[AcroSteve]

And for the complete story about my redundancy.

Originally posted by AcroSteve
My sump is very remote from my tank. This is where my primary heaters and chiller are located. My chiller is fed from my return pump. Thus, if I loose my return pump, my tank will either cook from the lights, or get cold from low ambient temp in the winter.

Therefore, I have a two stage ranco controller at my tank. This reads actual tank temperature and will turn on a finnex heater hidden in the tank in the event of a low temp condition. In the event of a high temp condition, it will kill the lights until the temp drops.

My chiller and heaters at the sump are controlled by my aquacontroller. A failure of the temp probe on the aquacontroller results in an indicated temperature in the 50's. This will cause the heaters to stay on and cook the tank. In the event of a this problem, I have a single stage ranco at the sump that will kill the power to the heaters until the temp drops. I have 3 heaters in the sump that come on in two stages. The two stages are mainly for stability to smooth out the temp rise. But sometimes one heater will not keep up with the heat loss, and the other two must come online.

Currently, I do not have anything other than the Aquacontroller controlling my chiller. I am aware of this, and am currently comfortable with the risk. But I would like to replace the single stage ranco with another 2 stage to address this.

I have a high level float switch in my overflow that will turn off the return pump if the overflow were to become obstructed. However, this is very unlikely as I have two seperate overflows to the sump. Still, this could keep many gallons of salt water off of my carpet.

I have a low level float switch in the sump to turn off the return pump if the water level gets too low. I have this running through a time delay relay to eliminate rapid on/off cycling of the pump when the water level drops and starts sloshing around. This is to protect the return pump. The high level switch in the overflow also utilizes the smame time delay relay.

I have a spare dart pump for my CL and a Iwaki md-55 for the return. I have spare MH bulbs and one spare ballast. I try to keep enough salt to mix 2 or 3 hundred gallons of water just in case. I also keep several liters of carbon on hand. I do not have any now, but I should get some polyfilter to keep on hand too.


I use a check valve AND siphon break holes on my return lines.

Oh, I also have a backup generator that comes on line automatically if the power goes out. This will power the whole tank and part of the house. My aquacontroller will email me on a high or low tank temperature condition. But not ph, I am reading my reactor and not my tank.



With all this, there are still things that could be done.