phisigs79 September 4, 2008 Share September 4, 2008 Come downstairs this AM as I am about to run out the door for work and i hear my pumps humming. Go to see whats wrong and it seems my Refug had overflowed about 25g of water on the floor (most went down the drain) and i didnt have but 5g of makeup water ready. Had to take apart my main pump and cool it down to get it running again (auto cut off when it gets too hot) and drain the refug in the sump to get things going again (minus the skimmer and refug). At the same time my top off ran for 10min and put out a little to much kalk water in my sump (float switch stayed open because of water level-lucking i have it set on a timer as well for 10min in case this ever happened) and i didnt realize it (checked the salinty and it was down .001 and didnt look cloudy) Turned the main pump on and the tank got alittle cloudy. PH was sitting at 8.4 when i left. Man this isnt helping me get back on track. Good thing temp was ok. The reef tank Gods arent looking over me. I'm ready to call it quits!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amuze September 4, 2008 Share September 4, 2008 Ouch. Hope it's all good when you get home and can straighten everything out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind September 4, 2008 Share September 4, 2008 Sorry to hear the bad news. Did you figure out why the refugium overflowed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st9z September 4, 2008 Share September 4, 2008 good lord sounds like a nightmare Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gioNVA September 4, 2008 Share September 4, 2008 Sorry to hear Chris. Probably won't help with your STN issue but I hope things turn out well. Did you ever set up that acrylic tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sen5241b September 4, 2008 Share September 4, 2008 Related tip: I always unplug my ATO when doing any maintenance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdytat September 4, 2008 Share September 4, 2008 Sorry to hear the unfortunate news. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJBoy98 September 4, 2008 Share September 4, 2008 Come downstairs this AM as I am about to run out the door for work and i hear my pumps humming. Go to see whats wrong and it seems my Refug had overflowed about 25g of water on the floor (most went down the drain) and i didnt have but 5g of makeup water ready. Had to take apart my main pump and cool it down to get it running again (auto cut off when it gets too hot) and drain the refug in the sump to get things going again (minus the skimmer and refug). At the same time my top off ran for 10min and put out a little to much kalk water in my sump (float switch stayed open because of water level-lucking i have it set on a timer as well for 10min in case this ever happened) and i didnt realize it (checked the salinty and it was down .001 and didnt look cloudy) Turned the main pump on and the tank got alittle cloudy. PH was sitting at 8.4 when i left. Man this isnt helping me get back on track. Good thing temp was ok. The reef tank Gods arent looking over me. I'm ready to call it quits!!!!!!!! Sorry to hear but after many ATO floods, I realized I needed 2 float switches to prevent it ever from happening. Hooked in squence but opposite polarity (is that the term?) so that if the water level is low, it'll turn on but if it's too high, it'll shut off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quazi September 4, 2008 Share September 4, 2008 (edited) Sorry to hear but after many ATO floods, I realized I needed 2 float switches to prevent it ever from happening. Hooked in squence but opposite polarity (is that the term?) so that if the water level is low, it'll turn on but if it's too high, it'll shut off. I have this redundant system setup. I hope and pray it continues to work so well! For ease of use, the best $100 I have spent in the hobby. BUT, for major problems if it screws up - PRICELESS! Edited September 4, 2008 by quazi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctreptow September 4, 2008 Share September 4, 2008 Not a good week for those named Chris.. Keep the faith and don't give up. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDiver September 4, 2008 Share September 4, 2008 sorry to hear about the mishap.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanman September 4, 2008 Share September 4, 2008 Come downstairs this AM as I am about to run out the door for work and i hear my pumps humming. Go to see whats wrong and it seems my Refug had overflowed about 25g of water on the floor (most went down the drain) and i didnt have but 5g of makeup water ready. Had to take apart my main pump and cool it down to get it running again (auto cut off when it gets too hot) and drain the refug in the sump to get things going again (minus the skimmer and refug). At the same time my top off ran for 10min and put out a little to much kalk water in my sump (float switch stayed open because of water level-lucking i have it set on a timer as well for 10min in case this ever happened) and i didnt realize it (checked the salinty and it was down .001 and didnt look cloudy) Turned the main pump on and the tank got alittle cloudy. PH was sitting at 8.4 when i left. Man this isnt helping me get back on track. Good thing temp was ok. The reef tank Gods arent looking over me. I'm ready to call it quits!!!!!!!! Be interesting to hear what caused you to run all that water out onto the floor... auto-topoff get stuck or something? bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveoutlaw September 4, 2008 Share September 4, 2008 Chris- You'll get through it man. It might be a rough trip, but don't give up. When you get your tank stabalized let me know and I'll get you going with whatever frags I can. Sorry for the bad luck dude. