vacation= near house fire

Beetle_Mania

In Memoriam
ok well while i was on vacation in Mexico house lost power for about 45 min. well tank siphoned back in to the sump putting water in to a power strip. power strip is pretty melted and im very lucky i actually came back to a house at all.

sooooooooo....how do all of you stop this from happening? is there some sort of check valve i can get as god knows i do not want to chance this happening again?


-Nick
 
It all depends on the type of return you are using. I aim my Loc-line returns so that the discharges are only a couple inches below the surface of the water. That way, it will only drain a couple inches off the main tank and my sump is not so full that it can't handle that extra water.
 
If you go the check valve route, be sure to schedule maintenance to take em' apart and clean em' as crustations and such could block them over time. I have more a set up as Zooid described. I also have two float switches configured (through a 12v relay) for the return pump so if water is to low, or high, it stops the return pump from working. Doesn't stop the flood as much as burning out the pump or worse, a fire.

Glad to hear you didn't have a complete disaster..
 
You should also relocate your powerstrip so it cannot get wet. mount it on the wall behind the tank, or higher up in the stand.
Bill
 
You can also drill a few little holes just below water line so the syphon brakes when the water drops below them. You do need to make certain stuff doesn't grow over the top of the holes. Glad it turned out okay!
 
Back
Top