Could have been worse I guess.....

[sal-t-dawg]

Today I came home to find that my HOB skimmer (my best guess) had overflowed and shorted out my surge protectors. And also ran about 20 gallons of water into my carpet and hardwood floors. Now my floors are buckling and cracking. I am doing everything that I can to get the water out of my carpet. Man this sucks! It could have been much worse I suppose. But very discouraging none the less.

 

[NeveSSL]

Wow... I think the only thing worse was if you had happen what firehazzard had and the surge protectors caught fire.

Sorry to hear that, man. That's pretty tough.

Brandon

 

[commonstranger]

You may already know but if not cut the air down getting to it. Should prevent this next time unless it was just full and ran over. I am assuming that wasnt the issue.

 

[MVlk]

Very rough... Let me know if there is anything you need help with.

 

[sal-t-dawg]

This is what I am figuring happened......Its the CPR backpack skimmer. The return was pumping a lot of bubbles back into the tank. In an attempt to cut down on the bubbles, I put a piece of floss inside the skimmer just in front of the return pipe. Best that I can figure is that the floss may have gotten enough matter built up in it to block just enough water flow and caused the skimmer to backup. Im not going to use that skimmer any longer. I am going to pick up an overflow box and get my sump hooked up a.s.a.p. Which leads me to two questions. Being as that I am going to use a hangon box, how do I hook up the return and what is the best way to setup the sump to make sure that if anything happens, such as power failure and what not, that the syphon does not overflow the sump?

 

[sal-t-dawg]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14664443#post14664443 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MVlk
Very rough... Let me know if there is anything you need help with.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Actually you can help me out by buying this HOB skimmer that I have for sale!:lol: Any advice that you may have for me that you think would help me out is much appreciated. Thanks again.

 

[andywe]

Sal,

The return can be done with tubing to a traditional J pipes over the side, just like the over the side filters of old or canister filters. That imho would be cleanest. I think lockline also makes a version of this so you can use the lockline flow accelerators too. It may be expensive though.

Just a quick idea.

 

[DMBillies]

Hey man,

Sorry to hear about this. A while back we had a hang-on overflow and drained about 15-20 gallons onto our office floor. No hardwood, but it was upstairs so we had plenty of water stains on the downstairs living room ceiling and spent an entire morning trying to get water out of the carpet and had to actually move the entire tank to make sure we didn't get mold underneath of it.

Since that incident I have sworn off any kind of non-sump skimmer unless they are designed so that they can't overflow (our big skimmer for our 270 is an externally run MRC, but they have a sealed top and we were using a collection cup that throttles the skimmer when it's full). Any number of issue can cause an overflow and it seems likely that your diagnosis could be right this time around, but next time it could be something different.

FWIW, I tend to think of over-the-side siphon-based overflows as similar ticking time bombs because if the siphon breaks your return will just pump water over the top of your displays. They certainly are easy and if they were a particularly cheap option, it might be the best route. Unfortunately, the good ones are pricey.

So, IMO, the best solution to your problem would be to look into drilling your tank and using glassholes.com overflows. They are low profile, fairly easy to install with some patience (a number of people in the club have done them, so you can get pointers or possibly a helping hand), and in the long run a lot more worry-free. I think price-wise you'd come out in about the same neighborhood. Of course, the biggest downside is that you'd probably have to empty the tank to do it...

 

[james3370]

yeah, i am doing the glass-holes overflow box & over-the-top returns w/ anti-siphone holes drilled in them

the 700gph kit from them w/ the overflow box, bulkhead, glass drill bit & bulkhead fitting w/ anti-siphon hose is $75

i have seen people drill them w/ the tank running....just have to drain it down 3 or so inches

 

[sal-t-dawg]

That's going to be perfect! How can I be positive that the sides of the tank are also tempered? Probably a dumb question however I just want to make sure before I start poking holes in it. Also is there anybody who has this already done that could post a pic or two?

 

[sandalscout]

The quickest way to check to see if glass is tempered is to buy a set of polarized sunglasses, if when looking at the glass with them on you see a grid of dark marks (look at a car windshield, it'll be obvious on it) it's tempered.

 

[james3370]

yeah. since the tank is inside, you'll probably need a bright light shining on/thru the panel you are checking to see if tempered.

if you have ever worn polarized sunglasses, you know what those lil starbursts in a grid on car windows look like

 

[DMBillies]

I meant to mention the tempering issue when I talked about drilling...

If you know the manufacturer of the tank, you can always e-mail them to see if it is tempered. In general, 55's are tempered all the way around. In my experience, most other tanks only have tempered bottoms, but it is always safest to check...

Here's why...
Video