paul b August 9, 2013 Share August 9, 2013 If you are in this long enough, and if you live long enough, you will have "a" flood, more likely, many floods but if you are lucky, you won't have to build an ark.This week we are watching our Granddaughter Greta and we took her to breakfast then to the pool. On the way out I noticed my skimmer along with the new bio ball chamber was empty. That happens if the five gallon bucket under it fills. There is an auto shut off that prevents floods. It has almost always worked unless I forget to position the bucket under the drain from the skimmer. But when you are watching a one year old, strange things happen.I am not sure why the bucket filled but it did. I think it was because I just added this bio ball chamber as a test and yesterday I dumped it out to adjust something and I know those bio balls do not like to stop tumbling.Anyway, I started up the skimmer and we ran out to take Greta to breakfast and the pool. When I came home and checked the skimmer. OMG, Noah's flood. The skimmer was overflowing like crazy and the effluent was pouring on the floor. The tank is in a closet in the finished basement with furnature, rugs and all. About an inch of water came out of the tank, but it keeps filling, great. So I shut the skimmer, get the shop vac and start pulling stuff out of the closet. Being a fish Geek, I know floods are inevidable so most of the stuff on the floor in that closet is water proofed. But we have our high school albums, old projectors and wedding movies in a plastic bag as well as about 100 old record albums. Records are round things that spin and music sticks to it. I wanted an excuse to dump them anyway, but unfortunately they didn't get wet enough to dump. As I was cleaning the floor I also noticed a fish laying there. He must have known that I would be upset at the flood and commited suicide. He is a small fish and I don't know what it is yet. I have a lot of small fish that I have no idea what they are anyway so I am not all broken up about him. My salinity is now probably so weak I can keep kissing gourami's in there along with the corals but I am not sure if kissing gourami's are reef safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smallreef August 9, 2013 Share August 9, 2013 Lol Only you can make a joke about a flood and a dead fish Paul! Hope everything else gets sorted out when you have a chance..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami August 9, 2013 Share August 9, 2013 How much water did you lose, Paul? I once lost about 15 gallons suddenly out of my tank when a hose became dislodged and my ATO kept trying to refill the tank. I was fortunate that I caught it early and the salinity only crashed a bit. Since the salinity crashed so quickly, I just hung a nylon stocking containing salt in the sump with just the toe sticking in to allow salt to dissolve relatively slowly back into the water and to raise the salinity again. Sorry for the small fry. Maybe some mouth-to-mouth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flooddc August 9, 2013 Share August 9, 2013 Hope you set everything back to normal soon. GL People still keep records and yet they don't have a record player Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind August 9, 2013 Share August 9, 2013 That bites! It does happen to just aobut every tank owner eventually. I find that having my top off on a timer so it can only run for five minutes a day is enough to fill the tank for evap but not enough to drop SG or allow a flood to continue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ohaverd August 9, 2013 Share August 9, 2013 that sucks man! I have flooded my basement at least once a year since I started this hobby a few years ago. Shop vacs are a "must buy" in this hobby IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sachabballi reef August 9, 2013 Share August 9, 2013 Awwww Paul sorry!! Hopefully all is OK now... This is exactly why I started my waterproofing thread And your post us enough to get me started this weekend...thanks for the kick in the pants I needed lol Are you sure that's a fish and not a NY amphipod? Lol Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b August 9, 2013 Author Share August 9, 2013 Floods do happen, but this was my fault as I was in a hurry. I don't know what that little fish is, I have so many small fish, it may have been a cardinal as I have 2 schools of them and I don't really know how many I have,. I still have my record player and own probably every record ever recorded. I am looking for a reason to dump them as they are heavy and take up a lot of room. For the salinity, I just pour some salt into the UG filter, in an hour, it will be back to normal. I guess I lost about 5 gallons, I didn't really lose it, I know where every drop is. Most of it is soaked up into the box with an old Bell and Howell projector and the record box. If I didn't come home when I did, I would have had no water in the tank as that pump is near the bottom of the tank. These are small problems (not for that fish, I bet he thinks it was a disaster or maybe he figured there was more water on the floor than the tank, so he would follow it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sachabballi reef August 9, 2013 Share August 9, 2013 Sell those records....you can sell them individually for the ones with value and as a lot for the others... that's what we did last year. Will keep you in salt and black worms for another year or so for free Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami August 9, 2013 Share August 9, 2013 Hey, while we're on the topic of disasters... what brand heaters do you run and how long have they been serving you? Ever have one fail catastrophically? Heaters seem to be the second-weakest link in our systems. We being number one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b August 9, 2013 Author Share August 9, 2013 Hey, while we're on the topic of disasters... what brand heaters do you run and how long have they been serving you? Ever have one fail catastrophically? Heaters seem to be the second-weakest link in our systems. We being number one. Tom, really? Are asking me what kind of heaters I have? I think they are made of wood and run on whale oil, I have no idea what they are. But they are probably from my fresh water days in the 60s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami August 9, 2013 Share August 9, 2013 Tom, really? Are asking me what kind of heaters I have? I think they are made of wood and run on whale oil, I have no idea what they are. But they are probably from my fresh water days in the 60s Wood and whale oil? LOL. Well, I'm glad