Tank disaster! What happened with my new tunze osmolator?

[giants4pc]

I hooked it up last time and waited for two test runs. Sure enough, when the water level was low, the electronic sensor signaled the controller and kalk water ran into the tank and shut off when the level was reached. I observed this twice to be sure. The only thing that struck me was the delay. When the light came on the controller for LEVEL, the pump had a delay of about 3-4 seconds.
This morning I woke up to a loud signal and a tank of pure white kalk! What a mess! I instantly did a 40 gallon water change and removed the excess 20 or so gallons of kalk that entered the tank. I still cannot see what went wrong as I tested again and it worked accordingly. Everything is still in place and the pump started and stopped when it was supposed to. I thought this was the most reliable on the market. The only thing I can think of is maybe I didn't match up the wires accurately on the pump to controller. I currently have the blue leading up to the red line and the brown with the black. Maybe I'm an idiot, but the directions stink and the mounting bracket hardware is a joke. Here are pics: Any help?

[giants4pc]

Even though I may have messed up the colors, if it works that should mean I did so correctly, right? This doesn't make any sense. I may lose years of hardwork now because I tried to make things easier. Hopefully 20 gallons of kalk in a 120 gallon system isn't enough to destroy.

[giants4pc]

Another possibility????
I had my heater directly underneath the electronic eye. Could that have thrown things off? The directions say not to put anything magnetic with 20cm of the safety float...not mention of what to avoid with the magnetic eye. I'm just speculating.

I just tested again and it works perfectly. What the heck happened?

[colorfan45]

was your water line below the water line. Had that problem once and it would pumd then when the pump stopped it would cerate a syphon back to Top off container,taking water from the tank therefore making the top off to have to pump again starting the whole sequence again and again. Just a thought.

[giants4pc]

NO - I purposely have the supply line well above the water line because I feared that. The only reason it stopped pumping last night is because of the safety feature - when the pump runs for 10 minutes, it automatically shuts off.

[GSMguy]

Colorfan is right is the feed line from the osmolator submerged?

[GSMguy]

Did it raise the water in your sump above the optical eye?

I just don't get it, unless you heater was blocking the optical eye but still the saftey float switch should have activated after a few extra gallons. Why is the float switch so high? Put it right above the opticcal eye.

[klasiksb]

How much kalk is it topping off at a time? Perhaps the osmolotor worked just fine, but the amount it adds at a time is too much?

You didn't mention if your water level in the sump was higher than it should of been, meaning the switch failed. If the water level was right, probably too much kalk, too fast.

[giants4pc]

Everything was positioned right - the supply is 10 inches above the water level. Again, I tested it twice before nighttime and several times this morning and it worked fine everytime.

I agree the float switch should be lower, but the directions state to put it higher than the sump level would be if the return pump stops - that is where it should be. Nothing is interfering with the optical eye. I don't know if this was just a fluke or what but something went wrong.

[giants4pc]

Also, if it works accurately, it shoudn't be dumping more than a few cups worth of kalk at a time. That's why its a disaster.

[Runfrumu]

If it is near a skimmer or anything else with mirco-bubbles they will build up on the eye and cause it to think it is not in water. Mine done that when it was new, the oil's on the plastic cause the bubbles to stick.

give the eye a vinegar bath to remove the oil and try putting it somewhere without mircobubbles.

[AcroporAddict]

Originally posted by giants4pc
Everything was positioned right - the supply is 10 inches above the water level. Again, I tested it twice before nighttime and several times this morning and it worked fine everytime.

I agree the float switch should be lower, but the directions state to put it higher than the sump level would be if the return pump stops - that is where it should be. Nothing is interfering with the optical eye. I don't know if this was just a fluke or what but something went wrong.

Your water supply should be below the sump water level, the water line into the sump should be above the water line, and you need a check valve between the osmolator pump and the sump, preferably between the pump and your kalk.
Dave

[IamBIGGUN]

If the kalk is above the tank water then when the kalk starts running wouldn't it fill the line and cause a siphon once the pump shuts off? Then it would empty the whole container into the tank.

Never used an osmolator so just thinking out loud here.

Kevin

[AcroporAddict]

Originally posted by GSMguy
Did it raise the water in your sump above the optical eye?

