What a messed up new years eve/night before my birthday

[1kwksvt]

So I got a call from the wife and she asked why my tank was cloudy so I rushed home from work. This is what I came home to.

my new ato decided to pump in 2 gallons of kalk water, luckily I had 10 gallons of saltwater for water changes made plus gallons of r.o. made I started making more water so 35 gallons worth of water changes. My tank now looks like this.

I got all the corals out and put them in my frag tank they were only in the main display for half a day or so like that. When I tested my alk it was above 14 kdh now it is around 8 kdh. Hopefully the cloudiness will go away soon but I'll continue to monitor the tank before I put corals back in. No more ato until the big tank goes up and the apex goes into action back to manually topping off water

 

[zeroinverse]

This is why I prefer a calcium reactor where it is throttled down to never drip more than a certain rate.

 

[1kwksvt]

My lights just kicked on and this is what the tank looks like

Ill have to test my levels but I think I caught it fast and was able to fix the issue without to much damage.

 

[ffmedic]

Man good thing your wife saw that early

 

[CrippledStoner]

Nice save. Did float valve fail on ato? Overfill lvl should of shut pump off or something.

 

[1kwksvt]

Nice save. Did float valve fail on ato? Overfill lvl should of shut pump off or something.

Not sure I have the smart ato, so no float switch. My best guess is that it siphoned. But I set it up so it would not.

 

[cbrennan4]

Glad to hear everything is working out. Are most of the corals doing ok in the frag tank now?

 

[woodnaquanut]

Wow. Looks like you saved a bad situation. Nem doesn't look too ticked off.

Now that you've had some time to reflect upon it, do you know how it happened? I'm not trying to grill you. Others might learn from your 'experiment'.

 

[1kwksvt]

Glad to hear everything is working out. Are most of the corals doing ok in the frag tank now?

Everything is wide open in the frag tank and happy

 

[1kwksvt]

Wow. Looks like you saved a bad situation. Nem doesn't look too ticked off.

Now that you've had some time to reflect upon it, do you know how it happened? I'm not trying to grill you. Others might learn from your 'experiment'.

No only thing that comes to mind is it siphoned which the water level in the ato container was about 4 inches lower then the sump level. Then where the line came in at the back of the stand was approx. a foot higher then both my best guess would be the water going into the sump had enough downward force that it caused a siphon to start. My next try I would put the ato water line up in the hob over flow that way it would not siphon but I think I'll stick to manually topping off it has yet to fail me so far. And Once the 125 is up and running I'll give the smart ato another try but it will be baby sat by the apex

 

[woodnaquanut]

No only thing that comes to mind is it siphoned which the water level in the ato container was about 4 inches lower then the sump level. Then where the line came in at the back of the stand was approx. a foot higher then both my best guess would be the water going into the sump had enough downward force that it caused a siphon to start. My next try I would put the ato water line up in the hob over flow that way it would not siphon but I think I'll stick to manually topping off it has yet to fail me so far. And Once the 125 is up and running I'll give the smart ato another try but it will be baby sat by the apex

Fun with siphons:
http://youtu.be/CZmP0vsRBZ8



The outlet of the TO needs to always be above the level of the water in the TO tank. Air gap too to prevent back siphon.

Good to hear the beasties are doing well. Is the nem OK?

 

[1kwksvt]

Fun with siphons:
http://youtu.be/CZmP0vsRBZ8



The outlet of the TO needs to always be above the level of the water in the TO tank. Air gap too to prevent back siphon.

Good to hear the beasties are doing well. Is the nem OK?

Does this answer your the nem is a little pale but that was due to he got stuck in the power head a few weeks back and has not stopped moving since. But he has been here for the last week

 

[Dragonvale]

Are you going to trying to use kalk water dosing with the 125? Glad everything worked out. Sorry I didn't have RO made either, I make it when I need it. Main reason is I save the run off water in 5 gallon buckets since were in a drought but it sure is a pain.

 

[1kwksvt]

Are you going to trying to use kalk water dosing with the 125? Glad everything worked out. Sorry I didn't have RO made either, I make it when I need it. Main reason is I save the run off water in 5 gallon buckets since were in a drought but it sure is a pain.

No probably not I'll go the triple doser route

 

[swk]

No probably not I'll go the triple doser route

You could still use kalk, just push a reactor with a litermeter or something. Cheaper than 2 part

 

[woodnaquanut]

No probably not I'll go the triple doser route

One of the things Randy Holmes-Farley (chem guru here on RC) is fond of is two part + a low concentration of Kalk in the TO. Cuts down on the expense of two part and there is some advantages to using Kalk. Sorry I don't remember the details of the advantages - musta gotten ahold of some decaf this AM! :lol2:

I use two part on my 120G. It doesn't seem that expensive and is so controllable.

+1 on the nem. Looks like it survived the great Kalkout!

 

[swk]

Kalk is nice because there's only 1 thing to worry about. Kalk also helps lower phosphates somehow. There are other benefits as well but I can't remember them off hand.

 

[Dragonvale]

Supplementing Kalk with top off to me is risky. You cant control your evaporation rate. Unless you have central AC and heating set all year round then it should work. If not you would be dosing a lot more let's say in summer than winter months.