Hydor Smart Level Controller, Automatic Top Off, ATO

First, this product requires the appropriate lifter pump rate for it, I 100% suggest you not shop around and just get the Tom's Aqua Lifter Pump rated at 3.5 gph, which typically sells for around $15 on Amazon. It mates perfectly with this ATO. You will probably not find a cheaper pump that is dependable and matches the gph this ATO needs. Second, the directions that come with this product are horrible. The video provided is moderately helpful, but it makes an assumption that individuals using this ATO are topping off their display tank, or that they have a raised sump. This would negate most siphoning issues most of the reviewers are happening because the setup would inherently have zero siphoning issues. Many of us using this ATO are using it to topoff a sump tank that feeds the display tank and not directly into the display itself. Because of this, most of our sumps are in fact floor level or close to it and therefore you run into issues with gravity fed siphoning. In addition to getting the right pump, you have to understand the correct principles of a siphon. In this case, you DON'T want a continuous siphon to happen, which is the reason for the lifter pump. For those that have used mechanical ATO's with gravity fed topoff tanks, this is literally the opposite principal. First, you want your siphon tube from the water topoff container to be the lowest point in your topoff system. This includes the highest point in this tubing, not just the opening. So if your reservoir tube goes up, which for most of our bucket style toppoff reservoir containers, the tube goes up and out of a drilled opening, this top most part must then be lower than the topoff fill tube side. I am using a New Wave Enviro BPA free 5 gallon water jug for my reservoir and initially, I had the tube coming out of the top cap, which is very high up. In my sump which is a 20 gallon long, this was far too high because it was higher than any point in my sump. To fix this problem, I drilled a hole lower in the jug that was lower than the topoff side. Second, you want the Tom's Aqua Lifter pump to also be higher than your topoff reservoir. This is because there isn't a shut valve in it, so if a gravity fed siphon is started, there is nothing that stops it once it starts even if it is no longer receiving power from the Hydor ATO. The directions try to tell you in a generic picture about this, but doesn't give any descriptions. So to keep it simple, raise your topoff side to include pump higher than your reservoir side tubing. This might be tough for many of us that have your sump at the same level as your topoff reservoir. I had to raise my Aqua Lifter pump using a plant stand to get it higher than the tubing coming from the water jug. This way, once the Hydor ATO senses the max level has been reached, it will shut power to the Tom's Aqua Lifter. Then, the pump is too high to maintain gravity fed siphoning. Also, keep in mind that the fill tube must also be higher than the topmost part of your reservoir feed tube. This wasn't too hard for me because I have the fill tube hanging over the top edge of the sump tank. You don't want the top off tube to be in the sump water. If you have a lower reservoir tank and a taller sump tank, this will probably be an easy setup. Tom's even sells a hanger for the Aqua Lifter pump that lets you hang it on the side of your tank near the top. But for those of us running shorter sump tanks (mine is roughly 14 inches tall), it will take some planning. Another solution, if possible, would be to raise the level of your sump tank. However, my tank was already established and plumbed accordingly, so it would have been a pain to raise it. Once I figured out the correct siphoning, this thing has been a lifesaver. Thanks to all those previous to me that recommended the Tom's Aqua Lifter pump. I love the magnet style sensor attachment, as it works just like my powerhead. I think it is literally the same magnet system as their Hydor Koralia powerhead, so much more reliable than a suction cup. I find that once the temperature based sensor registers that the water level is below the min level sensor, it turns the ATO pump on in about 15 seconds. The Tom's pump trickles the water in my setup, it fills the return chamber of my sump back to max level in a few minutes, not too quick and not too slow. Once registered, it turns off in 15 seconds (approximately). Unless you have a bad siphoning design, this seems to be working flawlessly and I haven't had issues with overfilling. If anything, it keeps the salinity level in a very close range due to such a small fluctuation causing it to fill (if using it to top off a return side in your sump). This is great in keeping stability in your saltwater setup. One thing I don't like is how it doesn't seem to have a secondary backup sensor, so hopefully this electrical type sensor is reliable, I will update with time if it starts to malfunction. So far, it has been running for about a month. I do like how it doesn't rely solely on a mechanical float sensor that can gunk up with salt and get stuck. Also, it takes next to no room in my sump return tank, unlike mechanical sensors and/or float valves. If you are limited on space for your ATO sensor, this is a good choice. In all, highly recommend this ATO. All pieces seem to be of high quality and a very nice and clean design. Update 7/27/18: Now going a few years strong with zero issues. Love this thing! Update 3/16/20: Several years of continuous use, zero issues. I'd have to check the receipt, but I'm guessing I'm at least five years in.