they're holding up for you. Some members have had them crack, shatter, explode, and fail "on" - some brands appear more reliable than others, so I thought I'd see what you were running - even if they are antiques now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sachabballi reef August 9, 2013 Share August 9, 2013 Hey, while we're on the topic of disasters... what brand heaters do you run and how long have they been serving you? Ever have one fail catastrophically? Heaters seem to be the second-weakest link in our systems. We being number one. Ooh I'm too superstitious ....you just jinxed him...lol..or me for chiming in....ugh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami August 9, 2013 Share August 9, 2013 I've yet to hear of a wood and whale oil heater failing. Paul's may be the last one in use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime August 9, 2013 Share August 9, 2013 Wood and whale oil? LOL. Well, I'm glad they're holding up for you. Some members have had them crack, shatter, explode, and fail "on" - some brands appear more reliable than others, so I thought I'd see what you were running - even if they are antiques now. Do you think they are still under warranty? Paul, sorry for the troubles. Always a good reminder when it happens to somebody else to double check everything. And what the H-E-double hockey sticks is a record What kind of glue makes the music stick to it?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b August 9, 2013 Author Share August 9, 2013 These things are not problems, but just interesting things that happen in every day to day life. You just have to accept them and try to not let it happen again. Tom, I am not stupid enough to use one large heater, I use 3 smaller ones so if one fails, who cares? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holedup82 August 9, 2013 Share August 9, 2013 (edited) These things are not problems, but just interesting things that happen in every day to day life. You just have to accept them and try to not let it happen again. Tom, I am not stupid enough to use one large heater, I use 3 smaller ones so if one fails, who cares? Perfect outlook +1 When i first got in I created a flood cleaning up a flood......i know talented Edited August 9, 2013 by holedup82 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Integral9 August 9, 2013 Share August 9, 2013 I had a similar experience after I hooked up my biopellet reactor. Except it was just my skimmate cup that overflowed into the sump rather than all over the floor. But yeah. After you hook up the biopellets the skimmer will go into overdrive as the bacteria is hydrophobic and likes to get pulled out of the water. I've had to completely rethink how I skim and now I wish I had a bucket w/ a float valve to shut it off in case it started to overflow. now I have my skimmer dialed all the way down and every time I feed i get about an inch of skimmate in the cup an hour later. It's very easy to let it overflow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b August 9, 2013 Author Share August 9, 2013 My skimmer has a 5 gallon bucket for the effluent that I only empty maybe once a month or two. But I was in a hurry, babysitting my Grand daughter so I didn't position the bucket correctly and for some reason (probably the bio pellets) the skimmer kept overflowing and all of it went on the floor. The bucket has a shut off in it. I connected wires to a GFCI and they are in the bucket. If they get wet, it trips the GFCI that controls the pump. But if the water is going on the floor, instead of the bucket, it don't work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami August 9, 2013 Share August 9, 2013 These things are not problems, but just interesting things that happen in every day to day life. You just have to accept them and try to not let it happen again. Tom, I am not stupid enough to use one large heater, I use 3 smaller ones so if one fails, who cares?Three wood and whale oil heaters.... Let me explain. In one case, a member's heater exploded and blew out a panel on her sump. In a different case, a heater broke and dumped a lot if copper in the tank. A major manufacturer recalled a bunch of heaters a few years ago for casing failures. Redundancy does not help those situations, but reliability does. I simply wondered what your experience was with heaters of different brands but that's off topic. Hope your salinity has been restored and all is well. (Sent from my phone.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami August 9, 2013 Share August 9, 2013 My skimmer has a 5 gallon bucket for the effluent that I only empty maybe once a month or two. But I was in a hurry, babysitting my Grand daughter so I didn't position the bucket correctly and for some reason (probably the bio pellets) the skimmer kept overflowing and all of it went on the floor. The bucket has a shut off in it. I connected wires to a GFCI and they are in the bucket. If they get wet, it trips the GFCI that controls the pump. But if the water is going on the floor, instead of the bucket, it don't workThat's a novel way of shutting the pump down. Cool. (Sent from my phone.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k August 9, 2013 Share August 9, 2013 wanna trade all those albums for a box of salt? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Djplus1 August 9, 2013 Share August 9, 2013 Hope you set everything back to normal soon. GL People still keep records and yet they don't have a record player I've got 4, thus the screen name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
londonloco August 10, 2013 Share August 10, 2013 Back in the late 90's I bought a used 125g freshwater cichlid tank that came with a canister filter. Never had a canister filter before, didn't know you needed to put clamps on the hoses. Oops, 12 hours later I woke up to 100 gallons of water seeping from the first floor to the basement floor. I didn't let the kids go to school until we were finished filling it back up, I didn't own a "Python No Spill" yet, we had to fill the tank back up with pots of water, so it took a couple of hours. After driving the kids to school, I bought a python and clamps. Can't imagine it happening with a saltwater tank. Luckily you only lost one fish and a few gallons Paul. Hope all is back to normal now.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b August 10, 2013 Author Share August 10, 2013 (edited) wanna trade all those albums for a box of salt? How big a box? I have like 20lbs of albums Edited August 10, 2013 by paul b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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