While adding a Flame Angel yesterday and doing the acclamation process my water stopped draining from the display into my sump. I stopped the flow seconds before the display started to dump on the floor.i cleaned out the overflow in the back of the display and found a good amount of long green algae. I expected to find a couple of turbo snails I have not seen in a day or two. I cleaned the overflow in the display with brushes and removed all the algae I could see. Is it a good idea to disassemble the pvc pipes in the overflow at the time I do a water change? Being new to all this there were a few moments of panic as the water level kept rising. Had I not been standing there it would have been a disaster. Nut sure how or why it happened. The snails were not the issue??
How is your overflow plumbed? Can you post pictures? Is it a Durso drain? If the drain was not obstructed it could have been air locked. Has it ever done that before? Had you turned the pump off and then back on? Any idea what precipitated this? This the main reason I like redundancy (like a Herbie or Bean Animal setup). I set my tank up in my garage and tested it by turning the return off and then back on. I pulled the standpipe completely draining the overflow to make sure the sump could handle all the water. It was worth the extra trouble to know it would function and not flood in the event of a power outage, etc.
On my first tank I had a problem with the drains plugging with snails. So needless to say soggy squishy carpet and a very unhappy wife was the norm. But the soggy floors gave me an argument for the twin 180 project. What I did on my newer setup was to oversize the drains, I went from a single one inch to one 1.5 and two one inch drains, Like Huntindoc said redundancy is the key. I also changed out the carpet for marble tile, Murphyd rule, even today I still get a wet floor from the tank from seasonal temp changes(loose bulkhead fittings)
Well, I had my almost disaster today. Thankfully my controller bailed me out. I was at work and came back to my desk to find three new texts on my phone. All three were from my controller telling me my pH was less than 8.0 The texts came over a 3 minute span and showed my pH to be 7.9, 7.5 and 7.0. I knew there was no way my pH could fall that low or that fast. Then it hit me.....this is what my pH probe shows when exposed to air. Somehow I had forgot to fill my ATO container and it had run dry and the level in the sump had lowered below the probe. I shut off the return by phone as well as my ATO, skimmer and dosers. Got home and filled my ATO and thankfully my pump was fine. If my controller hadn't alerted me and let me shut off the return I might have burned my pump up. My controller saved me from my own inattentiveness (read stupidity).
Hey doc, glad you averted disaster. Technology saves the day it seems. So basically you can control some functions with your phone? I know it must be an iPhone...lol! I have been doing some reading on "what can go wrong" while your away. I need to put some Failsafe practices and equipment in place. I would be sick to come home and find my tank devoted by something I did or didn't do. Glad everything is OK. Sounds like a close one.
Actually it's an Android. It's a cloud based system (Apex Fusion). You can monitor pH and temp as well as turn on and off any of your equipment.You can also set up alarms to email and/or text you when certain conditions arise. One of those would be to use a water detection unit in the bottom of the stand, when the switch closed you can set up an alert to notify you. I don't have that yet. Mine is set up to let me know if pH rises too high or drops too low, if temp is too high or low. It will also turn off my alkalinity doser if pH is greater than 8.4,turn off the vinegar doser if pH falls below 8.1, turn off my heaters if temp is greater than 81, etc....you get the idea.
Nice set up. I just put in an auto top off system last week and it works fair. it seems like the sensor that goes in the sump does not let enough water in. i got it at 'amazon and 80percent of the reviews were 5 stat. It seems the switch int he sump had turning back on once it shuts down. The default fill time b before auto shutoff is 3:45 minute. the booklet of instructions tells you to remove the back ad turn it up to the max of over 15 minutes. that helps but to keep the water level where I want it, I end up manually tripping the switch to truth water back on. I read online a fw people had to send bak for a nw switch that would stick in the off position. guess I'll have to check it out.