I bought this auto top off in July 2016. It's still running strong and doing great over a year later. Every once in a while, you need to clean off any calcium deposits on it, But that goes for any other auto top off as well for it to function properly. The alarm on it can be a little tricky, if I'm changing the water in the tank and the water level in sump rises, It will set the alarm off (as it should). But, once I restabilize the water level, about the half the time the alarm shuts off on its own, the other half I have to unplug it and plug it back in for it to stop beeping. Not a huge problem overall but sometimes I wish it would always reset itself. Other than that, I love it. When I bought it last year, the price was only $70 and now it's about 100. I'm not sure why the price increase? Maybe The company has established that it's a pretty good auto top off and can sell it for a higher price? Also, I have experience with the Smart brand auto top off. Ive had problems with that particular auto top off pump going bad. Between the two I would definitely pick the Hydor with the toms aqua lifter pump. One more thing, others have commented that the water drops too low before the top off kicks in. My sump has a designated return pump area where the auto top off is, so the water rises and falls much sooner than if I had the auto top off set up in the main display large tank. This would likely happen with any auto top off and I don't feel this is an issue with the actual Hydor auto top off but instead an issue with how others have set it up on their main display tank. UPDATE 11/27/17- I woke up this morning to the hydor beeping. This happens sometimes if I forget the fill the ATO water container and it runs out, but this time the reservoir was full. I found the problem was that the Toms aqualifter pump had a piece of trash stuck in the tubing and it was only pumping a trickle of water. The Hydor ATO has a safety feature so that after the hydor ATO turns on the pump for more than about 7-8 min without the water reaching the top sensor, then the ATO stops the pump and it starts beeping. I cleared out the piece of trash in the tube and the pump worked normal and the whole ATO worked well. So again I am happy with this ATO and it is still going strong. Moral of this update is that if your pump is not strong enough to pump all the water needed to reach the cut off sensor in about 5-8 minutes, then the beeping will continue. I suggest you have a sump with a designated return pump section where the ATO goes so the pumped in water will fill within the time frame, but also not a pump so strong that fills so quickly that the pump reaches the top sensor too fast and sets off the overfill alarm. The pump has got to be just right. Update 7-23-19 After owning this auto top off for three years now, it still works perfectly. I have a modified bean animal type drain from my reef tank into my sump which keeps the water level very stable in the sump other than evaporation. Still using the toms aqua lifter pump and I’m on my second one still going strong. I’m considering upgrading my reef tank from a 180g to possibly a 300 gallon in the next year and I will probably keep using the hydor as my auto top off. If it ever does fail I will try to get back on here and update the review Update 4/16/20 I decided to get out of the hobby. Too busy with work and kids. This ATO worked well for me the nearly 4 years I was in the hobby of salt water tanks. I have cleaned it up and will be selling it to someone in my reef club in an hour. Sad to see it go but it worked well for me.

Worked for almost 18 months. Stopped working while we were out of town for a week. Couldn't figure out why, as the sensor was clean and unit didn't have any obvious problems. It kept failing at irregular intervals with a beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-beep... Nothing about that "signal" in the manual. The company never responded to the requests I left on their Web site. Finally got a response to e-mail. The unit was still covered by the 2 year warranty, so I paid to ship it to them... and heard nothing. They didn't respond to the request I left on their Web site for status. They didn't respond to my e-mail. They didn't respond to my voicemails. They did ship me what appears to be a new unit, but since I didn't know it was coming, I'd purchased a different ATO, as I was only willing to wait in the dark for so long.

