3 floods in 3 days!!!

[doyle1947]

Ok - I've recently set up a new tank and started the cycling and it's being going well for 2 weeks or so. However in the last 3 days, I've had 3 floods in the house because of my terrible DIY plumbing attempt and general stupidity.

Problem 1 - This happened twice in 2 days - The return pipe which pumps water back from the sump came out of the display tank. The water was therefore pumped out into the living room. Does anyone have any ideas how to secure this in the display tank?? I now have pipe clips and suction caps on order but I'm still worried this won't be enough to stop the pipe 'escaping' again.

Problem 2 - This was the real embarrassment - The final flood occurred as I decided to replace the return pipe for a longer piece in the hope of making it stay in the display. However, this was turned off (not by me) due to the previous days flooding before I had a chance to put a siphon break hole in the pipe. You can guess the rest. Can anyone give me any advice as to how to best make sure this won't happen again size of siphon break hole, amount of holes, placement of holes etc????

Everything is currently off (lights and heaster included) and I'm fed up with it. So much so that I'm contemplating giving it up after about 6 months of reading, building up my equipment and refurbishing the tank and stand!

Any words of encouragement would be appreciated.

 

[MCary]

Words if incouragement huh?

How about this, we learn the most from our mistakes.

Mike

 

[dreams]

i spewed water all over the TVroom, because i forgot to hook the hose onto te back of the tank....so, your not alone

 

[hairymushroom]

at least you didnt have fish or corals , dont give up , this is a great hobby

 

[Rekonn]

Can you tell me more about the kind of plumbing used between your pump and your tank? Is it hosebarb, threaded, or pvc? What kind of pump is it? Do you have bulkheads? Could you post a picture?

Suction cups are doomed to fail eventually, I wouldn't want to use them to perform the critical function of keeping the return pipe in place. Really though, the return pipe shouldn't come loose at all.

Don't give up! Plumbing can be a pain, it's the most boring (at least to me) part of a setup, and yet the most critical. You rarely get it right the first time, especially if you have no prior plumbing experience. In my quest to make things run quietly I've gone through 4 different ways of doing things. You can read about it here if you like.

 

[doyle1947]

I have an Eheim 1250 return pump which uses the eheim flexible piping as the return pipe.

The tank is drilled to about 30mm diameter and I have built a DIY durso (sort of!) standpipe in order to reduce noise and allow more capacity in the internal overflow box.

The return pipe did stay in place for 2 weeks without anything really holding it in place but this was obviously doomed to failure.

The big problem with plumbing my tank is that as it has been custom built by someone and used as marine tank previously, it is very hard to find the correct size parts.

Thanks for the link to your ideas.

 

[Bri Guy]

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=14680&inm=1&N=2004+113833+2035


I use one of these from Drs Foster and Smith. It just hooks on the thank and the weight of the tube holds it in place. Drill a small hole right below the water line when the tank is full. If power outage air will soon be sucked through that little hole and siphon break.

 

[Amador]

What you could do (if you were motivated enough ) would be to keep the spaflex for about 1 or 2 feet, then hard plumb the return up and into the display. That would solve your problem with the hose coming out and spewing water all over the place.

Then drill a couple of 1/8" holes in your return (maybe more, depending on how vigilant you are in making sure the holes stay clear of snails, algae, etc) just below the water line. That fixes your back-siphon problem. The only caveat is to make sure there's enough room in your sump to hold the water that does back-siphon (before it hits the siphon break holes), otherwise your sump will overflow. Also, if you add any rock after you drill the holes and check the sump room, be sure to check it again since the rock will displace some water.

 

[doyle1947]

Another question - since the lights, heater and powerheads have been turned off I've started seeing more and more of these blue starfish-like creatures on the side of the tank.

I'm guessing that these are not good as I'm sure that the general rule is that the only things that generally thrive in poor conditions are bad.

Does anyone have any idea what they are? They're blue on one side and white on the side that's attached to the glass and they seem to be slowly multiplying.

 

[salreus]

how many legs? are they all the same size? I think there is a small starfish that will eat your coral or some of it. I was told they should be removed.

About plumbing. I didn't go a day for about 3 weeks without some kind of water hitting my floor. put it this way. when it was all said and done. I added about 80 gal of water back into my tank.

I think I also read someone had a water sensor that shut off thier return up. sure you would get some water. but it wouldn't go on forever. I need to look into this myself. But if it helps. I was like you and dumps lots of water. And now after I have it set up. I haven't had too many plumbing problems since then. So, I would say that at some point, you will get where you want and the water worries should be less frequent. Then you can move on and worry about other stuff.

 

[doyle1947]

Well the first one that I saw had 6 legs which I found slightly strange. The others that have appeared have varying numbers of legs.

At the moment I've only got live rock in the tank (which is dying off every day I leave the electrical equipment off I suppose) so they may not be a problem for the moment. However, if they are likely to eat everything in sight later on when I do have corals I'd rather remove them now!