Neptune Atk

[Josh]

I bought this ATO because i had recently picked up an apex classic and figured i would go with the ATK since i can integrate it into my apex.

At first i was in love with this, it offers redundency with 2 sensors and a float valve backup, it has built in technology to learn how long you usually take to fill and all that jazz.

However, the PMUP (not a spelling error) which is their pump they use for it is a total piece of garbage. Mine died a month or two after installing it. I never let it run dry (tho it claims it has protection for this). After some research into why mine failed it became very clear to me that this is a MAJOR problem with the ATK. Some people have taken the pumps apart out of curiosity and found that the motor housing rusts and bows out. Not only do they fail often they are also releasing rust into your ATO water long before they fail.

I have started a RMA with neptune however be warned, despite all the failures you have to send your PMUP in for diagnosis which is a 15$ shipping charge to RMA a 50 dollar PMUP.

I was annoyed enough to review this, hopefully saves you guys a headache.

 

[Josh]

I have more to add, As a temp solution while i wait for the stupid replacement pump i hooked a diff pump and guess what it stayed on \/

The "safety float" which is supposed to shut off the water in the event of a pump staying on, well guess what folks, it does not work at all...... The magnet twisted instead of shutting off and the tank overflow into my electrical last night, im super thrilled this morning. Yes ill admit a chunk of this fault is definitely mine, However what in the flying F*** is the point of an emergency shutoff that will twist instead of shutting the water off.

If you arent sold on not buying 1 of these pieces of S*** please i urge you go a different route.

Luckily enough my GFI seems to have protected my tank, everything is drying right now so i can access the damage.

Not how i wanted to start my morning....

 

[EricTMah]

Yikes!

Sorry about what happened.

I'd say ditch the ato and go a stand alone or even a breakout box and make your own ato. That's how I have mine running and it's worked flawlessly thus far

S8

 

[Amaroq]

While I can't say I've have the bad string of luck you had with your ATK I also bought one a few months ago and will offer my opinion. To date my only ATO before buying the Neptune ATK was a JBJ ATO with dual float switches, never once had a problem with that old JBJ until the wires connecting the floats to the actual unit started to fray and caused the signal to short and not register. I debated between a Tunze and the ATK and ended up going for the ATK as it offered two optical sensors vs one and had two more redundancy stages that the Tunze didn't offer. Since buying the ATK its worked well for me, reliably and consistently. My only gripes thus far is that firstly, the ATO itself fills so damn slowly, its getting to the point I think I'm gonna need to take it out of my sump and check to see if the line is plugged with something. Secondly, it does turn on quite frequently, perhaps I just have a dry house and my tank evaporates a lot but I wish it would fill to the high line on the second optical sensor instead of filling just until the first optical sensor is covered. I realize its supposed to be so that the second eye is a back up, but I'd rather lose that one stage of redundancy for not listening to it kick on every hour. On the flip side having this on a pico/nano tank would be ideal as your going to have very minimal salinity swings.

I did notice that the third backup redundancy float will turn on spot so you do have to make sure its lined up vertically and not at an angle otherwise it won't stop the PMUP, which I assume is what happened to you @Josh .

My only other observation thus far on the ATK and the PMUP is that the PMUP is VERY touchy about being exposed to air. If it isn't inverted once under the water to shake out any air bubbles that might be in the impeller area inside the pump it makes an awful LOUD grinding noise and won't burp itself to get that air out. It will just run until the APEX turns it off entirely because its been running longer then its allowed 5 minutes. Once you've gotten the air out though it runs perfectly again and can barely be heard.

 

[Josh]

Yeah the float twisted 90' and was pointing straight in the air. I also noticed the PMUP moved water super slowly, with a 5min run time i would have it lock out on me from time to time. The only way i knew it was locked up was because my ATO bucket was still at the same level.

You are 100% correct about the air bubbles, i poured water in and the pump wouldn't work after, i thought that was weird so when i took it out bubbles came out like you mentioned and when i plugged it back in it worked, i didnt think much of it but hearing you say definitely confirms that theory.

The pump didnt stop because of human (aka me) error. I used an outlet with a different pump because my PMUP died, it was during that programming that i screwed up. It was piss poor luck on my behalf because i had just swapped out my eb8 and i didnt adjust the programming for the new address, when i hooked it all up the pump didnt run right away, well guess what thats because it was on an old refuge lighting program that ran only at night, so you can probably figure out how this story ended up lol.

Again i cant stress enough that i cannot blame the ATK for the overflow fully, i was just annoyed at the clear lack of build quality.

@Amaroq how thick is the glass/acrylic that you mounted the magnet float on? Mine was 1/2'' glass.

 

[Amaroq]

I have mine on the side of a standard 20 gallon that I'm using as a sump, I find it quite secure but I can actually slide it around a bit without the magnet on the outer side of the tank following or adjusting.

 

[TORX]

There are a lot of people who had the slow fill issue. They found that it was related to the hole where the water came out of. They drilled the hole slightly larger and that fixed the issue. I can not recall the size or how they did it, but I am sure Google will help. I had one that I never had the chance to set up before selling off all my Apex stuff for the big switch to Profilux. I wish I had kept it for the stand alone functions.

 

[Josh]

Adding one of these and im going to mount the ATK float to this somehow (will figure out when i get it) should solve the twisting issues.