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BlueTang<3
04-15-2010, 09:02 PM
well got the call yesterday that there is water on the floor so i rush home from work to find the sump pouring onto the floor shut tank off temp is at 60 throw in every heater i can find salt at 1.015 drain water do quick water changes dump in prime water very red so i called me friend Bob to help move me tank and all its contents to his tank as my corals were starting to rtn quickly and we needed to act so corals and fish all went to Bobs house and 200 lbs rock is in a 50 gallon cube so out comes all the water sand reeks so i cleaned it all out new sand and well tank is refilling with new ro water out of all of this my fish bowl design auto top off running from my ro unit had failed both float switches 100 gallons on the floor figured out how much to drop that much salinity well all i can say is how upset we were and how much it hurts to see the fish and corals suffer a year of growth gone in minutes but with the drastic acting the damage was limited out of 34 fish we lost a long nose hawkfish and a chromis. as for all my sps i will see how they react but went and picked up a tunze ato and max going to have a 5 gallon reserve i just thought i would share my experience alnd a big thank you to Bob (The Codfather) for all his help

hillegom
04-15-2010, 09:05 PM
Sorry to hear of all your troubles. Glad you were able to quickly control the problems with a minimum of loss. Hope your corals make it.

MrsBugmaster
04-15-2010, 09:07 PM
wow, that sucks. I hope everything else pulls through for you. Good Luck.

no_bs
04-15-2010, 09:27 PM
Wow, that sucks. We hope all the best for you. Good thing for good reefers! Always good to have one near.

kien
04-15-2010, 09:39 PM
oh geez, sorry to hear this! Hope everyone else makes it through.

Did you find out what caused the sump overflow? Or did I miss that in your post?

BlueTang<3
04-15-2010, 09:43 PM
yeah what caused it was my auto top off had it directly from the ro uint to a solenoid to a fish bowl auto top off one with level control float and a high water level float and for some reason they both failed i regularly checked them as i was Leary about it but took it out and tested it on the floor for like a hour and worked every time well after the canister blew up on the ro unit on friday last week i had a dream about the float switches failing and well it happened so picked up a new tunze and a 5 gallon pail for top ups

Seamazter
04-15-2010, 10:32 PM
congratulations on zero punctuation in your post, that must be a record.
teasing you mate. all is fun.

BlueTang<3
04-15-2010, 10:39 PM
its off a black berry give me a break

Seamazter
04-15-2010, 10:42 PM
this is why i was making light of it, no hard feelings freind.
but surely it must be a record.

BlueTang<3
04-15-2010, 11:07 PM
It was no big deal i was poking back at you. There is a reason i am a mechanic and not a english teacher. Never really was fond of writing.

Flash
04-15-2010, 11:37 PM
sorry buddy! keep us posted on the progress!

outacontrol
04-15-2010, 11:50 PM
that really sucks, is everything ok now?

BlueTang<3
04-15-2010, 11:56 PM
Tank is right empty maybe 20 gallons of ro water all the livestock is all at bobs for the next to weeks till i recycle the tank. I will keep u posted but for the tank being 60 deg and salt at 1.015 i faired out. This was more of just a post to get people to rethink what there using for ato and the importance of checking it

BlueWorldAquatic
04-16-2010, 01:33 AM
Wes,

Give me a call if I can help with anything.

My warehouse is on the westend, and full of tanks, etc.. if needed.

You got my cell #.

Ken

BlueWorldAquatic
04-16-2010, 01:34 AM
Have you considered redundant float cut-offs.

I mean 1 for the ATO, and 1 for the RO unit?

Just a thought.

Ken

saltynuts
04-16-2010, 02:00 AM
if you need some more space for stuff. my tank is ready

Chase31
04-16-2010, 02:07 AM
well everyone already said they have room, but i do too, my tank may be small but its also pretty empty GL btw

BlueTang<3
04-16-2010, 04:05 AM
thanks for the offers but we got everything stacked in bobs sump/tank for two weeks while tank recovers.

Leah
04-16-2010, 04:10 AM
this is why i was making light of it, no hard feelings freind.
but surely it must be a record.

Hey, you spelled friend wrong. :lol:

Leah
04-16-2010, 04:12 AM
Sorry to hear about your tank. Hope it is okay.

Coleus
04-16-2010, 04:18 AM
Sorry to hear. I hope everything will be ok. This is why i always make sure my ato water just enough to fill the sum full and not overflow the sum though i have to refil itl every 3 days. I have seen some of my friends hook up their RO/DI unit directly to the ATO and got flooded floor and dying livestock because of failing float switches.

Switches are cheap to buy but costly when they failed

soapy
04-16-2010, 02:45 PM
My setup is similar to Coleus's, I use a reservoir that is 30 gallons with a tunze ATO and my sump has room for about 15 gallons of spare water in it. So in the event of a float failure the maximum amount of water on the floor is 15 gallons if the reservoir is full. 30 gallons in the reservoir will go about 2 weeks before it needs a refill. Long enough for a short holiday. Ideally the sump would have excess room for the total reservoir water.

Marlin65
04-16-2010, 02:56 PM
Same here both tanks run on a reservoir. I just refill them when they run low.
Sorry to hear about your tank hope it all recovers.

BlueTang<3
04-16-2010, 03:01 PM
yeah tank will turn around nothing i can do now except share my experience. If that tunze auto top off ever runs empty is there a shutoff for the pump ??

Joe Reefer
04-16-2010, 03:11 PM
yeah tank will turn around nothing i can do now except share my experience. If that tunze auto top off ever runs empty is there a shutoff for the pump ??

It will only run for approx. 10mins continuous then time out and shut off, it then has to be reset.

Coleus
04-16-2010, 03:43 PM
I also have the timer when the ATO pump run. This way, my pump does not run all days though the reservoir is empty

The Codfather
04-16-2010, 04:11 PM
Might have room for one or two more corals.
http://i617.photobucket.com/albums/tt252/codfather_2009/IMG_0567.jpg
http://i617.photobucket.com/albums/tt252/codfather_2009/IMG_0568.jpg

BlueTang<3
04-16-2010, 04:13 PM
yeah it looks pretty empty

The Codfather
04-16-2010, 04:16 PM
I could sell a few, make some room??