kore 7th to my tank. If this unit ever fails me I will consider adding the capability to my Kore 7th
Auto waterchanges, a small amount daily, will absolutely increase water parameter stability. It counteracts all movements of parameters as you are continually adding water with perfect parameters and removing water with slightly less than perfect parameters. With a larger water volume, swings in parameters are going to be slower. But in both directions up and down. So if you water changes have the intention of lowering or raising elements (say lowering nitrate and increasing depleted calcium for example) you will need to change comparatively a larger volume of water to move the levels. However it will have taken longer in the first place for those levels to change outside of your desired ranges - assuming a comparison between a small tank and a large tank with the same corals in each. The effect becomes less apparent though as with a larger tank people tend to put in more coral and fish which in turn increases the amount of consumption of elements, addition of nutrients etc.. Sumps are good because the increase the volume of the non-display part of the tank and give you a location to keep noisy/ugly equipment etc...
@@ReefNerd Thanks for your reply. I'm coming from the planted tank side, and just learning before I leap in reefs. I enjoy your videos. If it is correct as you are suggesting, (and it sounds logical) a nano tank could be as stable as a large one.
Yes. However it would not keep running. When it tried to refill and finds that the water level never rises again (because the res is empty). It will trigger an alarm and the unit will beep constantly for attention until you come fix it. Also in my case I get an early warning at the wave maker in my res begins making a lot of noise as the water level drops to expose it.
Can you tell me how does the system work out when to do the ATO top up? Does the ATO use the same sensors that are used to determine the amount of water change required? How does it work exactly? Thanks mate.
Yes it does. The ATO function is part of the unit and works using the same sensors. When the unit is performaing an auto waterchange, the ATO function is disabled, after the autowater change is complete, the ATO function is automatically turned on again.
@@MJSGHK the same sensors used for high and low water level for auto waterchange. The top high sesnor is the normal water level and that is the sensor used for ATO functions. The best chamber of your sump to include the sensors is likely the return chamber, or whichever chamber has the most stable water level under normal tank running conditions
Hi Just got a AutoAqua AWC water change device and anyone steer me in the right direction please ??? I want the Controller to fire 2 water changes per day which in my case =10lt total (between my censers) so I want it to run 7days a week which will give me 70lt per week! So my my interpretation of the Manuel - day needs to be on 1 and hour 12? is this right ? or have I got it ass about face??
The short answer is - it doesnt. You would still need to manually siphon your sump to remove the buildup of detritus - I do this approx once every 6 months. Siphoning substrate (sand) in the display is something that has pro's and con's. For me, I have a pretty thin and light sand substrate in my tank, so siphoning it is less of a big issue and not too important. If you have a deeper sand bed, over a long time period it can become a time-bomb. So the decision is whether you want to leave it and never disturb it or, siphon it regularly and have that as part of your maintenance routine.
@@ReefNerd I was thinking since water changes would be routine, you could siphon from the display into a filter sock in the sump since your not doing this for the wc. Cleaning the sump would be another problem.
Hope I'm not asking too many questions; when I watched this video I saw the potential for it's use with smaller tanks. I also like this system over using dosing pumps, but after doing some research, it seems the AutoAqua Smart AWC has less than stellar reviews for working constantly. Yours is still working good?
I have used mine without any issue for 9 months now. Mine does about a 2.5L water change every day and has done consistently since I installed it. If the pumps fail (they will eventually, they are small and cheap), because the unit powers them via a standard 12v plug, it will be trivial to replace them. Those exact pumps are cheap and easy to buy from ebay etc... however I intend to replace them with high quality 12v peristaltic pumps when they fail instead. Peristaltic pumps may be a little slower, but due to their anti-siphon characteristics there are some advantageous. Again, these can be easily purchased from ebay etc...
Yea I dose lots to my tank! Kalkwasser, 2 part and various amino's and coral supplements. But the auto waterchange is still an important part in maintaining overall stability and buffering the tank against any swings of depletion of things I dont dose
I have been running it for about 2 years now, the pump that does waste salt water out failed (just stopped turning on) only about a month ago. The controller alerted me straight away due to its safety timers (cant run for more than a certain amount of time without triggering the alarm). I already had a replacement ready which I purchased on ebay for $15. I am really happy with that, especially considering my tank has had automatic water-changes for 2 years and I have not had to do a single manual water-change in that time. The stability afforded by daily small water-changes is the one of the single best things I ever did for my tank in my opinion.
I am now entering my 2nd week of auto-water changes, though I went with the Kamoer this video gave me the idea to look for a system that can do it. It changes 2 gallons a day in my 100 gallon. So far things are looking good.
Extremely helpful video. Answered two of my main questions. Thanks.
Glad it was helpful!
Hey Marcus.. Just a quick one, how did you get the John guest fitting on the supplied pumps?
Sweet video, thanks for the shoutout!
Im just confused how this doesn’t affect the water level in the return pump section during a change. I would only be able to change maybe a gallon without making my return pump run dry.
