HELP ME MY FEET KEEP GETTING WET...

[mathias]

so power went out last night... yea yea everyone knows what happened..


the return from my sump siphoned back into the sump and overflowed... so what do I do? so this doesn't happen again pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee help me.....


thanks..

[Polkster13]

Your return lines are probably causing a siphon back into the sump. They are draining the tank until the siphon is broken. You need to make a small hole just below the water line on your return lines. Once the water level drops below this hole, air is sucked in and the siphon is broken. The draining of the tank should stop at that point. You will need to test it and make sure your sump has the additional capacity to hold the water that drains back from the tank.

HTH

[dan]

two other things you can do. first get a bigger sump or install a check valve in your return line to the sump. this causes water to only run one way. if the power goes out the water will stop from going back to the sump. you can buy these at home depot or lowes.

[Polkster13]

Just make sure the check valve does not have any internal metal parts as these will corrode when they come into contact with SW.

[z28pwr]

Drilling the hole should work just fine, just make sure you drill the hole so that it's pointed downward so that the water will not splash around and don't make a tiny hole, otherwise it will get clogged and fail when you need it. You should always test your setup for power outages.

[Polkster13]

Another thing you can do is each time you do a water change, use a small implement to ream out the hole to ensure it stays clean. I have two SQWD's mounted to my 1.5 inch return line. Each SQWD has two sets of loc-line Y lines with jets on each end for a total of eight returns. I drilled a small hole at the top of each of the four loc-lines and angled the drill up so the hole would point in a downwards direction. That way when the electricty comes back on, water isn't sprayed outside of the aquarium. Once the water level comes back up to its normal level, the holes are completely underwater. Water is always coming out of the holes so that will keep any detritus from clogging it. However, coraline algae could over grow it, hence the cleaning each month.

[Tim Marvin]

Good advice, the other problem with check valves is: they grow thing since these are marine tanks and after a couple months they won't close completely and shut off anyway. Tunicates, sponges, and other critters grow inside in the dark, thus stopping them from securely closing.

[don-n-sa]

What I did in my 240 is split my returns into three ways...one locline stays at the top to break syphon and the other two face in different directions at a lower level in my tank for good flow displacement.

When I similate a power outage the locline at the top breaks the syphon immediatly with minimal drainage.

I agree with Tim...check valves will fail someday

I wonder why Dan said get a bigger sump? Hmmmm :D
HTH

[dan]

i thought bigger sump collected more water. he he :skeezy :skeezy

[Tim Marvin]

I wonder who could build one ?

[VeeDub]

i thought bigger sump collected more water. he he :skeezy :skeezy

Dan, why do you think I asked you to build us a sump with almost 60G capacity? ;)

Go with the hole in the return. I have been lucky enough to never have a problem. As suggested though, insure that you have room in the sump for additional water until the siphon breaks.

Chris