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Lazar September 4, 2008 Share September 4, 2008 Let us all know if you need help with anything. Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocko918 September 4, 2008 Share September 4, 2008 sorry to hear that chris. If you need me to hold corals let me know. Sounds like i should come over and talk about how everything is setup, maybe we can come up with other ideas for a fail safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phisigs79 September 5, 2008 Author Share September 5, 2008 Thanks guys. The Refug overflowed because a peice of macro cloged the overflow just enough to cause it to go over the edge. Got everything back in order. Never setup the acrylic tank because of space issues but i have another idea im going to try. Anyone program their topoff on their controller? Whats the programing look like? Thinking of attaching my top off to my AC Jr to turn on 4 times a day for 2 min and then also program it to turn off when the PH is too high. My topoff is a DIY consisting of one float switch on the power cord attached to a small power head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefmontalvo September 5, 2008 Share September 5, 2008 Glad to hear you found the suspect in the system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Lazar September 5, 2008 Share September 5, 2008 Thanks guys. The Refug overflowed because a peice of macro cloged the overflow just enough to cause it to go over the edge. Got everything back in order. Never setup the acrylic tank because of space issues but i have another idea im going to try. Anyone program their topoff on their controller? Whats the programing look like? Thinking of attaching my top off to my AC Jr to turn on 4 times a day for 2 min and then also program it to turn off when the PH is too high. My topoff is a DIY consisting of one float switch on the power cord attached to a small power head. I thought using my AQ to add topoff, but it got complicated so I stuck with the Spectrapure LLC-S. My question was "What if you underestimate the amount of time required to add enough topoff?" The system will slowly lose water and gain salinity. My goal is to be able to leave the tank unmonitored for two to three weeks, and I don't want to have to fiddle with the topoff rate from season to season as evaporation changes. The solution I came up with was to have a low level float switch, a high level float switch, and a normal level float switch. The low level and high level are backups, and don't activate unless there's a problem. The normal level float switch is normally closed and placed at the desired water level, and wired in series with your topoff pump. This way the AQ will try to turn the pump on for the 8 minutes per day, but the pump will only come on if the sump water level is below the normal float switch. Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phisigs79 September 5, 2008 Author Share September 5, 2008 with the top off running 4 times a day for 2 min you spread out the delivery of kalk water and reduce the salinty swing. Honestly right now i only dose at night and i have never seen a salinty swing from day to day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Lazar September 5, 2008 Share September 5, 2008 with the top off running 4 times a day for 2 min you spread out the delivery of kalk water and reduce the salinty swing. Honestly right now i only dose at night and i have never seen a salinty swing from day to day Oops. What I meant was that if you program the AQ to dose for eight minutes a day, but really need nine, your water level will fall a little bit each day until you intervene or until the sump gets too low. Top off requirement may vary from one month to the next based on heat and humidity, so what works now may not work perfectly later. My topoff goal is completely automated topoff, with no human intervention, so topoff through timing alone wasn't quite what I wanted without a complicated set of redundant float switches. This was more hassle than I want, and introduced other problems, so I stuck with the system which already works for me. Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanman September 7, 2008 Share September 7, 2008 I thought using my AQ to add topoff, but it got complicated so I stuck with the Spectrapure LLC-S. My question was "What if you underestimate the amount of time required to add enough topoff?" The system will slowly lose water and gain salinity. My goal is to be able to leave the tank unmonitored for two to three weeks, and I don't want to have to fiddle with the topoff rate from season to season as evaporation changes. The solution I came up with was to have a low level float switch, a high level float switch, and a normal level float switch. The low level and high level are backups, and don't activate unless there's a problem. The normal level float switch is normally closed and placed at the desired water level, and wired in series with your topoff pump. This way the AQ will try to turn the pump on for the 8 minutes per day, but the pump will only come on if the sump water level is below the normal float switch. Jon 2-3 weeks? You must have one big topoff water container! bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Lazar September 7, 2008 Share September 7, 2008 2-3 weeks? You must have one big topoff water container! bob Actually I don't use a topoff reservoir; my RO/DI feeds directly into the sump. I use the Spectrapure liquid level controller to control my RO/DI. It uses an air pressure sensor to control the RO/DI solenoid, and uses a mechanical float in the sump as a backup. It's worked well for me for the last 8 years, but I've purchased float switch as additional insurance...now I just have to install it. Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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