I just don't get it, unless you heater was blocking the optical eye but still the saftey float switch should have activated after a few extra gallons. Why is the float switch so high? Put it right above the opticcal eye.

You want the float switch a decent length above the optical eye because if it is just above the eye it will go off every time you turn the return pump off and water collects in the sump.

Also, don't worry about the color wires for the power supply to the pump: it is a 12 volt system so either way works. It doesn't have a positive-negative orientation like our household systems. Either way works
Dave

[wrightnow]

I have had problems with back siphoning also, and it would only happen when my topoff water barrel was complete full, so now I have my topoff return gong into my overflow box on the tank and it's work great since.

[ammiller2]

I think I see your top-off water line feeding into your sump right near the electronic eye? Is that the case? If so the eye can get clouded with kalk residue (Osmolator manual calls it "furred") and it can no longer sense water level.

I had this same problem and since routed my top off line into my display tank and haven't had a problem since. Also, I put the safety shut-off float valve on a separate rail in my sump so it is about 3" above the electronic eye, thereby ensuring if the electronic eye fails that it won't pump to much top off kalk water in. I have to unplug the entire Osmolator every time I do a waterchange to avoid the alarm, but I fell safer this way.

[kmu]

I was thinking of getting a tunze osmolator to dose kalk but after this, Im a bit worried since my tank is alot smaller 34g and a problem like this would kill my tank very fast...

[96p993]

www.autotopoff.com for me...thanks for helping me decide.

[jdrabek]

I agree with GSMguy. Drop your float switch closer to the optical sensor. You dont want to introduce that much fresh water in case the optical fails.

My float is less than an inch above the optical sensor.

[shawnz28]

There are two possible causes.

If the water stopped pumping wen the white float tripped it could be caused by air bubbles on the eye as it cannot tell the difference between bubbles and being out of the water. When they are new bubbles will attract to the new plastic for a bit earier than normal. Once broken in it is very rare.

Second scenerio is if the water raised past the float as well it was a siphoning problem. The output of the hose must be higher than the level of the containers the pump is pulling from. It is recommended that the water is pumped into the display tank and not the sump for this reason.

I am guessing scenerio two as the osmolator also has a 3rd failsafe which is that it cannot pump longer than 10-15 minutes before it will shut down requiring a power cycle to restore. It in which time it can only pump a few gallons in that amount of time

One last thing is the controller box can be effected by magnetic fields and interference if it is setup near things like a halide ballast etc.. as the switches inside the box are magnetic

[cpllongjk]

Is your top off water container higher than the sump tank?

If thats the case then starting the pump will create a siphon with the tubing causing all the water to drain into your tank. Your osmolator pump must be below the outlet of your top off water.

[hredder]

I purchased the same osmolater last week..the first few hours it seemed fine..next thing it did was pump all 5 gallons of ro water into the sump..i thought it was broken..it wasnt..all i did was move it..it was too close to the outflow of the skimmer. now all is fine. i had it pump 5 gallons of kalk into my tank. i tested ph it was 8 everything is fine. Its the best 200 dollars i spent. I think alot of people who purchased the ATO have experienced what we went through. Those microbubbles can really confuse the electronic eye..just move the rail to where theres no bubbles and where there not alot of water movement in the sump. To make sure that it was not my tunze gone bad, i just used ro water in a 5 gallon bucket and put the rail into an empy 5 gallon turned it on, watched it fill the empty 5 gallon till the eye and waited overnight. next morning everything was fine. that concluded it wasnt the tunze but my location of the eye in the sump!

[8BALL_99]

I don't know IMO if your going to spend that much on a ATO I'd just get an Aqua Controller JR or if you can swing it a AC3.. Thats what I use along with float switches.. Not only does it go off the float switches but its only allowed to dose kalk at night and only for 10 mins every hour AND only if ph is below 8.3. I Think this is a much safer setup when dosing Kalk through a ATO. Ofcourse the above is just stuff I set. You could program it to do what every you wanted. I run two Kalk stirrers with the above setup and have done so for a few years with out a single issue. BTW another safety is to reduce the output of the kalk to a very slow trickle to help reduce ph spikes. Just my .02 on it.