My ato failed sent 10 to 15 gallons into the sump, flooded stand and living room floor. Luckily my sister was here to stop it and I could get off work early. Everything seems to have taken it ok but my 4 stripe damsle, the black color has faded to a hazy black. Will it go back to normal once all peramaters are back to normal for a while? Should I be looking for anything specific? All fish still eating and acting normal.
ATO failed. Fish looks bad.
- Thread starter jon150g
- Start date
Im so sorry. Thats a worst case scenario. Have you had a chance to check your salinity level? Unless its critically low (more than .2 or more (1.025 drop to 1.023) than you usually keep your system at, then you can bring it back up over the next few days.
The fish should be here ok in my opinion, depending on what pump you use for ato the salinity change would have been gradual. Topping off with salt is a good idea. Might want to go ahead and clean your ato float too.
I have been further off when my refractometer drifted. I picked up calibration fluid then just did a couple of water changes over the next couple of days, leaving the water a little on the high side in my sump to evaporate until the salinity returned to normal. If your skimmer will handle it, you can actually calculate how much extra salt water would be needed so the salinity will increase slowly as the excess saltwater evaporates.
The LFS told me to just do water changes as normal until it returns, that was going to take a few weeks, so I sped it up by accounting for evaporation over a few days.
Going the other way to decrease salinity depends on how fast your ATO runs, which may be too fast.
The LFS told me to just do water changes as normal until it returns, that was going to take a few weeks, so I sped it up by accounting for evaporation over a few days.
Going the other way to decrease salinity depends on how fast your ATO runs, which may be too fast.
Hope so, that's one of the first fish in the tank. The ato is a sensor type but I took it out cleaned it off and cleaned all the electric conections, let it all dry and it's been working good. I did drop the amount of top off water to avoid overflowing again.
I should have been more direct. The worst case scenerio I was referring to was the overflow on your floors. The .02 change isnt that bad. I think most of us have gone through it. As others said top off with salt water until its back up to normal.
- Messages
- 828
- Reaction score
- 24
what kind of ATO setup were you using?
Having trouble with mine as well. It's a new unit. But occasionly it will run for a fraction of a second every couple minutes even though the sensor is well below the top of the water as pictured.
alt="20171224_151833" />
