Reef nutrition

Almost cause a (small) flood in the living room...

newfly

newfly

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Being a cheap ass, i bought some bulk 100 micron polishing filter pad for the DIY media rack (replace the filter sock). I have some course filter material before this pad.

Work up this morning and the water level in the DT is 0.1 inch from the top. The filter pad started to get clog in <24 hours, and water the in back chamber drop and ATO start pumping more water.
Salinity drop from 1.025--> 1.023 overnight. Should have gotten the 200 micron pad. I thought most filter sock is 100micron, but filter sock do have 3x the area for water to pass through.

Worst case even if the ATO pump dump all the water in the reservoir, i suspect ~1g will overflow. Still will make a mess in the living room. I'll need to drop the water level lower, so in case this happen again the DT can take all the 3-4G ATO reservoir water.






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Sounds like this an all in one tank. This wouldn't happen in a tank with a sump. Newfly, I would consider putting a float switch in your display connected to your return pump. That way if the water level gets too high it would shut down the return. I did this way back in the day when I ran a HOB overflow.
 
Even in my system with a sump I have seen similar issues. I have to clean the overflow weir to keep algae from growing on it. I couldn't figure out why my dt water level was so high (I stopped running socks 2 years ago). The algae was growing enough to restrict waterflow and do the same with my ATO. Luckily for me, my sump can hold the extra, but it is a good reminder to keep an eye on your main flow channels and look for obstructions. If you are going to run a filter sock, consider having a second path for water to flow in case this happened again.
 
iani said:
Sounds like this an all in one tank. This wouldn't happen in a tank with a sump. Newfly, I would consider putting a float switch in your display connected to your return pump. That way if the water level gets too high it would shut down the return. I did this way back in the day when I ran a HOB overflow.
Click to expand...

The varios pump have a float switch. Right now its set to turn off if the water level is too low (prevent dry run). I can switch it to turn off when too high. easy enough.

I'll also drop the overall water level in the DT. My RO reservoir is only 3-4G. The DT need to be able to handle 3-4G dump in situation like this.
 
Not sure how your sump is designed, but usually sump overflow section is designed such that if pad or sock clogged, water would overflow from the compartment.

Using filter pads is the way to go for sure. You can control your nutrients, improve your skimmer efficiency and reduce the need to clean pumps.
I do not like socks cause cleaning it is pain and the thought of using a washing machine to clean socks is not good..

I use this filter pad as a disposable filter. I change it every 3 days. usually Buy in bulk (20 at a time) and cut to fit my sump overflow section. As mentioned above in my case of filter is clogged the water will overflow and no harm is done..
 

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Last edited:
ofzakaria said:
Not sure how your sump is designed, but usually sump overflow section is designed such that if pad or sock clogged, water would overflow from the compartment.

Using filter pads is the way to go for sure. You can control your nutrients, improve your skimmer efficiency and reduce the need to clean pumps.
I do not like socks cause cleaning it is pain and the thought of using a washing machine to clean socks is not good..

I use this filter pad as a disposable filter. I change it every 3 days. usually Buy in bulk (20 at a time) and cut to fit my sump overflow section. As mentioned above in my case of filter is clogged the water will overflow and no harm is done..
Click to expand...
I have a AIO. I’m still using filter pad, just the courser one.
 
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