Had my first Disaster! Pissed!

[GottisEgo]

I guess I popped my cherry. I had my first overflow disaster. Here's the story.

Last night me and Fiance headed over to Tropical Isle and I picked up a sweet Kenya Tree. Head home, start a float acclimation for temp and started talk to her about how I need/want to upgrade to a Reef Ready 75 or 90Gallon. Explained to her how much of a piece of crap are those overflow boxes are and just how much room they take up. As I am talking about this, guess WHAT HAPPENS! For some apparent reason, my overflow box stops flowing to the sump and BAM!!!! My tank starts to flood, we start freaking out, I throw a Mag pump I use during water changes, grab a trash can and start expelling water from the tank in the the can....We lost maybe 5 gallons on my RUG but I guess it wasnt to bad.

I'd like to end this by saying, I will be purchasing in the very very very near future are RR Tank with better safety measures implemented.

Sorry for the rant!

 

[stingythingy45]

Any reason why your overflow stopped working?
It's a good thing that you were home and not still at T.I. when this happened.
I'm paranoid about this happening to my system as I have a 75 gallon sump in the basement.
That would be one heck of a flood.So I bought a high water float switch from autotopoff.com that shut the return pump off if the water level climbs in the display.I still didn't feel to comfortable with it so went out and bought a RR the other day.But I must say the Eshoppes overflow box has never lost siphon unless I pulled the tube out.

 

[Leroy]

I've also had a bad experience with an over flow but it was due to an experiment I wanted to test out but back fired. It did however lead to another idea as a preventative measure. I rigged a float valve in a pill bottle to the rim of my display tank and wired it up to a smoke detector. If the water begins to rise to a certain height the smoke detector will sound off. I had to modify the pizeo so I won't panic thinking the house was on fire. It'll still sound off if it detects smoke around my tank. It has gone off when I've added to many bags to acclimate water temp but shuts off when the overflow is in the sump.

 

[smithcreek]

were you floating the bag with the kenya tree in the tank? I stopped an overflow in a frag tank I used to have by doing that. The bag floated over and blocked it.

 

[Joel A]

psh 5 gallons is nothingg.. i had 45 gallons drop onto my rug and hardwood floor when a hose let go on a canister filter i was running... needless to say i got rid of that filter, replaced the rug, and did all new drywall ceilings on the bedroom in my basement...

and forgot to mention my brother almost electrocuted himself when he tried to shut the filter off (not that shutting the filter off would have done anything anyways, the siphon was already started).

Good luck with a new tank though... its the right thing to do =).

 

[JayM]

psh 5 gallons is nothingg.. i had 45 gallons drop onto my rug and hardwood floor when a hose let go on a canister filter i was running... needless to say i got rid of that filter, replaced the rug, and did all new drywall ceilings on the bedroom in my basement...

and forgot to mention my brother almost electrocuted himself when he tried to shut the filter off (not that shutting the filter off would have done anything anyways, the siphon was already started).

Good luck with a new tank though... its the right thing to do =).

Like he said: 5 gallons.......you're still in the minors
44 gallon brute full of salt water in my kitchen tipped over too....tile, rug, hardwood.... @2AM, IIRC

 

[GottisEgo]

WOW! My incident is small compared to some of you guys!

I still dont have a clue how this could have happened. The float bag was way on the other side of the tank and could not have ended up on the overflow side because of the middle brace. I'm having a huge problem with a big bubble in the U Tube in the box. No matter how many time I get rid of it, it comes back over time.

How will a RR solve these kind of issues. What are some of the measures everyone takes to keep a tank operational without any flooding?

 

[Joel A]

I was at my girlfriends house when my brother called panicking, but i'm sure 2 AM would be worse =).

I still win though, you only had 44 gallons

 

[Joel A]

WOW! My incident is small compared to some of you guys!

I still dont have a clue how this could have happened. The float bag was way on the other side of the tank and could not have ended up on the overflow side because of the middle brace. I'm having a huge problem with a big bubble in the U Tube in the box. No matter how many time I get rid of it, it comes back over time.

How will a RR solve these kind of issues. What are some of the measures everyone takes to keep a tank operational without any flooding?

A reef ready tank eliminates overflow boxes completely. It sounds like somehow your siphon broke, and with a reef ready tank there is no siphon to break, water will drain on its own, until the water in the display is below the line at which it drains =).

If i was setting up a tank again, i would certainly go Reef ready, as overflow boxes are a PITA.

 

[GottisEgo]

A reef ready tank eliminates overflow boxes completely. It sounds like somehow your siphon broke, and with a reef ready tank there is no siphon to break, water will drain on its own, until the water in the display is below the line at which it drains =).

If i was setting up a tank again, i would certainly go Reef ready, as overflow boxes are a PITA.

Makes sense. How would I have lost my Siphon?

 

[MikeG]

Makes sense. How would I have lost my Siphon?

Too much air getting trapped in the U tube. Some overflows use an aqualifter pump to pull a small stream of water out of the top of the Utube. Any air trapped there would be pulled out as well.

 

[MikeG]

I still dont have a clue how this could have happened. The float bag was way on the other side of the tank and could not have ended up on the overflow side because of the middle brace. I'm having a huge problem with a big bubble in the U Tube in the box. No matter how many time I get rid of it, it comes back over time.

This probably means it will happen again! Might want to get an RR tank soon, or drill yours.

 

[stingythingy45]

"I'm having a huge problem with a big bubble in the U Tube in the box. No matter how many time I get rid of it, it comes back over time."

U don't have enough flow.

 

[GottisEgo]

Flow from sump to tank or flow in the tank?

 

[JayM]

one drives the other. if you increase the return, the bubbles will get pushed through the u-tube

 

[stingythingy45]

Yup,
You need to push more flow on your return.
I have a 800 GPH Eshoppes U overflow.I buried that with my GenX then backed off some.Seriously I think it can REALLY only take 600 GPH.The bubbles should be going through that U tube like Hyperspace on Star Wars.
What size pump are you running?

 

[GottisEgo]

Yup,
You need to push more flow on your return.
I have a 800 GPH Eshoppes U overflow.I buried that with my GenX then backed off some.Seriously I think it can REALLY only take 600 GPH.The bubbles should be going through that U tube like Hyperspace on Star Wars.
What size pump are you running?

Eh, I think I see the problem. I am only running a Mag3, which is 350 GPH. Should I swap for a bigger one?

 

[reefsmurf]

A float switch that will turn off the return pump may help.
Keeping the return pump high in the overflow may help (sacrifice the pump and let it run dry and implode)

 

[GottisEgo]

A float switch that will turn off the return pump may help.
Keeping the return pump high in the overflow may help (sacrifice the pump and let it run dry and implode)

Do you think my Mag3 is not enough return flow? I'm starting to think it's not (even tho it's been going for almost 6-7 months lol)

 

[Joel A]

What size is your tank again?

I run a mag 9.5 on a 75 gallon tank with a 30 gallon sump, but i should really run a mag 7.

You might be better off with a mag 5 or a mag 7.