The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread

It poured. I had a power failure last night. It didn't last long but when the power came back on my downdraft skimmer backed up and overflowed. This kind of skimmer is very sensitive to back pressure and usually overflows a little every time it starts up until it gets going. Something must have changed to cause more back pressure or faster flow and it overflowed the waste container. About two gallons went into the basement. It goes right through the cracks in the hardwood floor. Luckily it is self limiting, as the sump level goes down so does the back pressure. A bigger waste container will prevent this in the future but it will have to be at least five gallons.
Not what you want to be dealing with when you first wake up.

[Wolfgang]

I guess you can literally say you woke up to a sh!t storm Hope all the livestock is well.

Everyone is fine. I had to add five gallons of fresh water but that is not much dilution to 120 gal. I will check the salt level when I get home. I have a plan to fix this problem, so it won't happen again. It will be something different next time.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

It poured. I had a power failure last night. It didn't last long but when the power came back on my downdraft skimmer backed up and overflowed. This kind of skimmer is very sensitive to back pressure and usually overflows a little every time it starts up until it gets going. Something must have changed to cause more back pressure or faster flow and it overflowed the waste container. About two gallons went into the basement. It goes right through the cracks in the hardwood floor. Luckily it is self limiting, as the sump level goes down so does the back pressure. A bigger waste container will prevent this in the future but it will have to be at least five gallons.
Not what you want to be dealing with when you first wake up.

What kind of downdraft to you have?
I have an ETSS and they make a great container that has a ping pong ball and when it fills, it automatically shuts the skimmer down as it takes the air away from it.
Needless to say, it has saved me on many occasions.

Originally Posted by Blueface

What kind of downdraft to you have?
I have an ETSS and they make a great container that has a ping pong ball and when it fills, it automatically shuts the skimmer down as it takes the air away from it.
Needless to say, it has saved me on many occasions.

It's an ETSS and I have the air tube routed to the waste container so that if it fills then the tube goes under water level and shuts off. Unfortunately, some air can still leak in around the top of the downdraft, as it is not airtight. It had all night to slowly overflow. Drip by drip. I'm lucky it has the other way of being self limiting. There would be one more failsafe as the sump got too low to pump back to the tank.
The trouble is that the pump is directional CW vs CCW. It works better one direction. If the power goes off and back on quickly enough the backflow will reverse the pump. This must have happened before the last time I adjusted it. When the power went off again the flow returned to normal. I am going to put a delay relay on it so if it turns off it delays going back on for like 5 minutes. This will allow the sump to return to normal levels too. Less back pressure to begin with. I could also figure a way to seal the top of the downdraft. Maybe just some electrical tape.
Always something.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

It's an ETSS and I have the air tube routed to the waste container so that if it fills then the tube goes under water level and shuts off. Unfortunately, some air can still leak in around the top of the downdraft, as it is not airtight. It had all night to slowly overflow. Drip by drip. I'm lucky it has the other way of being self limiting. There would be one more failsafe as the sump got too low to pump back to the tank.
The trouble is that the pump is directional CW vs CCW. It works better one direction. If the power goes off and back on quickly enough the backflow will reverse the pump. This must have happened before the last time I adjusted it. When the power went off again the flow returned to normal. I am going to put a delay relay on it so if it turns off it delays going back on for like 5 minutes. This will allow the sump to return to normal levels too. Less back pressure to begin with. I could also figure a way to seal the top of the downdraft. Maybe just some electrical tape.
Always something.

Do you use the waste container from ETSS?

I love BlueLine or Iwaki Japanese pumps.
BlueLine is made by the guy that made them for Iwaki Japan that went on his own.
The American Iwakis are good too but not as good as the Japanese.
Can never go wrong with those guys.

Originally Posted by Blueface

Do you use the waste container from ETSS?

No, it's a plastic two gallon goldfish tank. The air intake line hangs half way to the bottom, so it should never fill up more than that, in theory.

I love BlueLine or Iwaki Japanese pumps.
BlueLine is made by the guy that made them for Iwaki Japan that went on his own.
The American Iwakis are good too but not as good as the Japanese.
Can never go wrong with those guys.

It needs to be submersible for my setup. Running a Quietone 3000HH (high head). I have both of those other pumps. No difference between them as far as I can tell.
The Quietone is from before the company got bought out. It is high head because of the directional impeller. There is a trick they do to the motor to make it always start the same direction but it can be forced to run backward if the backflow was pushing it that way to begin with. I guess I could build a new sump/refugium with external pumps but this has served me well for years. A time delay relay is very easy for me and ensures that the pump will always start statically in the right direction.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

No, it's a plastic two gallon goldfish tank. The air intake line hangs half way to the bottom, so it should never fill up more than that, in theory.


