The Gods must be angry
 

Well once again, I come home to a dead tank, could have been worse.. how I am not sure.. it would seam before I left for holidays I was filling up the top off to make sure it was full so Brad wouldn't have much to do.. well our plans changed and I ended up leaving 15 min early and forgot about the water as it was before the timer went off.... so when Brad stopped by 3 days later to feed the fishies and such he called me and asked if there should be a river flowing out of the garage... to make a long story short Brad ended up sweeping the water out of my garage and adding salt to the tank in an effort to try save something.. I can only hope some of the bugs in the rock made it but everything else didn't.. guess a fresh water reef won't work after all.. oh well its a good thing I didn't have much in there except my Brain and about 200 bucks worth of new frags from Safari.

Steve

Aww man that's awful. Easy mistake to make I guess.

crappy
 

very sorry to hear Steve. thats pretty crappy to have happen twice in two years.

Heck even once in two years would suck major...well we know where I'm going with this.

shucks Steve.. that a tough one to take.
I'd be thankful that happened now while there wasn't much in there yet.

What rotten luck. Hopefully you can salvage the rock. Sorry to hear that Steve :neutral:

What happened exactly, so others can learn from this unfortunate occurance and not make the same mistake.

Its not just about luck, I'm sure a series of timers and/or float switches could have been used to prevent something like this.

Lets figure out a system so it can't happen again

nothing that fancy, it is a temporary tank holding 60 lbs of rock 4 corals and a clownfish while I clean out my big tank, it has only been running for 3 months or so and every week I turn on my RO (with out the booster pump) for between 1 hour and two hours to top off the water. well I was topping it up and had the timer set but we got messed up and left before the timer went off so I forgot to shut it off. Plain and simple stupidity.. my main tank has a float valve top off system that has worked flawless in 4 years with only a 5 min cleaning every 6 months.

Steve

Still sucks to hear!!!

Thanks guys, ya it has been a string of events and I probably really should have done this at the same time as the last one but the tank came back so I didn't want to inter fear with it..

The rock is the main concern as I can get frags easy enough, but I think after it re-cures all I need to do is buy a new hunk of rock (or borrow some ones sump rock for a month or so) to reseed the rocks... I have to look again but the big pee off is all the coralline is probably gone off the rocks.

Steve

At least you didn't lose too much, could have been worse!

For those following along who might want to avoid this type of accident:

You could install a float switch that connects to a sprinkler solenoid to shut off the water supply to the RODI when the tank is full.

I run my RODI for a set time every day on a timer that controls a sprinkler solenoid. This approximates the amount of water I evaporate every day, then I just watch my water level, and about once a week I turn the timer to kick it on if I am low.

an even better way is to run a float valve in the sump and use your RO only to fill a header tank. this is what I do on my main tank as I have a 110gal header tank of RO water. I have seen setups like yours fail quite often. The only failure in mine was trying to do to much at once with packing getting the trailer hooked up and getting ready to get the kid from school, so the only mistake was absent mindedness.

setting up something this elaborate for a tank that is supposed to be up only for a couple weeks is nuts.. just a string of arising things made it so mine ended up being up for a few months. I wouldn't do anything different if I had to do it again except make sure I fill it the day before I go on holidays instead of the morning of.

Steve

I disagree, because this will not shut off your waste water production, because it doesn't control the water source to the RODI unit. If you just install a float valve, you will continually pump waste water down your drain.

For a float valve system, you need a hydraulic valve plumbed into the RODI (comes with some RODIs like Aquasafe I just learned).

I bought a hydraulic valve for my AquaFx unit, and it failed, because my output line is long, and the pressure build-up never got high enough to trigger the hydraulic valve. This is why companies like spectra-pure make pressure bladders to install.

How did they fail exactly? I would rather rely on an electric solenoid than a pressure activated switch any day.

I doubt you are setting up a reef tank for only a couple weeks and then tearing it down before it has even cycled, so buying the equipment and setting it up is not crazy, because you can use it on your reef for a long time. Plus it obviously isn't crazy, it would have saved your live rock, and it would have paid for itself many times over in wasted salt and dead frags.

first of all What are you talking about??? Me things you need to re-read what I have set up. My RO is not on continuously, only about 4 hours a month on my main set up. what I have is a RO which I turn on once a month to top off my reservoir, then it is shut off. the top off for the main tank enters the sump from the reservoir through a float valve Via a Kalk reactor. so when the float is up there is no water entering the sump when it is down it allows water to enter. there are no electrical solenoids or pressure valves in the system. it is the tried and true method of controlling the level in your sump, and only takes about 5 min of maintenance about once ever couple months (If you don't use a Kalk in your make up water, it doesn't even take that.

what are you taking about again... cycled??? I took cycled rock and water from my main tank and put it into a holding tank, I am taking same rock and putting it into a cleaned tank of new water, there won't be any cycle. if nothing would have come up and I would have been able to do it when I wanted to it would have been two weeks start to finish. So buying the equipment would have been a waist of money as I already have it set up on the reef and after 2 weeks of use I would be trying to sell it at a stupid loss for basically brand new stuff.

Steve

If you are connected to a reservoire, then I am referring to controlling the RODI water into the reservoir.

And I mean in general, most people aren't going to setup a tank for a couple weeks only, so the tank wouldn't even be cycled yet.

I repeat:
Quote:
I have seen setups like yours fail quite often

How did they fail exactly? I would rather rely on an electric solenoid than a pressure activated switch any day.

Steve

Sorry to hear, ive had this happen too but not over a three day period.

So do you remember a time where you were thinking.....Did I shut the water off....... :)


Wendell

RG, go hijack some other thread !

So sorry to hear of the loss!

Even so, thats not going to do NEARLY as much damage as losing your system.... this might loose you a couple dollars in water that is going DOWN A DRAIN, thats it.

This is not the thread's point either, a forgetful thought is the cause, not faulty equipment. No offense, but I think you try to push your ideas on top off systems too much.

Chris

actualy no I didn't, I was having to much fun with the +35 degree temps in the Kamloops area :cool:

Steve

no direct connection to the reservoir, just manual on and off like I said about 4 hours once a month . I also use my RO for drinking water so I have a T and two valves coming out, one goes to a filling line for my water cooler bottles and the other goes to my top off reservoir.

as for solenoids failing yes I see it all the time, at work and a few in the hobby, they are electrical and break down just like heaters and sometimes they break down properly and some times they don't. I have seen them just stick open, electrically fuse themselves open, break open, ect..

Steve

Sorry to hear the news Steve :sad: