Sump over safety full mark

[Capsle]

Hey Reefers,

Hope all is well this sunday morning.

As I am sure most of you all have your maximum running level marked out on your sump return chamber, basically when you ATO kicks in an out.

Anyways I woke up this morning and my return chamber is about 3" over that mark. I'm just wondering how this could happen?

I am running a tunze ATO, that kicks out after 3 minutes if the flow switch get stuck. Is it possible that a siphon was created and it drained water from my ATO storage bin? Could it siphon it through the ATO pump?

I'm kind of lost as to how this happened and just wondering if any of you have had this happen to you and wht you found to be the cause?

 

[heathlindner25]

Yes, you can definitely create a siphon

 

[kmbyrnes]

Thank goodness for the stop switch.
Is the end of the fill tube lower than the water level in the top-off container?
Is it lower than the water level in the sump?
In either case, it is possible to create a siphon.
It is also possible the diaphragm on the pump failed.

 

[ethuman]

I had the same issue when I started a year ago and it was because the tube going into the sump was under the water and created a siphon. Adjusted it once and zip tied it up a little higher to the return line and problem solved

 

[Capsle]

Thank goodness for the stop switch.
Is the end of the fill tube lower than the water level in the top-off container?
Is it lower than the water level in the sump?
In either case, it is possible to create a siphon.
It is also possible the diaphragm on the pump failed.

The end of the fill tube was above the water level by about and inch. My fill container is a 35g brute trash can, I filled it up yesterday so the water level in the brute was higher than the sump. So the switch probably got suck and brought the water level over the fill tube and then created a siphon.

I'm going to mark off my brute fill container below my sump water level to make sure it doesn't happen again and I will raise my fill line in the sump higher.

I was really perplexed this morning when I say it. I had a bunch of people over yesterday for a BBQ an questioned whether someone touched something or not.

It also dropped my salinity by .003. Thank got today is water change day.

 

[Sk8r]

Yep: I had a siphon try to equalize the salinity in my ato reservoir and the system. Bad news. It was going back and forth, on-off, on-off. Do NOT let a delivery line touch the water, and make sure that doesn't happen when the main pump stops, either.

 

[hkgar]

Don't try to get all the .003 back in one water change. Fish react poorly to rapidly increasing SG. You can usually move .002 per day safely.

 

[Capsle]

Don't try to get all the .003 back in one water change. Fish react poorly to rapidly increasing SG. You can usually move .002 per day safely.

Yes, thanks for the info. Wasn't planning on doing it quickly.

Just a little disappointed as I was work to raise my salinity to 1.025. Finally got it there yesterday after a week of topping off with 1.030 in my ATO.

Back down to 1.021-022 now

As everyone says, nothing good happens quick in this hobby.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[hkgar]

Yes, thanks for the info. Wasn't planning on doing it quickly.

Just a little disappointed as I was work to raise my salinity to 1.025. Finally got it there yesterday after a week of topping off with 1.030 in my ATO.

Back down to 1.021-022 now

As everyone says, nothing good happens quick in this hobby.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yup, my rule #1 for reefing: Take it slow, real slow.
Rule #2: Take it slower than you thought rule #1 meant.