It needs to be submersible for my setup. Running a Quietone 3000HH (high head). I have both of those other pumps. No difference between them as far as I can tell.
The Quietone is from before the company got bought out. It is high head because of the directional impeller. There is a trick they do to the motor to make it always start the same direction but it can be forced to run backward if the backflow was pushing it that way to begin with. I guess I could build a new sump/refugium with external pumps but this has served me well for years. A time delay relay is very easy for me and ensures that the pump will always start statically in the right direction.

I would really look into the ETSS container. It works real well. None of the ETSS skimmers are air tight in the columns so that is normal. The container goes for about $100 but ever since I did that, never had any overflows again.

This is only my second overflow. The first was for a different reason. That's why I said that if I fix this it will be something else next time. Murphy, you know.
On a different track, I was watching my tank when the light went off and noticed my tang swimming strangely. Then I saw the cleaner shrimp come out and service her. She opened up her gills and let the shrimp go inside. As soon as the tang was done the hawkfish came over for his turn. Happy fish!

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

This is only my second overflow. The first was for a different reason. That's why I said that if I fix this it will be something else next time. Murphy, you know.
On a different track, I was watching my tank when the light went off and noticed my tang swimming strangely. Then I saw the cleaner shrimp come out and service her. She opened up her gills and let the shrimp go inside. As soon as the tang was done the hawkfish came over for his turn. Happy fish!

I love that "car wash" effect and how they all line up for the cleaner shrimp.
Cool stuff.
Too bad I can't have them anymore. With the size of my Emperor Angel and how long it has been since he has seen one, I don't think they would stand a chance.

i don't think cleaner shrimp should be so expensive. They are almost the same as peppermint shrimp but twice the price. I put peppermint shrimp in my tank but even if they are in there I can never see them.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

i don't think cleaner shrimp should be so expensive. They are almost the same as peppermint shrimp but twice the price. I put peppermint shrimp in my tank but even if they are in there I can never see them.

Cleaners here run around close to $20 each.
That is one massively expensive meal to give my Emperor.

Well that was sweet!

Just wrote a few policies for a guy and I had a bottle of calcium that I had bought sitting on my desk and we got talking about fish and tanks, turns out the guy breeds Percula Clowns. He signed the papers and left like normal, about 20 minutes later he shows up with 2 percula clowns that are 6 months old about 1 inch long or so. hand them to me for free. That was pretty cool!

[shilala]

Originally Posted by darb85

Well that was sweet!

Just wrote a few policies for a guy and I had a bottle of calcium that I had bought sitting on my desk and we got talking about fish and tanks, turns out the guy breeds Percula Clowns. He signed the papers and left like normal, about 20 minutes later he shows up with 2 percula clowns that are 6 months old about 1 inch long or so. hand them to me for free. That was pretty cool!

That is cool.

They are so much better in pairs. I hope they are true percs. False percs are buttheads.

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

They are so much better in pairs. I hope they are true percs. False percs are buttheads.

yup they are true percs. Georgous coloring, already pairing up nicely. Ill try to get some pictures of them tonight if i get home before lights out.

I rerouted my water circulation lines. It used to go: high head sump pump-->chiller-->skimmer-->sump and high flow sump pump-->wave maker-->tank-->overflow to sump. Now it goes: HH pump-->skimmer--->sump and HF pump-->chiller-->wave maker-->tank-->overflow.
This increased the skimmer so much that I have to throttle the pump flow now. Before I had to throttle the return from the skimmer to increase the back pressure. I may be in danger of overskimming the tank, if that's possible.
The wavemaker is a T-shaped device in the pump line that has a turbine that alternates the outgoing flow about once every 15 seconds to opposite sides of the tank.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

I may be in danger of overskimming the tank, if that's possible.

Not in my book.
The bigger, the more, the better.
If there is nothing to skim, great, it won't.

[Smoking Dragon]

I got home on Saturday and have good news to report. All my water tests were good, I think my son misread a test or two. The salinity was really high, 1.028, I added 3 gals of freshwater and now it's back down to 1.021. I found a few fish to use as feeders that will live in the salt water. I am hoping that Fred, my chainlink moray eel, will learn how to hunt again. He is trying but is still a little slow. Thanks for all the advice that I recieved when I had questions.

Sarge

[Smoking Dragon]

I need suggestions for aquarium supplies. I will be getting a 75 gal tank soon for Fred, my eel. It will be for him and possibly about 6 other fish, in time. I think that i will not be doing the reef thing for quite a while. I want to learn about maintaneing a salt water tank first before I get more advanced. Is there a better filter I should get. And what other accessories should I be looking for.

Sarge