Hal
New member
Dear Newbie:
Don’t make the same mistakes I did. A fool learns from his own mistakes. A wise man learns from the fool’s mistakes. Full disclosure: I learn the hard way. I flooded my house 3 times. God bless my wife's patience. Over that time, I’ve developed a system for minimizing the risk of a flood. Nothing is foolproof, but the things I list below will get you a long way to avoiding a costly and unfortunate situation. During my floods I ended up ruining a hardwood floor so that it needed to be replaced, soaking many personal items and a large amount of carpet. Total costs were in the multiple thousand dollars. Yeah, I’m an idiot.
Rule #1: no running water unless I am home and awake. Period. When I filled my first large tank, I setup my RO/DI and duct taped the waste water line to my bathroom sink drain. I knew it would take at least two days to fill my tank, so I wasn’t worried about the tank itself overflowing. In hindsight, even this was a risky move that I don’t recommend. Sure enough, during the night the duct tape came loose and the wastewater line fell onto the hardwood floor in my bathroom. Water soaked the floor, ran out into my kitchen, soaked through the floor there and began raining on various items in the basement.
Rule #2: see rule #1. Yes, it’s that important.
Rule #3: (Corollary to rule #1.) Whenever filling anything, take the RO/DI filter wrench and put it on your pillow. This reminds you not to go to sleep until you've turned off the RO/DI.
Rule #4: at least 1 water alarm on the floor anywhere there is water. Loud. 100 dB minimum. If you have a basement sump then you have at least one in the basement and a second one underneath your display tank on the main floor. If you have the money, get one that sends a text to your cellphone, because you may not be home when this happens. More than one is good because you don’t know exactly which direction the water will flow. Murphy’s law.
Rule #5: if you have a basement sump, or your tank is in the basement, install a floor drain near your sump/tank. It will cost a grand or so, but any floods get taken care of. Nobody said this hobby was cheap. Avoid one flood and it’s paid for itself. I did this after my third flood. Alternately, if you have a floor drain somewhere in your basement, strongly consider moving your sump/equipment to be right next to it. It’s relatively easy to plumb across a basement/garage; it’s much harder to install a new floor drain.
Rule #6: consider walling off the area around your sump/tank in a waterproof fashion. This can be done by installing a rubber sheet on the floor and running it up the sides of the walls a few inches. You can do this in your equipment room and underneath your tank stand. Search Nineball’s thread “Coral Tank from Canada – 1350 g display tank” for one example of how this can be done. Here's the link to the start of the thread. Lots of good info on all sorts of topics in this one.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2096730
Then any flood is contained to that area. Hopefully this gives you enough time to deal with it before it overflows outside of the room.
Rule #7: install a float sensor in your tank that is connected to your return pump. Eventually, inevitably, your tank drains will become clogged and if you don't catch it, your return pump keeps filling the tank, overflowing onto the floor. When the float sensor trips, it turns off the return pump. Once the water level in the tank decreases a little, the return pump comes back on. It’s not the best thing for the return pump to cycle on and off like this, but this has saved my bacon more than once. I drilled a small hole through my euro-bracing and installed a float switch there. Do it where the euro-bracing is over your in-tank overflow and you won’t even see it. Just make sure that the float switch can handle the amperage that your pump draws. If not, use a relay.
Rule #8: Use a herbie or bean animal drain on your tank. Trust me, I'm an engineer. Please overdesign your system for safety. That extra drain line (or two) will save you someday. This should probably be rule #3.
Herbie:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=344892
Beananimal:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1310585
Rule #9: Put redundant float switches in your sump for any auto-topoff system. Never rely on a single point of failure to keep your system working.
Rule #10: Put a water sensor on the floor that is connected upstream of your RO/DI. When it detects water it trips a solenoid that kills the water feed to your RO/DI. They look like this:
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/bulk-reverse-osmosis-filters-systems/reverse-osmosis-accessories.html
There are other models out there. My second flood was because a RO canister cracked upstream of any shutoff mechanism. Water poured out of the canister, which also happened to be directly over my sump. Filled up the sump and overflowed onto the floor. Instant hyposalinity treatment for my entire tank.
I also found a device that will detect leaks in your RO canisters before they become a problem:
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/flow-lok-leak-detector-with-drip-tray-for-rodi-systems.html
Rule #11: Consider putting your auto-topoff on a timer in addition to using float switches. If you know that you only need 30 minutes of topoff every day, then setup the timer so that the auto-topoff is only working for 30 minutes each day. Then if the (multiple) float switches get stuck in the “on” position, you still only fill for 30 minutes each day. Just make sure that you don't have a solenoid powered "on" somewhere (e.g., in your topoff system) waiting for the water to come through it. This can lead to an overheated solenoid that fries and/or a fire. I melted one housing before I figured this out.
Rule #12: when you are away for more than a day, have some way to monitor your tank and equipment room. Webcams are cheap. Buy one for your tank and one for your equipment room. The one for your tank should be aimed in such a way that you can see the water level relative to the top of your tank. Another looking into the stand for leaks is a good idea. A third looking at your equipment room is a good idea too. Can’t afford a web-cam? Have a neighbor WHO KNOWS FISH TANKS check on your system every day. Alternately, a neighbor who doesn’t know fish tanks is better than nobody. Christmas comes every year. Add a web-cam to your list for Santa. It’ll be a lot more useful than 90% of the things you would otherwise ask for. Besides, when you need a break at work, you can stare at your tank.
Rule #13: Size your sump appropriately. Your sump should be big enough so that you can turn off the power to your return pump, let it backflow completely, and the sump has enough capacity to handle this without overflowing.