Hey I bought this product after watching your video. Not clear on how water changes work in auto mode? I just saw the timer go from 1 hr remaining to 12 hr and no water change. I have ato enabled and i think it works differently when ato is enabled. Can you please explain as the instructions aren’t clear
Hey no worries! The way it works is that in auto made, once the timer has run out (and goes back to 12 hours in your case) the waterchange will initiate and run immediately after the next time the ATO function occurs. If the ATO is disabled, it will run immediately following the timer. If the ATO doesnt trigger within the next 12 hours (unlikely, but possible if you dose a lot and the weather is preventing evaporation), that wont matter either as it will keep a tally, so when it finally does trigger it will run the waterchange X times in order to catchup for however many cycles it missed.
Thanks for the quick reply. The x number of cycles, is there a gap of certain minutes between these??
@@farrukh181 No there is no gap and they run immediately one after the other when it is doing a group of consecutive water changes due to missing a number of cycles (this only occurs when the ATO does not trigger for the entire time period of your cycle, such as 12 hours in your case)
I blast my rockwork and any areas that detritus builds up with a turkey baster, and vac a third of my sand every weekly WC. Until i get an automated system that does all that as well, ill continue to lift buckets, sweat and curse every sunday morning
Great vid mate!
Hi, thanks for the review videos. I bought a similar products after watching this video's. How ever. I would like to use the rigid 1/4 tubing as you described. However I can't fit the anti siphoning tube into it? How did you make yours work? Thanks
I used two short pieces of soft silicon tubing of an appropriate size to adapt from the John Guest to the anti siphon and back again
I have a question, with the stored salt water would I need to keep a pump in there and a heater to heat and circulate that water?
Also with the evaporation the ATO would replenish with RODI as normal, but if I’m going to be changing 1.5% tank water with fresh salt water everyday is it possible that my ATO from the RO stored water not be used as much as I don’t have a lot of evaporation from my tank, I have a glass lid.
When storing salt water, yes it is recommended to heat and circulate it. This helps prevent precipitation and ensures it remains stable for long periods of time. Any cheap wavemaker and heater from ebay will do nicely for this purpose.
Auto waterchanges wont effect your ATO or amount of fresh water top off required at all. With the Smart AWC it pauses the ATO function while its actively doing the water change (a few minutes per day..) but outside that the ATO function operates as normal. Although if you have a glass lid on your tank, as you said you wont get much evaporation anyway... although I imagine the salt creep and scum on the lid that builds up is a bit of a pain? Not many people run full glass lids on salt water tanks for that reason.
Great Video, I’m one week into my cycling of a reefer 170. I’m the market for an auto water change system. I’m in Sydney, they go for $420 but if I get in the US via eBay I can get it for $330. Where did you purchase yours and do you still recommend this?
Absolutely still recommend it, mines been running flawlessly since I got it which is nearly a year now. I purchased mine from Reef Galleria Aquarium in south melbourne.
Thanks for the info mate, I had no idea about about the ability to use another pump with this product! Would you suggest daily water changes? I have an IBC, would you then say I should do a once a week 20% ? I have a 130 Gal tank so 20% would be 26 gal a week.... that seems a lot, about 100L
I have been running approx 1.5% waterchanges daily for the majority of my tanks life.... you can dial it in to your tanks needs based on nutrient load and trace element consuption etc... every tank is different
Looking at your sensors placement, does the water level change in that chamber enough to activate the ATO? My sump usually stays the same level, the return pump chamber is the only one that changes. Can you explain in detail where your sensors are placed and why?
This product does both auto water change and ATO duties. So when it’s doing a water change the ATO function is disabled. Best place for the sensors is a location that under normal circumstances has the most consist water level. The high sensor is used for ATO duty when not doing a water change.
@@ReefNerd So only the upper sensor is used for the ATO function. Then what triggers the start of the ATO function & what triggers the stop of the ATO function if the lower sensor is not used?
wats up brotha , would you still recommend this system ? thanks !
yea absolutely, its a good controller and great way to automate auto waterchanges. I still run mine.
Excited to try mine out:)
Hope you like it!
Did you consider going with the ATO/AWC modules for the Kore 7th instead?
Not really as I had this setup long before I considered adding a Kore 7th to my tank. If this unit ever fails me I will consider adding the capability to my Kore 7th
I've always heard (and believed) that larger sumps make for more stable water parameters. Does being able to do a water change so often change this?
Auto waterchanges, a small amount daily, will absolutely increase water parameter stability. It counteracts all movements of parameters as you are continually adding water with perfect parameters and removing water with slightly less than perfect parameters.
With a larger water volume, swings in parameters are going to be slower. But in both directions up and down. So if you water changes have the intention of lowering or raising elements (say lowering nitrate and increasing depleted calcium for example) you will need to change comparatively a larger volume of water to move the levels. However it will have taken longer in the first place for those levels to change outside of your desired ranges - assuming a comparison between a small tank and a large tank with the same corals in each.
The effect becomes less apparent though as with a larger tank people tend to put in more coral and fish which in turn increases the amount of consumption of elements, addition of nutrients etc..
