Despite being framed in calipers, nothing displays the incredible compactness of the new Smart ATO from AutoAqua like seeing it in person, and holding it in your hands. The new water level sensor and controller of the Smart ATO fit into an impossibly small package which seems to be enlarged just to accommodate the two cables feeding into it for power and control of the feed pump.
The magnetically coupled Smart ATO features three indicator LEDs for power, status and pump activity and another two on the business end for optically sensing the height of water in the sump. The wet-side of the Smart ATO is a simple ring-shaped magnet with a special convex lens for reflecting or diffracting the light of the sensor LEDs in the way that the Smart ATO requires to determine high and low water level.
Priced at $149 with the feed pump the SmartATO is going to be one of the smallest and most affordable Auto TOp Off systems for aquariums. The extremely small size of the SmartATO will definitely appeal to nano aquariums with only a small space in which to install an ATO device, which may only be bested by a new breed of ATO controllers with smaller profile external sensors like the HydroFill and the SmartLevel. It is very exciting to have so many new ATO devices coming to the aquarium market and we only have 30 days to wait before CoralVue begins shipping the SmartATO for the aquarium community to put it through its paces.
