New Details Emerge on the "Intelligent" ATI PowerCone

A couple of weeks ago, we discovered a few updates coming to the revised PowerCone from ATI. Most of the updates were a bit vague, hinting at an intelligent line of skimmers. We’ve finally managed to gather a few more details about the progress on the skimmer. Before I dive into the updates, I wanted to clarify that the crew at ATI was very happy with the initial PowerCone, but felt it still wasn’t enough.

So how did they beef up a protein skimmer that already stepped so far from tradition? For starters, they’ve swapped the stock pump with a controllable pump. This pump, which will be fitted to “I Series” PowerCone skimmers, is adjustable from 1500-3000 lph (or roughtly 395 gph to 790 gph). The brand and model of the controllable pump have yet to be released, but from what I’ve been told, it can be controlled manually or via PC, and eventually the Internet. The latter of the three has yet to be implemented, but recognizing potential growth, ATI made sure the controllable pump had an SPI interface (or Serial Peripheral Interface Bus).

Keep reading below for more features of this controllable pump.

Additional features of the controllable pump:

Integrated Soft Start

With the soft boot, rotor startup issues are a thing of the past. With the soft start, the rotor is also protected.

Monitoring Function

During normal pump operations, if the pump experiences air blockage the pump will shut off. The pump will restart when the issue has been resolved, and it operates independently of the “Soft Start” feature.

Adjustable Pump Output

The pump output can be adjusted from 50-110%. With this feature, aquarium hobbyists can adapt the PowerCone to the needs of the aquarium and whatever changes may occur.

Integrated Air Flow Meter

The last major feature of the new intelligent PowerCones is the integration of a digital air flow sensor. This digital sensor has almost no air resistance and allows users to monitor the performance of the skimmer.

As with all updates, these are probably not the last we’ll see. ATI has promised a few more details, as well as video and photos, of this new skimmer. We’ll keep posting these updates as they emerge.