Early Morning Flood

[GarSrtn]

Well, I awoke at 0500 this morning to the sounds of my Mag12 return sucking air. Sure enough, my tank overflowed. The good news is that my sump only holds about 2 gals more than my tank can take. The bad news is that I had to pull my Durso standpipe and extract a trochus snail to clear the plug.

I built a strainer for my standpipe to prevent this from happening again. Check out the NCPARS w3 site for details: http://ncpars.com/dursomod.html

[zooqi]

Snails do that and I have been working on a tank for four hours to find out that a snail was blucking the water and thanks for sharing as I learned something new. One more question. Are those holes are enough to handle all the water?

[GarSrtn]

I should have done the math to ensure that the area of the little holes was equal to or greater than the 1-1/4" diameter of the pipe, but it was too early in the morning for that stuff. I did not have to throttle my pump back after I installed the strainer. So yes, they handle all the water.

[71goalie]

I have an idea that may or may not help this problem. It seems that a bunch of people have this problem with overflow. It can cause a bunch of water damage. I'm not that familiar with sump setups so help me out here. I'm assuming that you have powerheads in the tank for flow. You also have a pump taking water from the main tank to the sump. Then you have a supply pump sending water back to the tank? Most problems are with the sump overflowing? If this is the case I saw a really neat fix. Most stands have a recessed bottom where the sump sits. I saw a design where the guy waterproofed and calked the bottom of the stand to hold water if it overflowed the sump.

Now for my idea. I've designed control panels before with a water sensor in it. This sensor senses water down to a 1/4" depth. This could be wired as a permissive to the receptacle feeding your pump(s). If it senses water (an overflow condition), it would turn your pump off and could even actuate a little alarm buzzer, alerting you to a problem. This would minimize water damage, especially if you are not home when the problem occurs. I can get cut sheets on the sensor if you are interested and even design something. I will probably make a prototype for my new tank.

[zooqi]

Most of the systems have a pump in the sump and it pumps water to the tank and any extra water comes down back again to the sump using gravity.It can come out of the tank using the reef ready tanks that has built in overflow, a hole on the top of the tank and overflow behind it. the only way you would pump the water to sump if the sump is above the tank. Interested design you have there and did you built it?

Originally posted by 71goalie
You also have a pump taking water from the main tank to the sump. Then you have a supply pump sending water back to the tank?

I've designed control panels before with a water sensor in it. This sensor senses water down to a 1/4" depth. This could be wired as a permissive to the receptacle feeding your pump(s). If it senses water (an overflow condition), it would turn your pump off and could even actuate a little alarm buzzer, alerting you to a problem.

[71goalie]

I built the control panel to sense water in a well head that was located inside a building. They wanted to alarm if water was seaping into the manhole since it was in an office building. It worked very well. I will try and adapt the design into the next tank and send pics.

I now understand why the tank overflowed. The sump's capacity was pumped to the tank and the gravity return was blocked. Couldn't you then put in a float switch on the tank to shut the pump down in that case? You could even put in a flow switch in the return pipe that would be a permissive if it got blocked. However, I think Garsrtn's solution solves the blocked return pipe problem.

So I guess a problem that would need to be solved would be if your return pump failed, the sump would overflow. Hmmm. I'll have to think about that one. Maybe have a backup return pump sitting there ready. If water is sensed, the second return pump would turn on.

[71goalie]

I guess you could also install a solenoid valve on the return pipe. If water is sensed, pump turns off and solenoid valve closes. But these items could also fail, so I guess nothing is fool/fail proof.

[GarSrtn]

I have a float switch from Grainger that I could use to shut the pump off when the sump gets low. I've just been too lazy to hook it up. As to water proofing, it wouldn't have helped me. Since the main tank's drain was plugged, the water spilled over the top of the main tank.

[ByTor]

Glad it wasn't worse Chris.

Goalie71,
Build it and they will come! ;)

I could use a few different types of controllers. I have a few ideas to.. I see your from Easton, not to far from here. Something like 1.25hrs away.

I have frags :)

[71goalie]

I'll incorporate a prototype into my new tank design and start a thread on it's progress - design & construction.

I noticed you got a new computer bytor. how's it working out? you mentioned something about a card for your computer so you can connect a camera, etc. I bought a pinnacle systems studio version 8. it has a external box that you can connect any A/V signal to (radio, tv, vcr, camcorder) and record to your hard drive. then you can edit it with the software and burn it to a cd or back to a vcr, etc. it really works great. a little pricey. it is normally $300 at circuit city but i got a $100 rebate when i bought it.

i was going to come and meet you guys at zooqi's last frag meeting, but things didn't work out. hopefully next time.

[rspar]

Put an elbow on the suction of the pump and raise it up a bit.