Algae you don't see will be your doom!

[Gizmo]

Oi! 4am this morning, my wife and I wake up to the smell of burning rubber. What might that be you ask? Oh, thats electrical smoke from a cord for something completely unlreated to my fishtake... a stereo 10' away. (just incase someone starts yelling GFI!!! GFI!!!) Funny story... from an outside perspective I guess.

In one of my overflows of my 70g Puffer tank, A sheet of algae that must have been there since the dawn of glass, broke off the overflow wall and lodged itself into the drain line. This crap was like leather... SOLID and not letting any water past.. So, my system has 500+ gallons of water in it, which allowed to return pump to merrily continue pumping water into the tank. FLOOOOOOOD!!! Luckily the breaker popped and the cord stopped its journey to the world of inferno.

Let this be a warning to those, like me, who don't really care/notice whats going on in the overflows... Take out anything looking like it could breakoff and plug your drain. Well back to work at 6am now... mop, mop, mop.

[BlueTang<3]

well that sucks good thing it is in your level basement :wink: when i first started to read it i thought puff puff ate a cord lol cause if it lookes like anything he probally would eat it :lol:

[Gizmo]

Heh, yea that guy will eat ANYTHING! He's up to 4 shrimp and a couple of silversides a day... pig.

[soapy]

Drain as in singular? No dual drain Herbie style overflow? bummer. Floods suck. I am feelin' for you.

[lorenz0]

Drain as in singular? No dual drain Herbie style overflow? bummer. Floods suck. I am feelin' for you.

in a system of that size i for sure would consider adding an emergency drain. sucks to hear about this though

[whatcaneyedo]

All of you livestock is at least okay right? Cheep water-on-the-floor sensors and alarms are available as well as water level sensors that can be mounted to the top of your tank.

[Gizmo]

Yea, the tank that overflowed is an older display with only 1 corner overflow. :p The Main display has 2. I have 2 floor drains RIGHT there, but the lousy concrete finishers made them the highest point in the basement.... dumba$$es. I am going to be breaking out the concrete by the fishroom to add a 3rd drain, where all the water likes to pool (yep this isn't my first flood :rolleyes: But its difficult cause there is in-floor heating lines. Do you know where to get those flood sensors/alarms from? That would really come in handy.

Oh, yea and livestock is alll good.

[whatcaneyedo]

I bought some basic sensors (called GRI 2800) on ebay and wired them to my Neptune ACIII but if you're not into all-in-one controllers there are also these flood alarms: http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/product-info.php?product_ID=ro-flood