Vincerama2
Supporting Member
My hardwood floors are one step closer to total destruction.
The other night, my daughter said "Hey Dad, you need to add more top off water, the sump is nearly empty!" so I thought "Oh my gosh, did I really neglect the top off reservoir that badly?" so I added some water and got started on the RO filing up another 5 gallons.
I was dumb and should have looked first, but I did eventually lift the canopy cover and then noticed that the display tank water was all the up to the brim.
I shut off the ATO, but it was too late and on the floor was about a half gallon of water. I mopped it up but it tends to get stuck UNDER the tank stand so I know the floor there is totally ... well, four letter word.
My tank has two overflows, but clearly my return pump is too strong for just one standpipe, and it's outlet was subnmerged for sound so that must have added back pressure to it. I eventually randomly turn each one on and off to see if I could figure out which one was clogged and it was the right side intake. On a lark, I put my hand in the overflow and stuck a finger into the bent "durso standpipe" inlet of the pipe and felt something quite mushy. I knew that it was an anemone. I went and turned off the return pump again and got some buckets to reduce the lever of overall water and when I checked, I couldn't feel the stupid anemone anymore, even after taking the bent PVC piece off. So I opened and closed that drain a few time and suddenly it was cleared.
I realized at that point that my sump is running with way too high of a water level as it could JUST barely handle the water level with the return off, and the DT could just barely handle the level of the pumped out sump. So yesterday I adjusted the ATO's water level down to give me more leeway for the next disaster.
'Everything seems to be running fine, but I was then wondering ... did I really feel an anemone? Or was it a clump of algae because I've been hand-harvesting it and it's quite slimey too. Today I looked into the sump with a flashlight and ... yep... there's an anemone sitting in the return section!
I looked at the overflows and I think I know how it got there. The overflows are the horrible (horrible because they are massive and take up so much footprint) AGA/Oceanic/Aqueon MegaFlow overflows. They have slots at different levels, but at the top they also have cut-outs for the return and overflow pipes to stick out of the tower and into the DT. I believe this sneaky guy walked through the semi-circular cutout (About the size of a 1 inch pvc pipe.
I guess I'll have to find a way to cover that hole now...
Just had to rant, I hate floods, but I'm glad that idiot is doing OK and I'll return him to the DT where he can get proper lighting.
V
The other night, my daughter said "Hey Dad, you need to add more top off water, the sump is nearly empty!" so I thought "Oh my gosh, did I really neglect the top off reservoir that badly?" so I added some water and got started on the RO filing up another 5 gallons.
I was dumb and should have looked first, but I did eventually lift the canopy cover and then noticed that the display tank water was all the up to the brim.
I shut off the ATO, but it was too late and on the floor was about a half gallon of water. I mopped it up but it tends to get stuck UNDER the tank stand so I know the floor there is totally ... well, four letter word.
My tank has two overflows, but clearly my return pump is too strong for just one standpipe, and it's outlet was subnmerged for sound so that must have added back pressure to it. I eventually randomly turn each one on and off to see if I could figure out which one was clogged and it was the right side intake. On a lark, I put my hand in the overflow and stuck a finger into the bent "durso standpipe" inlet of the pipe and felt something quite mushy. I knew that it was an anemone. I went and turned off the return pump again and got some buckets to reduce the lever of overall water and when I checked, I couldn't feel the stupid anemone anymore, even after taking the bent PVC piece off. So I opened and closed that drain a few time and suddenly it was cleared.
I realized at that point that my sump is running with way too high of a water level as it could JUST barely handle the water level with the return off, and the DT could just barely handle the level of the pumped out sump. So yesterday I adjusted the ATO's water level down to give me more leeway for the next disaster.
'Everything seems to be running fine, but I was then wondering ... did I really feel an anemone? Or was it a clump of algae because I've been hand-harvesting it and it's quite slimey too. Today I looked into the sump with a flashlight and ... yep... there's an anemone sitting in the return section!
I looked at the overflows and I think I know how it got there. The overflows are the horrible (horrible because they are massive and take up so much footprint) AGA/Oceanic/Aqueon MegaFlow overflows. They have slots at different levels, but at the top they also have cut-outs for the return and overflow pipes to stick out of the tower and into the DT. I believe this sneaky guy walked through the semi-circular cutout (About the size of a 1 inch pvc pipe.
I guess I'll have to find a way to cover that hole now...
Just had to rant, I hate floods, but I'm glad that idiot is doing OK and I'll return him to the DT where he can get proper lighting.
V