Recently installed, so far so good. The water level hasn't yet dropped enough for it to kick in, but during the test the pump did turn on. Might have to play with the height placement of the Sensor, so will keep an eye on it. Just one thing, the double sided tape that's on the cable clips don't stick to glass. Thought it was faulty, so went and bought new tape, same result. You might have to stick it on the wall if the tank is close enough to it. UPDATE - The Tom Aqua Lifter pump recommended to go with this System isn't cutting it. The return tubing between the pump and the aquarium is 12" now, it was at 30" before and still not doing the job. The Controller's 10 minute pump cut off is kicking in before even a quarter of the top up water gets from the reserve tank to the aquarium. We are talking about a 12 gallon aquarium here folks, not 100. Half of a gallon of water is needed to get the level back to normal. Of course when this happens the alarm goes off and in order to get water flowing again the Controller has to be turned off and on again. Can't do this if you're not home, this defeats the purpose of having an ATO. Furthermore, the sensor on the system is MORE designed for a sump rather than an aquarium. The water level drops too far below the "Min" sensor before the pump turns on. Depending on your brand of aquarium, by this time the water level might be below the aquarium's intake/overflow chamber, so you know there could be problems. For this reason, I have to mount the Sensor on my aquarium higher out of the water than it should be, so I can't even use the "Alarm" part of the sensor, that is sitting way above the rim of the tank, so water will never touch it. My humble opinion is that the activation distance between the "Max" and "Min" sensors should be less. The pump should immediately turn on just as the water level drops below the "Min" sensor. As it is now, it has to drop a bit further. UPDATE 2 - Just ordered this pump. Might as well get it over with. AQUANEAT 265 GPH Submersible Water Pump Adjustable Powerhead Aquarium Fish Tank Fountain Hydroponic UPDATE 3 - The pump is working great. It is set to the minimum flow rate with a head of 3 feet and the half gallon of water is transferred in forty five seconds using 5/16 ID tubing. UPDATE 4 - Been running the ATO now for 11 days with the new pump. All was going well until today (21/10) when just out of the blue the Alarm on the Hydor went off. Not a good sign. This should only happen if the water level has reached the Alarm Sensor, or the pump is not connected, neither of which is the case. This went on for an hour, then finally stopped. I too old for this kind of stress :) If it happens again, I'm sending a video to Hydor. Stay tuned! UPDATE 5 - It did happen again, for a few days. Sent an email to Hydor with a video which the person didn't watch. Offered to send me a new one. I declined. Not going to pay Air Freight charges and Customs Duty again. Two days after that correspondence, the Alarm going off for no apparent reason stopped. It's been 11 days now and not a peep out of it. Guess whatever was bugging it gave up. At the end of the day the Controller works quite well, so going to stick with it.

Over the years I have owned not only Hydor, but Tunzee, JBJ, and AutoTopOff.Com ATO's. Hydor's product I would have to say is the worst of the bunch and after having one on a reef tank for over a year, finally replacing it with a far better alternative, here is my reasoning: - Water Level Sensors held by a magnet The Sensor is nothing more than a magnet stick it and go, simple right? Unfortunately this is not the case, if working on the tank and the cord gets moved the Sensors will adjust vertically, the Hydor is smart in catching this, actually smarter than you catching it and will simply not pump any water till you figure out what happened and adjust it. This also does not account for a specific height unless you clearly mark or measure out where you want that level to be, otherwise it's a magnet good luck remembering the exact position when it gets moved. - Water Level Sensors Lag in reading Unlike traditional float switches the Water Sensors that should be better labeled as Temperature Sensors have an additional lag in detecting when the water has reached the designated level, in such the water will continue filling well above the sensor before shutting off, this of course can be fixed by using something like the Aqualifter to trickle the water, but again just another annoying feature that requires several band-aid's out of the box to enjoy leading me to the next big issue - Obnoxious alarm system If the Water goes above the Sensor an Alarm will sound! Remember our lag in detection? Well then it should be no big surprise the alarm is always going off!! In less than a month I had disassembled the device and un soldered the alarm. - Inconsistent readings and long wait times I have the ATO plugged in through an Apex, as well this power switch is connected to a Break out box, so when doing a water change I Can simply flick a toggle and it shuts the device off. Sometimes I forget to flip the toggle switch back on. When noticing this I of course expect to turn it on, have the ATO recognize the water level is not where its supposed to be and immediately take action... nope! It's hit and miss. If the ATO finally notices the water level isn't correct it will be about 5 minutes upon powering on, otherwise it simply wont figure it out and will require flipping it on an off again. While there are several other reasons I have grown to dislike this product, those would be the biggest. As I stated in my title the Product by all means works, but requires additional attention and supervision, but then why bother with an ATO? I thought the purpose was to no longer have to worry just knowing the device does it's job. To anyone looking I would save your money and purchase a double float switch from AutoTopOff.Com, Simple, basic, and works without any additional frustrations.

