An Almost Disaster
 

Got home tonight and as always, got my fish food together and went to the tank. Shut off all the pumps like normal and fed away. When I finish, I usually look at the sump level with pumps off to see if the antisiphon valves are working right and...OMG... the water is like 1/4" from the top. Turn the pumps on and watch the level drop, but when it stabilizes, it's still four inches too high. Panic!......I run around to the top-off tub and open it...yep, it's almost empty.

I figure about 15 gal of extra RO water in the system that shouldn't be there. Rifle around and find the right plug and disconnect it....run to the back room...grab the refractometer..back to the tank and do a quick test????? Whew!! only dropped to 1.0238. May was I in a panic.

I had not checked that top-off sensor for a few months and a crustation had started growing on it and jammed it. Fortunately, the sensor in the top-off tub stopped the flow when the water level there dropped too low. Lesson learned for me. That will go on my weekly list of things to check now.

As far as the salinity, I'll bumb it back up a little each week till it's back between 1.025 and 1.026.

You were lucky that you were feeding from a seperate tank rather than directly from the RO/DI. Glad you caught it quickly.

Doc

Do you think the quick drop in Salinity will cause any problems. I'm afraid to run it back up too quick and double whammy everone.

I would gradually increase it so you won't shock any invertebrates or corals.

Wow you are lucky. The way my system is going to be setup, I'll have two float switches...if one stick the other will help :) But my RO/DI will be directly tied into my tank as Doc stated, if you were setup like that without a failsafe, you would be SOL and crying :)

Glad things worked out and nothing has happened.

I would increase the sg by evaporation. Let it run without top off till you are back to your 1.025 or 1.026

deleted my post, someone already beat me to it :)

Great idea. I evaporate about 2 gal a day so that should work well. Thanks for the idea.

Boy do I love a story with a happy ending!

Think of it as a strong rain or hurricane just blew through the area.