Things I learned this week

[MRDHJ1]

First off know how much water volume you really have. don't forget to take in account the amount of rock you and any thing else that displaces water. It could make a big difference when treating your tank. Trust I learned the hard way. Second do a power off test once in a while. And I don't mean just for a second or two. Shut down the return, skimmer, any top off equipment. You should be able to leave on power heads and heaters. And stand back and see what happens. I had the fun experience of waking up at 6:30 in the morning to power been off to the whole tank and about 12 gals of water on my carpet. Not a good way to wake up :eek1: Mine over flowed because of alga in the siphon back holes on the return. And of course I did NOT have any water. RO or salt. Not a good way to start a monday. Third it helps to have support from fellow reefers. It makes the hard times a little easier to Handle. So I hope this will help teach new people some things to look for and remind some longer reefers to not slack off on some of the basics. If anyone else has some common looked over things add them to the thread. Once again thanks
for all the support this last week guys.

Dale

 

[jkreefer]

Good points Dale. I would add to do the power off test at least every other month.

 

[Reef Bass]

I would add that drilling one or two 1/4" holes in your return just below the water line prevents the dreaded "power off backflow sump overflow" syndrome. When the power goes off and water start backflowing through the return the lowered water level in the tank exposes the holes in the return and the air entering the return line breaks the siphon, preventing sump overflow.

That handles the return. My tank is glass and not drilled, so I have a HOB overflow which also wants to quit when the power goes off. I use an AquaLifter pump to maintain the siphon while the power is out (neither air nor water moves through it with no juice) and while the juice is on it clears the small quantiities of accumulating air bubbles so overflow never diminishes.

It's not an ideal system, but given a glass tank with no holes, it works well. I've been running it for over 4 years with no overflow failures. I did have to replace the AquaLifter once in that time but at $15 it wasn't a hardship.

The way my house came wired, all my outlets proximate to water are on one gfi circuit, upstairs and down. The closest outlet for my pump happens to be on that circuit, and every time my oldest would turn on her hairdryer while the toaster oven and washing machine were on, the gfi would pop. So my system has been well tested and when the handful of "natural" power failures occur a year, I am not concerned (about water containment).

Ken