- Joined
- Mar 10, 2012
- Location
- Rocky Mountains BC
Okay, so the almost impossible happened.
I have a 125 with the dual overflows, the allglass one. I went away for a week and came back to a soaked floor and dark tank (tank sitter slacked after the first 4 or 5 days). Anyway, what happened never should have happened:
Overflow one runs past the sump light, and it's evidently been on long enough that algae had grown in it (clear pipe), and almost choked the flow. No problem, there's still overflow 2. Overflow 2 got blocked with a snail shell. A BIG one, that there is no way it could have gotten through the mesh on the overflow pipe. Took me 5 hours to find it in an elbow.
So because two overflows were badly restricted it trickled over the top of the tank, and eventually hit a pump power supply, which killed the GFCI and eventually all power to the tank. Kind of a total freak of nature happening that of course happened when I was away. Luckily, limited losses, but coral isn't super happy.
NEW BUILD:
Same tank, but no more leaks on the main floor so this is going downstairs. New sump that has a lot more space for water, and lines up with the overflows so no more elbows or long pipes....
Going to run 2 dedicated lines from the service panel, both on gfci's. One for the mains (apex etc) and a second for a backup set of return pump/heater/circ pump. That way if one fails I have the second. Right now I was using a huge UPS battery for the backup. Will run a pump for about 12 hours but not a heater, that drops it to 2 or 3 hours.
I figure if I set up the new tank I can slooooowly move sand/subrstrate etc from the old tank and get the two as close as possible in params. I'll use water change water from the main tank for the first while, and let it go through full cycles. I'm also going to start with a strip of T5's this time, and then bring the LEDs over. I want to work on the "non-led-lit" colour of the corals, and I think I need a couple of T5's to run for a while each day to help that.
The frame I have now is steel and rusted to hell, is there any good wood stand builds on here that you can point to? I know I've seen a couple of 2x6 builds but not sure if they were here or elsewhere. I think that's the route I'm going to go this time, and a hood that is mounted to the ceiling instead of just perched on the glass. It's been fine for 12 years, but still it must add stress to the whole setup.
I have a 125 with the dual overflows, the allglass one. I went away for a week and came back to a soaked floor and dark tank (tank sitter slacked after the first 4 or 5 days). Anyway, what happened never should have happened:
Overflow one runs past the sump light, and it's evidently been on long enough that algae had grown in it (clear pipe), and almost choked the flow. No problem, there's still overflow 2. Overflow 2 got blocked with a snail shell. A BIG one, that there is no way it could have gotten through the mesh on the overflow pipe. Took me 5 hours to find it in an elbow.
So because two overflows were badly restricted it trickled over the top of the tank, and eventually hit a pump power supply, which killed the GFCI and eventually all power to the tank. Kind of a total freak of nature happening that of course happened when I was away. Luckily, limited losses, but coral isn't super happy.
NEW BUILD:
Same tank, but no more leaks on the main floor so this is going downstairs. New sump that has a lot more space for water, and lines up with the overflows so no more elbows or long pipes....
Going to run 2 dedicated lines from the service panel, both on gfci's. One for the mains (apex etc) and a second for a backup set of return pump/heater/circ pump. That way if one fails I have the second. Right now I was using a huge UPS battery for the backup. Will run a pump for about 12 hours but not a heater, that drops it to 2 or 3 hours.
I figure if I set up the new tank I can slooooowly move sand/subrstrate etc from the old tank and get the two as close as possible in params. I'll use water change water from the main tank for the first while, and let it go through full cycles. I'm also going to start with a strip of T5's this time, and then bring the LEDs over. I want to work on the "non-led-lit" colour of the corals, and I think I need a couple of T5's to run for a while each day to help that.
The frame I have now is steel and rusted to hell, is there any good wood stand builds on here that you can point to? I know I've seen a couple of 2x6 builds but not sure if they were here or elsewhere. I think that's the route I'm going to go this time, and a hood that is mounted to the ceiling instead of just perched on the glass. It's been fine for 12 years, but still it must add stress to the whole setup.
