No electricity here until 4pm

[Jan]

This stinks.

[YHSublime]

What happened Jan? The whole neighborhood?

 

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[sachabballi reef]

Your tank ok? At least it's during the day so you can run out for supplies etc. Let me know if i can help

 

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[Jan]

Electric company is working on something. I think its the whole neighborhood.

[Jan]

Thank you. My tank's ok. I have a generator going.

 

Your tank ok? At least it's during the day so you can run out for supplies etc. Let me know if i can help

 

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[Coral Hind]

That bites. The generator is a great investment for this hobby, I'm glad you have one!

[swimmatte]

Not to hijack the thread but what do people suggest running if you have a limited amount of juice from your generator? If I ever lost power I'd have to run some refrigerators and maybe some heat, which would leave me with a limited amount of available power. Would you just run heat and flow?

[Jan]

Yes, heat if it's cold and flow. Took this opportunity to take advantage of lights out and dose red slime remover. I do this once s month.

[Jan]

What bothers me is that my sump overflowed. That has never happened before. Something must be blocking the valve. Could have been much worse. I started bailing water from sump to tabk until Jeff got the generator going.

 

How do I fix that?

[swimmatte]

Yes, heat if it's cold and flow. Took this opportunity to take advantage of lights out and dose red slime remover. I do this once s month.

 

See, everything happens for a reason.

[John]

Ironically, I just lost power for an hour...

[flooddc]

Check the return if it's lower than the water in DT, then that what cause it to flow back into you sump.

[MBVette]

I know part of Haymarket and parts of South Riding just lost power for an hour also. What is going on today

[xabo]

What bothers me is that my sump overflowed. That has never happened before. Something must be blocking the valve. Could have been much worse. I started bailing water from sump to tabk until Jeff got the generator going.

 

How do I fix that?

 

Not sure how your return piping is setup, but if you can, drill a small hole in the piping just below the water line to break the siphon.

[Origami]

Check the return if it's lower than the water in DT, then that what cause it to flow back into you sump.

+1. If you've adjusted the output of your return down lower in the water than it's been in the past and don't have a siphon break (or a check valve) installed, then the return will reverse flow, becoming a siphon, when power is lost and will fill your sump. If the return is low enough, the sump will overflow.

 

This is a good example to remind people that don't know how their setup will behave in the first few minutes of a power outage to manually pull power on their system to simulate and supervise a power outage to identify and resolve just this kind of risk. Be ready to plug the tank back in right away if the sump looks like it's going to overflow and then fix the problem.

[monkiboy]

jan - when you said something must be blocking the valve, did you mean a check valve? if so, are you running one of the more expensive fisher wye valves or the cheaper union rubber flapper valves?

 

glad to hear you have a generator!

[Jan]

I think it is a union rubber flapper.

[Jan]

Nope, not drilling. I have no clue what I'm doing with drills, plumbing and the like.

[Jan]

Why did it work before without needing to he drilled?

[countryboy]

Glad you have generator! I think everyone with a saltwater tank should invest in one, too much too lose

[monkiboy]

Why did it work before without needing to he drilled?

well it sounds like you have a check valve that is failing. presumably, it was not failing before and prevented water from siphoning into your sump from your display. the cheaper rubber flapper union check valves can water-hammer allowing water to get by in the opposite direction, or simply fail/clog easily. you're better off using some redundancy and either having a sump that will fit the water siphoning down and having a check valve, or drilling a hole like described above to break the siphon via air, and/or raising your returns. if you're going to use a check valve, use a fisher wye check valve - MUCH higher quality, different materials and design and doesn't water-hammer or fail as the rubber flapper more commonly used ones do. it's also a lot easier to clean and maintain - http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/catalog/product/view/id/1747/

[hypertech]

Sometimes its junk built up in the overflow teeth. If you have a little bit of algae in the teeth, then the water level in teh tank is probably al ittle high. A little bit on a surface area much larger than your sump can be enough extra water draining before the siphon breaks to overflow the sump.

[Jan]

Oh, nice. Looks easy to clean. Ok, I'll let you know when I get it so you can stop by and install it for me?

 

well it sounds like you have a check valve that is failing. presumably, it was not failing before and prevented water from siphoning into your sump from your display. the cheaper rubber flapper union check valves can water-hammer allowing water to get by in the opposite direction, or simply fail/clog easily. you're better off using some redundancy and either having a sump that will fit the water siphoning down and having a check valve, or drilling a hole like described above to break the siphon via air, and/or raising your returns. if you're going to use a check valve, use a fisher wye check valve - MUCH higher quality, different materials and design and doesn't water-hammer or fail as the rubber flapper more commonly used ones do. it's also a lot easier to clean and maintain - http://www.bulkreefs...t/view/id/1747/

[Jan]

I am forever grateful for my generator. It has been the best investment I've ever made for this hobby. No joke!!! $300.00 paid for itself over many times now. The poser came back at about 4:15. My generator was running since 9am.

[Coral Hind]

It sounds like it was well worth the cost for the generator as that is a long time for a tank to go without power. Is the generator big enough to keep the freezer going too so the product's don't thaw out? The generator would be a good write off for your business.