Don’t make the same mistakes I did. A fool learns from his own mistakes. A wise man learns from the fool’s mistakes. Full disclosure: I learn the hard way. I flooded my house 3 times. God bless my wife's patience. Over that time, I’ve developed a system for minimizing the risk of a flood. Nothing is foolproof, but the things I list below will get you a long way to avoiding a costly and unfortunate situation. During my floods I ended up ruining a hardwood floor so that it needed to be replaced, soaking many personal items and a large amount of carpet. Total costs were in the multiple thousand dollars. Yeah, I’m an idiot.
Rule #1: no running water unless I am home and awake. Period. When I filled my first large tank, I setup my RO/DI and duct taped the waste water line to my bathroom sink drain. I knew it would take at least two days to fill my tank, so I wasn’t worried about the tank itself overflowing. In hindsight, even this was a risky move that I don’t recommend. Sure enough, during the night the duct tape came loose and the wastewater line fell onto the hardwood floor in my bathroom. Water soaked the floor, ran out into my kitchen, soaked through the floor there and began raining on various items in the basement.
Rule #2: see rule #1. Yes, it’s that important.
Rule #3: (Corollary to rule #1.) Whenever filling anything, take the RO/DI filter wrench and put it on your pillow. This reminds you not to go to sleep until you've turned off the RO/DI.
Rule #4: at least 1 water alarm on the floor anywhere there is water. Loud. 100 dB minimum. If you have a basement sump then you have at least one in the basement and a second one underneath your display tank on the main floor. If you have the money, get one that sends a text to your cellphone, because you may not be home when this happens. More than one is good because you don’t know exactly which direction the water will flow. Murphy’s law.
Rule #5: if you have a basement sump, or your tank is in the basement, install a floor drain near your sump/tank. It will cost a grand or so, but any floods get taken care of. Nobody said this hobby was cheap. Avoid one flood and it’s paid for itself. I did this after my third flood. Alternately, if you have a floor drain somewhere in your basement, strongly consider moving your sump/equipment to be right next to it. It’s relatively easy to plumb across a basement/garage; it’s much harder to install a new floor drain.
Rule #6: consider walling off the area around your sump/tank in a waterproof fashion. This can be done by installing a rubber sheet on the floor and running it up the sides of the walls a few inches. You can do this in your equipment room and underneath your tank stand. Search Nineball’s thread “Coral Tank from Canada – 1350 g display tank” for one example of how this can be done. Here's the link to the start of the thread. Lots of good info on all sorts of topics in this one.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2096730
Then any flood is contained to that area. Hopefully this gives you enough time to deal with it before it overflows outside of the room.
Rule #7: install a float sensor in your tank that is connected to your return pump. Eventually, inevitably, your tank drains will become clogged and if you don't catch it, your return pump keeps filling the tank, overflowing onto the floor. When the float sensor trips, it turns off the return pump. Once the water level in the tank decreases a little, the return pump comes back on. It’s not the best thing for the return pump to cycle on and off like this, but this has saved my bacon more than once. I drilled a small hole through my euro-bracing and installed a float switch there. Do it where the euro-bracing is over your in-tank overflow and you won’t even see it. Just make sure that the float switch can handle the amperage that your pump draws. If not, use a relay.
Rule #8: Use a herbie or bean animal drain on your tank. Trust me, I'm an engineer. Please overdesign your system for safety. That extra drain line (or two) will save you someday. This should probably be rule #3.
Herbie:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=344892
Beananimal:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1310585
Rule #9: Put redundant float switches in your sump for any auto-topoff system. Never rely on a single point of failure to keep your system working.
Rule #10: Put a water sensor on the floor that is connected upstream of your RO/DI. When it detects water it trips a solenoid that kills the water feed to your RO/DI. They look like this:
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/bulk-reverse-osmosis-filters-systems/reverse-osmosis-accessories.html
There are other models out there. My second flood was because a RO canister cracked upstream of any shutoff mechanism. Water poured out of the canister, which also happened to be directly over my sump. Filled up the sump and overflowed onto the floor. Instant hyposalinity treatment for my entire tank.
I also found a device that will detect leaks in your RO canisters before they become a problem:http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/flow-lok-leak-detector-with-drip-tray-for-rodi-systems.html
Rule #11: Consider putting your auto-topoff on a timer in addition to using float switches. If you know that you only need 30 minutes of topoff every day, then setup the timer so that the auto-topoff is only working for 30 minutes each day. Then if the (multiple) float switches get stuck in the “on” position, you still only fill for 30 minutes each day. Just make sure that you don't have a solenoid powered "on" somewhere (e.g., in your topoff system) waiting for the water to come through it. This can lead to an overheated solenoid that fries and/or a fire. I melted one housing before I figured this out.
Rule #12: when you are away for more than a day, have some way to monitor your tank and equipment room. Webcams are cheap. Buy one for your tank and one for your equipment room. The one for your tank should be aimed in such a way that you can see the water level relative to the top of your tank. Another looking into the stand for leaks is a good idea. A third looking at your equipment room is a good idea too. Can’t afford a web-cam? Have a neighbor WHO KNOWS FISH TANKS check on your system every day. Alternately, a neighbor who doesn’t know fish tanks is better than nobody. Christmas comes every year. Add a web-cam to your list for Santa. It’ll be a lot more useful than 90% of the things you would otherwise ask for. Besides, when you need a break at work, you can stare at your tank.
Rule #13: Size your sump appropriately. Your sump should be big enough so that you can turn off the power to your return pump, let it backflow completely, and the sump has enough capacity to handle this without overflowing.
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