Tips to avoid leaks or flood in FOWLR tank

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by new but handy

keep the aquarium outside

I was just gonna say ...dont get into fish....... I could tell you about the time I first filled up my 110g to leak test it with the garden hose(I was by myself that day)....lets just say that, a garden hose under pressure coming loose from where you had it wedged, when you go outside to turn it off is a baaaaaad thing

[new but handy]

I have flooded my basement suite twice, both times I was working out of town.
I have a very patient girlfriend.

[xl2000]

Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated.

By the way you guys have very nice setups.

We had a flood two years ago in the middle of July during a thunderstorm and our sump pump in the basement decided to stop working that day. My wife and I were both at work and 4 inches of water across the basement cost nearly 35K to the insurance to repair and change a lot of the furnitures. That's why I want to try to avoid any more floods as much as possible.
I am sure there are lot of people that have had aquariums for years and never had floods.
I guess I just want prevent rather than fix things that could have been avoided right from the start.

Thanks

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

I woke up to about 40G of water on my floor this morning

RO/DI water though...left it on overnight and forgot. I still haven't set up a float valve, been putting it off but I will be doing that this weekend now!

That doesn't help much but I think if your in the hobby long enough, you end up with some sort of flood, big or small. Try to do a bunch of research and do your best to keep the water in the tanks. Over the years, none of my displays have ever flooded. Actually only ever RO water.

[fire&sputum]

Ro/DI water tip:
Buy the 4 gallon blue rectangular pail at walmart($5)- it has a small spout on one end. Put the pail next to the sink. Pt a 18" 2x4 flat on the counter under the pail on far side from sink. When you forget about your RO/DI (which I do all the time) it will just overflow into the sink since the pail is on a slight angle with the spout facing the sink. Negative of this is you only do 4 gallons at a time and then pour into bigger pails- positive is that you don't destroy your house when you forget about it. My 2 cents.

[golf nut]

It really isn't difficult, you just have to understand it.


Water enters the tank from the sump at a known gph, it needs to be drained, if you select the correct size return pump and the correct size drain the will never be any noise and never be a flood, you will not need a Durso nor will you need siphon holes if the return pipes go just under the surface.

If you decide to use a smaller drain hole than is required then you will get noise, caused by the drain turning into a siphon then losing siphon due to the flow increase, and repeating it's elf, then you read about Dursos and spend money buying something to fix the problem that you created in the first place by not using a bulkhead big enough to handle the flow.

Feeds from the sump need to go just slightly under the water, the depth they penetrate is a simple math formulea to tell you how much reserve space you need in the sump.

Fill the tank add water to the sump, turn on the pump once the tank and oveflow box are full then turn off all the power, the tank will drain to the sump as will excess in the overflow box and any back siphon from the return lines from the sump.


Now fill the sump to a level that you feel comfortable having it at, ie 2" below the surface, turn on the return pump and wait until the water is now moving through the system , you will see the sump level fall to its operating level, draw a line at that point and never add water to any more than that level when the system is running.

I will put money on it that almost any tank if installed with a 2" drain with a 1" return from the sump with almost any pump up to 1800gph will be silent, safe and have a zero chance of flooding.

[new but handy]

having 2- 2" drains, = peace of mind
having 1" return = safty
having a pump at less than 1800gph = easy

forgeting to turn off your ro. = The only thing anyone can gauruntee
come on everyone has done it