Your experience with Tunze "top off" Osmolators

[LeeMc]

Seems like a trick design with optical vs. float sensors. Please share your experiences...the good, bad and the ugly. Thx..

[hatfielj]

I just set one up on my new 120gal and I love it. It works like a charm and the water alarm feature is really nice because it tells me if my sump is filling up too high when I turn the return pump off or something like that. Its very nice not having to top off water by lifting 5 gal containers anymore.

[marcrothschild]

I have had one for 3 years with no problems. I clean the sensor every so often with a tooth brush. Never a failure.

[xcreonx]

I've been using one for almost 4 years with absolutely no issues. I did replace the pump once, but it was cheap at marine depot. I also clean the sensor every 6 months or so. Worth the money, in my opinion.

[LeeMc]

Mucho gracias -

[antonsemrad]

Mine has worked with no issues for three years now. I have an extra pump, but the old one keeps on a ticken.

The thing is kind of expensive, but works well.

If I had to do it over, prob just use a litermeter or some such.
The osmolator cant dose kalk.

[MadTownMax]

another vote for a peristaltic pump (like the litermeter) I had the osmolator and the fast top-off nuked my tank (kalkwasser) - the switches did not fail, but an overflow on a connected refugium told the osmolator to keep going until it dosed 8 gallons of kalk into a 30-gallon tank - this is not possible with a peristaltic pump, not to mention there is the least pH impact with constant top-off

[gcarroll]

8 gallons, my osmolator would not dose moe than 3 gallons woithout the safety switch shutting down the system. were you using a bigger pump than the one that came with it?

[crab0000]

Mine has worked flawlessly for 2-3 years. One of the best purchases I have made for my tank!

[JayB1224]

Mine has worked without problem since it was installed. I have not touched it since i have set it up except to clean the sensor but it was not dirty. The only ato i would ever buy for another tank.

[Ixthys]

My original pump failed immediately. The replacement has worked great for the last 2 years.

[mc-cro]

I have had my unit for about 4yrs. couldnt be happier. And the customer support is top notch.

I have had a pump burn out, but that was becuase I was back siphoning kalkwasser from the reactor everytime it shut down. (my check valve was clogged and I didnt know it) but Roger from tunze sent me one out right away with no problem.

As for overdosing kalk, I have had it happen. twice. The first time it happened, it was directly my own fault. I had unplugged the unit while doing a water change and forgot about it for a couple of days. When I noticed it later, I plugged it in and didnt think much about it until I saw the cloudy water. The pump turned on to replace the evaporated water, and timed out. but after running for 10minutes, it had already overdosed.

the second time was after a long power outage at the house. We had been out of power for 3 or 4 days, and the power kicked back on while we were gone, needless to say, again the pump kicked on and overdosed trying to replace evaporated water.

Both times could have been prevented if I had been a little more aware.

One of the best purchases I have ever made for my tank.

[Donw]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9384206#post9384206 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LeeMc
Seems like a trick design with optical vs. float sensors. Please share your experiences...the good, bad and the ugly. Thx..

I dont have a tunze but I have used opticals for a long time. They are definatly superior to float switches for this application.

Don

[BreadmanMike]

I love my osmolator. I'd recommend it! :)

[MadTownMax]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9388823#post9388823 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gcarroll
8 gallons, my osmolator would not dose moe than 3 gallons woithout the safety switch shutting down the system. were you using a bigger pump than the one that came with it?

I left for work at about 8am - returned at noon to grab my bags before leaving for a flight - by that time it had dosed all 8 gallons - if the safety switch turned it off after 3-gallons that still would have nuked the 30-gallon pretty well.

If there is some sort of safety mechanism to totally shut-down the system, it didn't in this case.

I think that for top-off, it is a good solution, but for dosing kalk - I would go with something with a slower dosing rate that would be more appropriate to not change pH.

For the cost of the osmolator - a peristaltic pump is almost identicle, and does not have any chace for over-dosing due to a sensor malfunction - I have my rate set to about one drip every 2 seconds....

[bureau13]

THere is supposed to be a 10 minute shut-off. Not sure how many gallons would be doesed in 10 minutes, but the included pump seems fairly slow.

The only problem I've ever had was when I failed to clean the optical sensor for...well, forever :D and it got so gunked up it didn't know the water level was dropping. Now every so often I swish it around in vinegar, and I have had no further problems.

jds

[moonpod]

i dunno about Max's experience. I use the tunze osmolator connected to a solenoid which controls my RO/DI. My nilsen is inline. Like GCarroll I'd have to say it's sort of Max's experience is weird b/c the thing has a 10 minute cutoff which limits the amount of water that can actually be added to the system. Wipe the sensor off every so often and the thing is pretty darn fool proof IME. I've been using one since 2003 w/o issue. Now granted I have a pretty big system volume currently, but previous systems have not been as large and haven't had issues.

[crab0000]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9395812#post9395812 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MadTownMax
I left for work at about 8am - returned at noon to grab my bags before leaving for a flight - by that time it had dosed all 8 gallons - if the safety switch turned it off after 3-gallons that still would have nuked the 30-gallon pretty well.

If there is some sort of safety mechanism to totally shut-down the system, it didn't in this case.

I think that for top-off, it is a good solution, but for dosing kalk - I would go with something with a slower dosing rate that would be more appropriate to not change pH.