I was tired of adding fresh RO water in my Sump almost daily. My 75 gallon evaporated fast. I researched ATO systems on youtube and this setup was one suggested. What I did: I have a 5 gallon bucket of RO water beside my aquarium. I drilled a hole near the very top rim to place airline tubing in, and used the included tubing holder (via sticker) to the tube to keep it from floating around. It pulls water from the bottom. I use the suggested water lift pump (Tom) to pump it into my sump. I plugged it into the electric outlet that is connected to this hydor controller. Also out of the controller there is a sensor. I installed it very easily via the glass magnet inside my sump at my desired water level. It has 3 sensors, an overflow if it goes too high (and it alarms), and a middle one that communicates when to turn the power on to the toms top off pump, and a low level sensor which also alarms. The alarms are a great plus! If my return pump was to quite working and the sump begins to fill up it will alarm, and if I lose overflow suction and the sump tries to pump dry it alarms. It will catch either of these with the alarm way before they become a problem. But the main reason I have it is it is a great inexpensive way to have an ATO. Now my protein skimmer works phenomenally because of an exact constant sump water level, my salinity doesn't do two day cycles of high and low due to the lack then addition of RO water, and lastly, no more bending down and pumping water in my sump from 5 bucket every two days! I can just add water to that RO water bucket once a week! I can go on small vacations finally along with using an auto feeder for my FWLR tank!

Seems to be made of quality material. I like the LED light indicators and alarm. I like the three level indicators. I like the fact there are no moving parts to the sensors. I really like the magnetic suctions cups. As previously mentioned the sensors take a few seconds to register and this is at each stage. You must make sure the top off hose cannot siphon tank water back. I only have a few things that I think could improve it. 1. Allow for adjusting distance between sensors or 2. Allow for delay setting of alarm trigger or 3. Allow for audible alarm to be turned off. My reasoning is that there is great variability to the flow from each consumers pump, yet this ATO requires a specific refill rate range. Too slow and alarm will go off and require manual reset for pump to work again. I usually use a TOMS lift pump but it was too slow and alarm triggered requiring reboot of system. Too fast and alarm triggers until water returns to below alarm sensor. Only a problem if you sitting nearby listening to alarm. It's great to have these feature to protect from flooding and pump damage but if I'm gone and pump is disabled I have a new problem. It's too much effort to add valves to change pump flow. At least if you need plug and play which this is capable of giving you. Overall I'm very happy with the system so far. I'll up date if anything changes. It's amazing how you can have delivery of an item to your door within hours of ordering it. I was in a bind because I needed to leave for vacation and my top off system broke. I needed to replace it quickly with an affordable and reliable system so I ordered this. So far I'm impressed.

I have had this product for about 2 years. Last week it started acting up. The controller started beeping wildly and stopped topping water off on the tank, like the sensor went bad or something? So I cleaned the sensor to the best of my ability just to make sure (It was already clean but figured I would try anyways) then I cleaned the sensor cable itself and made sure it was not touching anything all the way up to the controller. The controller has never gotten wet and looks to be perfect. Anyways I verified the locations of the sensor and verified the pump was ok and plugged everything back in and powered it up. Now the thing is putting in so much water that it has caused major salinity fluctuations!! This thing is VERY DANGEROUS if you have a reef tank. It's time to invest in an osmolator if you have coral. Coral CANNOT BE SUBJECT TO SALINITY SWINGS OR YOU WILL LOSE EVERYTHING!! Higher price ATO units are costly but if you have coral then the cost of losing coral is an easily justifiable reason to invest in the cost. The sensor is not replaceable which is also unacceptable. This thing worked great for a while... I was starting to think it was dependable but now it is failing hard after only 2 years. Just don't let the price fool you... get something better or you will regret it in the end. If you have a fish only maybe take the gamble. If reef skip it! Koralia has really been producing bad stuff lately. I'm switching to another manufacturer for water flow and other tank accessories. This review is coming from an sps / lps 10 year experienced reef aquarist. I'm done with ANYTHING Koralia from here forward.

I've been using this for a few months now and haven't had any issues that weren't my fault. I'm using it with an Aqualifter pump with good success, but I've had to minimize the amount of travel because otherwise it takes too long to fill and the alarm goes off. The smaller the return pump section of your sump the less problem you will have using an aqualifter. Also, make sure that the line going to your tank isn't lower than the water level in your reservoir, or else it will siphon and you will have an issue.

Equipo automatizado que opera de forma efectiva manteniendo siempre el nivel adecuado de agua en mi acuario ( del agua que se pierde por la evaporación) , vale la pena indicar que adicionalmente se debe adquirir una bomba que opera en conjunto con este sistema de control de niveles de agua

Es un excelente rellenador para mi pecera de agua salada, así puedo salir tranquila de vacaciones sabiendo que mi pecera no se quedará sin agua

Works well and love the alarm 10x better then float switches

Este controlador no sirve, no se detiene la bomba. Haré la devolución.