STUPID !!!!!

[NaCl_H2O]

Okay, I win the "Stupid Award" for the week!

I mixed a batch of RO water last night for a water change on my existing tanks. As usual, I put in an estimated amount of salt. Tonight, I got busy working on stuff on my new setup, and late in the evening started the water change on my old system, while I continued working on the new stuff. Draned out the old water and put in the new.

I didn't make a final salinity check of the new water, and it was apparently WAY low! About 30 mins later It occured to me that I never made a final salinity check - I dropped SG from 1.025 to 1.022 in a matter of minutes :o !

Over the next few hours I gradually brought it back up to about 1.024, I'll take it up a bit more tomorrow.

STUPID! I just hope everything recovers?

[Ram_Puppy]

Man, that sucks... A few weeks ago I was mixing saltwater in my new 32 gallon rubbermaid garbage can, I put in the right amount of salt, and being exhausted with my new job went to bed, woke up, forgot I had added salt, and did the whole deal again. Needless to say when I tested SG the next day it was just SLIGHTLY high. I ended up using buckets and mixing the water with RO before actually doing the water change...

[theedprado]

i am infamous for forgetting to turn off the ro/di top off.

[dan]

i bought a mop and bucket to go with my reef suff just for my ro/di. always forgeting to tuun it off. in fact it's on right now and i'm at work. i have to keep a ribbon at the door frame to remind me that it's on.

[z28pwr]

I flooded my house twice because I forgot to turn off the RO/DI before going to bed, then I bought a water timer at Home Depot and boy did that thing come in handy.

[NaCl_H2O]

Sounds like a subject for a poll - how often do you overflow your RO tank?

I have a holding tank with a float switch for RO in my new setup, but I'm not stupid enough to trust the float switch - it also has an emergency overflow above the float swith that will drain to a "safe" place.

... and I have a wet vac, because eventually, somehow, water will end up on the floor!

[rocketeer]

I can't count how many times I forgot to turn off my RO/DI unit. I started putting a rubber band on my wrist so I don't forget. Pretty soon you get used to having a rubber band on your wrist. Come to think of it, I have one on right now! I better go check my barrels. :oops:

Maybe I should pierce my tongue instead.

Jack

[Tim Marvin]

You could also use an automatic shut off valve.

[sharkie]

It's almost as bad as me using SW to top off my nano, just because I grabbed the wrong jug. :( Luckily nothing drastic happened...

[matt]

Probably a temporary drop of a few points in S.G. won't hurt much, although snails will take a beating. We forget that reef salinity near the surface will frequently drop temporarily due to heavy rain fall; at least that's what I've read. I think long term exposure to salinity outside of normal reef parameters is much more harmful.

There was a thread, about 50 pages long I think, on reefcentral named "DIY auto top-off with solenoid" or something like that. I made an auto top-off somewhat based on that thread and it never failed in over a year of service. The trick is to have some redundancy, like a solenoid that is opened by a float switch, and another float switch/solenoid higher in the sump to close the system in the event of failure on the first one. The primary solenoid can also be controlled by a decent timer (that's what I did) and the float switch only activated occasionally; mostly it stays out of the water. This helps keep the "snail taking a nap on the switch" syndrome to a minimum. BTW, there are float switches and then there are float switches; I think someone's got to be making decent ones. That thread has TONS of info about the whole concept of auto top-off. Or, you could buy the tunze unit that so many people are nuts about; just eat peanut butter sandwiches for a while!