Sumps are good because the increase the volume of the non-display part of the tank and give you a location to keep noisy/ugly equipment etc...
@@ReefNerd Thanks for your reply. I'm coming from the planted tank side, and just learning before I leap in reefs. I enjoy your videos. If it is correct as you are suggesting, (and it sounds logical) a nano tank could be as stable as a large one.
What is salt water reservoir runs out? Would it dump out tank water, with nothing to refill?
Yes. However it would not keep running. When it tried to refill and finds that the water level never rises again (because the res is empty). It will trigger an alarm and the unit will beep constantly for attention until you come fix it. Also in my case I get an early warning at the wave maker in my res begins making a lot of noise as the water level drops to expose it.
Can you tell me how does the system work out when to do the ATO top up? Does the ATO use the same sensors that are used to determine the amount of water change required? How does it work exactly? Thanks mate.
Yes it does. The ATO function is part of the unit and works using the same sensors. When the unit is performaing an auto waterchange, the ATO function is disabled, after the autowater change is complete, the ATO function is automatically turned on again.
@@ReefNerd What triggers the ATO process to kick off? And where do you put the sensors? In the return compartment of the sump?
@@MJSGHK the same sensors used for high and low water level for auto waterchange. The top high sesnor is the normal water level and that is the sensor used for ATO functions. The best chamber of your sump to include the sensors is likely the return chamber, or whichever chamber has the most stable water level under normal tank running conditions
@@ReefNerd Cheers.
Late comment but would I have to turn my return pump off while it does the auto water change
Nope. No need to turn off any pumps.
Instructions unclear: put cordial in tank. Fish loved it, though.
Curious...how did you connect rodi tubing to the pump?
1/4" John Guest RODI tubing is a perfect push friction fit inside the nozzle on the pump. So happy co-incidence or maybe by design?
Hi Just got a AutoAqua AWC water change device and anyone steer me in the right direction please ???
I want the Controller to fire 2 water changes per day which in my case =10lt total (between my censers) so I want it to run 7days a week which will give me 70lt per week!
So my my interpretation of the Manuel - day needs to be on 1 and hour 12? is this right ? or have I got it ass about face??
almost, set at 1 day and 12 hour would run it once every 36 hours. you want it set to 0 day and 12 hours, then it will run twice a day
Hi How long salt water can stand in barrel?
With wave maker in.
Thnaks
Functionally if its circulating and heated, it should at least 6 months, but really as long as it doesnt get any light, it should last forever.
How does an AWC system deal with siphoning water out to clean the substrate, or the sump?
The short answer is - it doesnt.
You would still need to manually siphon your sump to remove the buildup of detritus - I do this approx once every 6 months.
Siphoning substrate (sand) in the display is something that has pro's and con's. For me, I have a pretty thin and light sand substrate in my tank, so siphoning it is less of a big issue and not too important. If you have a deeper sand bed, over a long time period it can become a time-bomb. So the decision is whether you want to leave it and never disturb it or, siphon it regularly and have that as part of your maintenance routine.
@@ReefNerd I was thinking since water changes would be routine, you could siphon from the display into a filter sock in the sump since your not doing this for the wc. Cleaning the sump would be another problem.
@@lkctrain some people do this. Make sure the filter sock you are using for this purpose though is a very fine micron filter.
Hope I'm not asking too many questions; when I watched this video I saw the potential for it's use with smaller tanks. I also like this system over using dosing pumps, but after doing some research, it seems the AutoAqua Smart AWC has less than stellar reviews for working constantly. Yours is still working good?
I have used mine without any issue for 9 months now. Mine does about a 2.5L water change every day and has done consistently since I installed it.
If the pumps fail (they will eventually, they are small and cheap), because the unit powers them via a standard 12v plug, it will be trivial to replace them. Those exact pumps are cheap and easy to buy from ebay etc...
however I intend to replace them with high quality 12v peristaltic pumps when they fail instead. Peristaltic pumps may be a little slower, but due to their anti-siphon characteristics there are some advantageous. Again, these can be easily purchased from ebay etc...
@@ReefNerd How's been the reliability?
Do you also dose other stuff or just rely on water changes?
Yea I dose lots to my tank! Kalkwasser, 2 part and various amino's and coral supplements. But the auto waterchange is still an important part in maintaining overall stability and buffering the tank against any swings of depletion of things I dont dose
top
What size tank is that?
Its a 3" tank with some extra depth and height. Neptunian Cube K90. Its about 80 gallons/300 Liters with the sump
More automation, more stuff to go wrong. Reliant on a $30 pump. No thanks!
I have been running it for about 2 years now, the pump that does waste salt water out failed (just stopped turning on) only about a month ago. The controller alerted me straight away due to its safety timers (cant run for more than a certain amount of time without triggering the alarm). I already had a replacement ready which I purchased on ebay for $15.
I am really happy with that, especially considering my tank has had automatic water-changes for 2 years and I have not had to do a single manual water-change in that time. The stability afforded by daily small water-changes is the one of the single best things I ever did for my tank in my opinion.