Guess what! UPGRADE TIME

[kien]

Originally Posted by mrhasan

Had a check valve but forgot to place it

Have you installed the check valve? If not, then are you planning to? Looking at your sump there doesn't look like a lot of room for back flow in the event of a power failure? Hard to see in the pic to determine for sure though. Did you design the sump with room for back flow in the event of a power failure or were you going to rely entirely on the check valve?

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by kien

Have you installed the check valve? If not, then are you planning to? Looking at your sump there doesn't look like a lot of room for back flow in the event of a power failure? Hard to see in the pic to determine for sure though. Did you design the sump with room for back flow in the event of a power failure or were you going to rely entirely on the check valve?

Nop not installing check valves. I won't be getting any sort of back siphon since the return nozzles remains above the water level while running; it gives a very pleasant waterfall sound (not the irritating one). And I have simulated many power failures till now and the maximum level (after like 30mins of keeping the pump off) is like this:



So there's still room for around 2/3 gallons I presume. The DT looks like this after power failure:

[kien]

Have you tested the powerfail with your skimmer running? The skimmer will hold some water that will dump back into the sump as well. As will any reactors that you might run (carbon, gfo, etc).

While that does appear to be working well in terms of flood resistance, I myself would lose sleep over trusting that those return nozzles stay at that level forever and always. Here's what Murphy could possibly do to you one day...

You are in the tank and decide to move the nozzles away temporarily so you point them down while you are working in the tank. Or maybe you bumped them down by accident. Or maybe I guest was playing around and moved your nozzle. You are done working in the tank and forget to return the nozzles back to their upright position. Power fails while you are away from the tank. FLOOD.

I suspect you will be keeping a close eye on those nozzles for a while but if they get moved while you are not home that could be disaster waiting to happen. Or you may be tired one day and forget to check on the tank to make sure those nozzles have not moved either by accident or on purpose.

At any rate, I would lose sleep over those nozzles :-) With a check valve you would give yourself a larger margin for error here and since you already have the check valve, why not install it?

Or if you really want peace of mind without the check valves, install all your equipment, point the nozzles down all the way (this being the position that they could accidentally be placed in even if you don't intend for them to run this way during normal operations) and do a power fail to see if your sump holds the water. If not, drop the level of your refugium enough so that your sump does hold all the water in the event of a power fail.

Just my two cents :-)

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by kien

Have you tested the powerfail with your skimmer running? The skimmer will hold some water that will dump back into the sump as well. As will any reactors that you might run (carbon, gfo, etc).

While that does appear to be working well in terms of flood resistance, I myself would lose sleep over trusting that those return nozzles stay at that level forever and always. Here's what Murphy could possibly do to you one day...

You are in the tank and decide to move the nozzles away temporarily so you point them down while you are working in the tank. Or maybe you bumped them down by accident. Or maybe I guest was playing around and moved your nozzle. You are done working in the tank and forget to return the nozzles back to their upright position. Power fails while you are away from the tank. FLOOD.

I suspect you will be keeping a close eye on those nozzles for a while but if they get moved while you are not home that could be disaster waiting to happen. Or you may be tired one day and forget to check on the tank to make sure those nozzles have not moved either by accident or on purpose.

At any rate, I would lose sleep over those nozzles :-) With a check valve you would give yourself a larger margin for error here and since you already have the check valve, why not install it?

Or if you really want peace of mind without the check valves, install all your equipment, point the nozzles down all the way (this being the position that they could accidentally be placed in even if you don't intend for them to run this way during normal operations) and do a power fail to see if your sump holds the water. If not, drop the level of your refugium enough so that your sump does hold all the water in the event of a power fail.

Just my two cents :-)

Thanks for the heads up I am getting ready to get the skimmer in and test how things are. I will also try the power failure with nozzle pointed down too. Things are not going very smoothly like I wanted it to be

[kien]

Originally Posted by mrhasan

Thanks for the heads up I am getting ready to get the skimmer in and test how things are. I will also try the power failure with nozzle pointed down too. Things are not going very smoothly like I wanted it to be

Part of the fun are the challenges that we face and overcome :-)

Look at it this way, it's better to find a problem now when there is no livestock in the tank and you are at home to immediately identify and resolve any found problems, rather than have the problem spontaneously occur later down the road when you are not home and you have a tank full of inhabitants. So ya, it's a bit of a pain now and I know you're just itching to fire it all up, get that rock in there, start adding livestock, etc, but if there is something that you can feasibly do to mitigate Murphy's influences you should invest the time (and possibly money) up front to do them.

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by kien

Part of the fun are the challenges that we face and overcome :-)

Look at it this way, it's better to find a problem now when there is no livestock in the tank and you are at home to immediately identify and resolve any found problems, rather than have the problem spontaneously occur later down the road when you are not home and you have a tank full of inhabitants. So ya, it's a bit of a pain now and I know you're just itching to fire it all up, get that rock in there, start adding livestock, etc, but if there is something that you can feasibly do to mitigate Murphy's influences you should invest the time (and possibly money) up front to do them.

I guess

Tuning the overflow is killing me!

[kien]

Originally Posted by mrhasan

I guess

Tuning the overflow is killing me!

There could be worse things to be worrying about though (and you will eventually worry about those too -LOL0, trust me :-)

With regards to the herbie, do you have your ATO yet? Are you testing the herbie with the skimmer running? Those things will affect your herbie as well so trying to get it perfect right now might simply be a fun time killing exercise at the moment :-) Honestly I would not worry about getting it just right. That can come later. Instead, dial it so that the water level is low and near the main drain or high and near the emergency drain. You'll get some gurgle but who cares right now. You're not done with all the other stuff that needs to go into the sump (ATO, skimmer, refugium media, filter socks, etc). All that stuff can affect your herbie and it is when all that stuff is installed that you should really worry about trying to dial it in just right. Or you can keep playing with it and frustrating yourself ad nauseam :-)