For the cost of the osmolator - a peristaltic pump is almost identicle, and does not have any chace for over-dosing due to a sensor malfunction - I have my rate set to about one drip every 2 seconds....
Did you have the back-up safety sensor in place? If so I don't see how it could have overdosed. A dosing pump is fine if your eveporation rate doesn't change, but mine does from day to day depending on how hot it is and how long my cooling fan stays on.

[ralphie16]

the pump shuts off in 10 min, and I measured the amount it doses in this time: ~2.4 gallons. ask roger at tunze and he'll tell you the same thing. maybe you created a siphon by having the end in the water in the sump instead of above it. did that happen? because that would explain why it kept going.

[Mogrash]

I have an osmolator as well and have had no problems with it. I would not suggest using it for kalk top off. I only use it for evaporation replacement. I prefer a slow steady drip for kalkwasser which is done better with a peristaltic pump.

[bureau13]

As long as you have it configured so that it tops off a small volume of water at a time relative to the total volume in your tank it works just fine running through a kalk reactor. If your sump is set up such that a small change in water level corresponds to a large volume of water relative to your total tank water, then in that case you probably shouldn't use it with kalkwasser, but otherwise it works great.

jds

[LeeMc]

Perhaps I am not understanding the limewater OD issue - for those with that experience vs. using it soley to compensate for evaporation I presume the osmolator was being used to supplement Calcium in the top off tank?

[macawdad2003]

I have the osmolator set up in my 75 and has been running about a month. It's awesome. The only drawback is the pump is a bit noisey. I have it in my bedroom and the rest of the tank is silent. Then the osmo pump will kick on and it makes a buzz/humm. Now, that buzz/humm is pretty quiet by some standards but it does wake me from time to time :)

Great unit.

[Philwd]

Love my osmolator. Only issue I've had is my original pump gave out after 2 yrs which is expected but the replacement only fills at about 1/4 the rate the original did. So occasionally it will time out trying to top off. I have a new pump to swap out so I'll see if it makes a difference.

I also have the Litermeter 3. I agree with the others it is better for kalk as it's design does not lend itself to overdosing

[carlos_fb]

I love my osmolator too, very nice unit. The only complain I have is that the pump is kind of noisy, is that normal?

[MadTownMax]

I think y'all are mis-understanding how I dosed so much top-off - I had a refugium connected to the system that overflowed onto my floor when a sea cucumber climbed into the drain and plugged it......

The osmolator did not malfunction in any way - it did it's job - the water level was low, so it pumped water up to the tank to replace it. Water never reached the secondary sensor.

The osmolator topped-off up to the set-level, my refugium dumped more water onto the floor, the osmolator topped-off, the refugium dumped more water onto the floor... over and over until it had dosed all 8 gallons.

Here's a few other situations where this could happen - your tank gets a small crack, your skimmer overflows, your calcium reactor leaks - in any case, your tank starts to lose water much faster than normal - IF - you have this type of "small leak" in your system somewhere, the osmolator will dose until it reaches the same water level that you have it set at.


This could be avoided by connecting the osmolator to a timer or something - but my simple solution to avoid any more of Murphy's Laws is to just use a peristaltic pump...

sorry for any confusion :(

[crab0000]

Ohhh, I see now. Sorry to hear about your mishap!

[gcarroll]

Thanks for explaining that Max, I now understand. Were you using the Tunze Calcium dispenser for the kalkwasser or were you just adding it right to the reservoir?

[MadTownMax]

I had the kalkwasser in a bucket - the outlet was above the water so there was no back-siphoning. The pump worked great for over a year - never had a problem with it

[Emster]

I have my osmolator plugged into my PH controller. If the PH spikes like max is talking about it shuts it off until the PH drops.I'm not using my controller for my reactor so this works for me. I love it.

[bureau13]

Mine is a bit noisy as well. Fortunately it never runs very much at one time.

jds

[skyfireblaze]

I just hooked mine up last night, and I have to admit that I really like it.

[Mogrash]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9397451#post9397451 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ralphie16
the pump shuts off in 10 min, and I measured the amount it doses in this time: ~2.4 gallons. ask roger at tunze and he'll tell you the same thing. maybe you created a siphon by having the end in the water in the sump instead of above it. did that happen? because that would explain why it kept going.
Well 2.4 gal of Kalkwasser could do some serious damage in a smaller aquarium, possibly even in a large aquarium.

I honestly believe it should be left as a water evaporation tool only, not a kalkwasser dispenser. Either use a gravity feeding method or peristaltic pump for kalkwasser. MUCH safer.

[Mogrash]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9403094#post9403094 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Emster
I have my osmolator plugged into my PH controller. If the PH spikes like max is talking about it shuts it off until the PH drops.I'm not using my controller for my reactor so this works for me. I love it.

If you aren't using it for your reactor why would the pH change from adding water? Seems unnecessary. Or did you mean to say you have your reactor plugged into your pH controller? That would make more sense...

[bureau13]

I do the same thing. I think. What I think he meant was he has the reactor simply running, and the top-off runs through it. If the pH spikes, the controller shuts down the top-off. If it were to shut down the reactor, that would really just mean shutting down the mix pump or stir bar....top-off water would still stir it up and dispense kalkwasser into the tank in that case. Of course, this is all moot if you're not running your top-off through your reactor.

jds