disaster proof/leak proof/simplify my aquarium plans

[1DeR9_3Hy]

I have been in the aquarium hobby my entire life, and just this past november bought my first home. This home has really nice wood floors in the kitchen and part of the living room and dining room....so you can understand how upset my wife was and how upset i was when we got home from a bbq yesterday to find my HOB skimmer overflowing and my return pump spewing microbubbles into the tank.

My best guess is i lost about 15 gallons of salt water into the floor, the boards are cupping and the ends are lifting. Its bad.

Not one to dwell, i am moving on. Somehow my wife has not revoked the green light for the 90 gallon i have been buying parts for and building up too.

I plan on the usual 90 gallon (48x18) with a 30x12 sump/fuge. I recently acquired an external style skimmer (Delttec APF600). I also planned on using a Gen X40 pump i traded for. I was also planning on using a "herbie style"/"silent & failsafe overflow" for the tank with a glass holes big overflow.

Now i am not too excited about using an external skimmer for obvious reasons (what if it goes on the fritz with a 300 gal/h pump feeding it?), but the skimmer is a monster and i already have it.

Anyone have any ideas/suggestions or possible other problems i should plan ahead for? I know that any time i put up an aquarium i have to be ok with the whole thing dumping out onto my floor...but aside from a total failure of the aquarium, are there any "tricks of the trade" out there for me?

 

[rehype]

I had something similar happen to me a while back...Well firstly i would recommend figuring out what caused the skimmer to overflow in the first place and then doing your best to take precautions to prevent it from happening in the future. Even if this means replacing the skimmer..jmo

 

[woodiecrafts]

Even thought it is an external one, you could set it down in a rubbermaid container or something of the sort to catch any water that might overflow in the event of a problem.

 

[1DeR9_3Hy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15271949#post15271949 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by woodiecrafts
Even thought it is an external one, you could set it down in a rubbermaid container or something of the sort to catch any water that might overflow in the event of a problem.

I was thinking of building a stand for it and sticking it in the return section of the sump, then dumping the output back into the fuge. That way if it does ever overflow, atleast its going back into the system.

As for my current skimmer, i have no idea whats going on with it. It has to be something in my tanks water though as i tested it for 20 minutes on my breeder system (different everything, salt, no3, po4, water....everything is different) and it ran great. Then as soon as i hooked it up to my cube it was starting to overflow again. I have not added anything to the tank, not even 2 part because my Ca levels had not been dropping in the past week. I dont plan on putting the skimmer back on this tank (yes...i know), its too much of a risk for my floors. I am going to be getting some before and after pics of the tank though, so i can see if their is a big difference between now (skimmer, and vodka) and later (no skimmer, no vodka).

How often do bulkheads start leaking after they have not leaked for months? Does this happen at all?

What about tank floods from the drain getting clogged?

 

[THE ROOK]

Bulkheads won't start dumping water as long as the plumbing is secured & not hanging on the bulkheads. I've had a couple start to drip but nothing terrible. Usually I'll start to see salt on the plumbing before any actual water.

There's no reason you can't run that skimmer in-sump. I ran my recirc. one that way for the same reason. No worries about the carpet.

If you could drill it to run sch-80 bulkheads, that would be even better. The sch-40's can deflect & start to leak due to having a thinner flange.

I only have a single 1" drain on my 75 & don't worry at all about the drain clogging. Just use the strainer. If it can fit thru the strainer, it can't clog the pipe.

Only other item is to make sure to have plenty of space in the sump for overflow during a power outage.

 

[1DeR9_3Hy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15272184#post15272184 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by THE ROOK
Bulkheads won't start dumping water as long as the plumbing is secured & not hanging on the bulkheads. I've had a couple start to drip but nothing terrible. Usually I'll start to see salt on the plumbing before any actual water.

There's no reason you can't run that skimmer in-sump. I ran my recirc. one that way for the same reason. No worries about the carpet.

If you could drill it to run sch-80 bulkheads, that would be even better. The sch-40's can deflect & start to leak due to having a thinner flange.

I only have a single 1" drain on my 75 & don't worry at all about the drain clogging. Just use the strainer. If it can fit thru the strainer, it can't clog the pipe.

Only other item is to make sure to have plenty of space in the sump for overflow during a power outage.

Thanks! Is that the difference between sched 40 and 80 plumbing? Thickness? I had not thought about that, i think i will go that route for the plumbing.

Thanks for re-assurance on the skimmer setup.

 

[1DeR9_3Hy]

Anyone else share this requirement in aquarium keeping? Simple, yet reliable designs that incorporate modern tools like media reactors/Ca reactors?

 

[hotrodolds]

schedule 40/80 is referring to the pipe wall thickness . Sorry cant help you out more than that.

 

[1DeR9_3Hy]

Thanks for that anyways, i did not know.

 

[Jack01]

You could wire a float switch inside the collection cup to a relay connected to the skimmer pump.

I feel your pain though - I had a flood in my last place and didn't want to have one in our new condo.

My new tank has no sump, no hang on filtration.

 

[sanababit]

hook up the skimmer collection cup directly to the drain, that way if it overflows all the water goes down the drain....

sana

 

[billdogg]

When i recently set up my 150, with 120 fuge and 50 sump, the first thing i did after filling was shut off the power and let it all drain into the sump to make sure it could not overflow. PERFECT!!! it was close, but i had a couple gallons of room to spare in the sump so all was good. Then I added two reactors - one for GFO, the other for carbon. For ease of access, i hung them on the side of the fuge, which overhangs the sump - that way if they were to leak, they would just drip into the sump. Still good - right??? Well, i forgot to retest the no power thing. Electricity went out last sat for about 1/2 hour. When it came back on, I went down to the basement to check and my barefeet went squish in the brand new carpet. hmmmmmmmmmmmm Houston - we have a problem. Turns out the return tubing from the reactors was too far down below the waterline in the fuge - they both back siphoned, to the tune of 20 or 30 gallons. As luck would have it, most of the water stayed on the unfinished side of the basement - onlw a little seeped under the wall into the finished area where the tank is. A couple hours later with the shop vac and the mess was cleaned up. Now on to the fix. First, i shortened the returns for the reactors so they could not do that ever again. Then, because my sump had an extra 1" bulkhead that i had capped off, i made a standpipe for the inside of the sump that goes to about 1/2" from the top. It runs out the sump, into a hole in the basement floor. The way our house was designed, it will then leech over to the main sump pump and be taken away. Problem solved!

The moral of the story???? if it can leak/overflow, it will. TEST IT!!!!!!!

HTH

 

[salty joe]

My best guess is i lost about 15 gallons of salt water into the floor, the boards are cupping and the ends are lifting. Its bad.

In my old house, built in 1928 with white oak flooring, I had a similar accident. After the floor dried, the floor settled back down and had only a couple very minor water marks. I was certain the floor was a goner. So before you do anything to your floor maybe wait a couple weeks with the air conditioning on. I hope you get as lucky as I did.

 

[gowingsgo]

I would defiantly put your skimmer ether in your sump or in some type of Rubbermaid container. I also used a over flow by some one on here that goes by the name Bean Animal and it is as fail safe as it gets I tested it every way possible and it passed with flying colors. Also Billdogg is right test your hole system. I even added extra water to simulate my auto top off running dry into my tank to make sure my sump would hold the extra gallons of water. The one thing that is for sure is if it can go wrong at some point it will.