Tank Failure

[Uncle99]

After almost 6 years running, at 1:39am EST, I received notification from my INKBIRD controller that water temp was over the max threshold set at 80 degrees. When I went to the main floor to check the DT, water from return had stopped. When I then went to the basement fish room I got a big surprise. The refuge had failed and 50g of water on the floor. The return pump from the sump had run dry and its safety had turned the power off. The lack of any movement in the sump caused the “high temp” alert effectively shutting down the heaters.

I stopped flow to the Fuge and opened flow only to the sump, bypassing the Fuge, filled the sump back up and restarted the return pump and heaters. This allowed the DT to continue to function and those inhabitants seem unaffected by the Fuge failure.

I vacumed up the water on the basement floor and started a huge fan going. Lucky this was just a concrete slab.

I must credit my INKBIRD for letting me know something was wrong and the Jebao return pump from shutting down, otherwise we could have lost everything. Iam glad I listened to members about having controllers, safety’s and redundancies.

Working now at removing the below Fuge, identifying I where the leak is and replacing the tank. My guess will be a crack in the bottom glass as it completely drained dry.

The pic is in black and white as it was taken in night mode by the Fuge camera.

 

[wvned]

Mine failed to recently. The side with the bulkhead in it cracked.

 

[game misconduct]

glad you didnt lose any livestock

 

[BrianD]

Nothing like a 1:30 a.m. stroll to find water on the floor. I'm sorry for your troubles, but admittedly geeked out by looking at your setup.

 

[griss]

Oh man, that sucks but, glad to hear of no livestock losses.

 

[kharmaguru]

After almost 6 years running, at 1:39am EST, I received notification from my INKBIRD controller that water temp was over the max threshold set at 80 degrees. When I went to the main floor to check the DT, water from return had stopped. When I then went to the basement fish room I got a big surprise. The refuge had failed and 50g of water on the floor. The return pump from the sump had run dry and its safety had turned the power off. The lack of any movement in the sump caused the “high temp” alert effectively shutting down the heaters.

I stopped flow to the Fuge and opened flow only to the sump, bypassing the Fuge, filled the sump back up and restarted the return pump and heaters. This allowed the DT to continue to function and those inhabitants seem unaffected by the Fuge failure.

I vacumed up the water on the basement floor and started a huge fan going. Lucky this was just a concrete slab.

I must credit my INKBIRD for letting me know something was wrong and the Jebao return pump from shutting down, otherwise we could have lost everything. Iam glad I listened to members about having controllers, safety’s and redundancies.

Working now at removing the below Fuge, identifying I where the leak is and replacing the tank. My guess will be a crack in the bottom glass as it completely drained dry.

The pic is in black and white as it was taken in night mode by the Fuge camera.View attachment 32418016

Is that a ZooMed lowboy?

 

[Uncle99]

New Fuge install completed, just looking for leaks, at least, none yet.
Hope I don’t have that again, next time, I may not be as lucky.
Fingers crossed!

 

[griss]

Is that a ZooMed lowboy?

Im curious about this as well.

 

[griss]

New Fuge install completed, just looking for leaks, at least, none yet.
Hope I don’t have that again, next time, I may not be as lucky.
Fingers crossed!
View attachment 32418061

Where was the leak?

 

[Uncle99]

Is that a ZooMed lowboy?

Yup ZooMed.
The bottom panel cracked from left rear corner out to the centre then back to the right rear corner.

Maybe these tanks don’t make a good Fuge. Macro algae I think is fine but the bottom glass sits about 1/2” off the top and only the rims actually touch the top.

When installing the new one, I put 1/2 styrofoam pad under the glass for more support.

 

[Uncle99]

Where was the leak?

Bottom glass panel, end to end.
Can’t find any reason it just went after years of use.
Kinda scary.

 

[griss]

Wow, that stinks. Glad it was isolated and your failsafes kicked in.

 

[Uncle99]

Wow, that stinks. Glad it was isolated and your failsafes kicked in.

Redundancies, glad I did them.
I use 3 on my ATO, optical, mechanical and timeout.

 

[vlangel]

Wow, I am only seeing this today. That is awful but like everyone else, I am glad that you were alerted so there were no livestock losses! Usually when a tank has gone 6 years, its good for another 6+. "However, one never knows for sure", she says with fear and trembling!