Catastrophe barely avoided

C

Charlie's Angel

New member
So I get home today after picking up some frags from Fedex around 5 the tank has half the lights off and it is spitting bubbles. Run to the back and it was flooding. Only lost about 5 gallons. Turns out, the tubing and cap inside the overflows had broken and floated up...hence bioballs had covered the overflow box. Got everything dried, including ballasts, which still work. Need to wait for socket to dry as that got wet and tripped to see if it will work again. I have one main question. I had to pull out all the bioballs and will not put them back. Will this cause a huge problem...I know they are supposed to be removed slowly. I will be adding a water alarm system shortly that will cut the system if it senses water in the overflows reach a certain height.

Man, it has been a wild 3 hours, but could have been worse. Can't wait for pizza night.
 
I wouldn't see the bioballs cause more of an off-balance than say, adding a fish. I guess it greatly depends on how many bioballs we are talking about. Regardless, it will balance itself out in a few days.
 
Thats sucks Charlie you didnt raise the ballasts? I would worry about the salt water corrodien the inner workings of the ballast. I would change out your carbon and start doing water changes.
 
I know...I was going to raise the ballasts this weekend. I did put them on about an inch wood plank but the water poured down the side of the tank and splashed onto the ballasts. The water also puddled right where they were sitting. They didn't seem too wet and two were completely dry. Unbeleivable luck. I am going to call the company tomorrow to see if they will last. I am changing the carbon tonight. Any recs on alarm system that will shut down the tank. Does the aquacontroller have that capability?

Michael...tank is 375 with about 600 total gallons...both overflow boxes were full of bioballs...they filled a 2 long 3 wide and 2 deep box
 
No kidding...what a nightmare...I'll be spending sometime tonight researching a system that will shut down the pumps if this happens to occur again...I had a heart attack when I went downstairs...at least my new frags are doing well...time for a drink
 
:beer: We have the same sized tank!! You have any pictures of your setup?
 
I don't...I'll try and bring some Thursday night. It's a mixed reef with an eighty gallon frag tank, 120 fuge and a sump that holds about ninety but has about 55 in it. Also, have a twenty gallon top off tank the drips into the sump. I am actually redoing the back with some help from some people here and have a 200 gallon sump I got from MS. Waiting on my new skimmer and a few other things before we start. As Fade mentioned in the pizza night thread, I would love to host the group one night after pizza, just have to clear it with my wife.
 
You wish Dert...I am getting a volcano from spazz. I changed carbon, so I should be good. How do I monitor and control the system for water leaks or unusual rise on water level. My new aquacontroller does not appear to have this capability. Do I need a new controller or is there a sensor system that will detect this type of thing and kill the pumps? Can't seem to find anything online.
 
float switches do something that can trigger something to turn on/off I think.
I have heard they aren't extremely reliable.
ideally your system would be set up so something like that isnt possible.
ie. Your return pump pumps enough water into the main tank that Gould one overflow get jammed, the other can handle all of it...
 
Could replace bio-balls with LR rubble. I am running LR in my overflow of a nano at work and have 0 Nitrates, something I haven't been able to do at home running skimmer 24/7. Also running the pre-packaged filter/carbon combo.
 
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