My Last post here was 11/2005...please help

[stash98]

My story:

I built a nano reef tank(minibow) with barebottom. I had a custom filter built by a user here (CodeToad). It worked awesome...except for one thing, a snail got sucked into the power head (maxi 900) and nuked the entire tank.

I basically came home and was so bummed I took the tank down, and have been out of the hobby since.

I loved the barebottom look. It was the best tank I have ever owned, and I am considering reentering the hobby.

I have to refresh myself on everything though. And in 2 years a lot changes. I believe I had a piccolo skimmer in the tank also. I still have all of my stuff in storage.

Just wondering how to prevent the snail disaster from ever happening again, and what I need to update myself on since 05.

[fuzzyt]

Egg crate seems popular as its readily available and easy to work with. Other options are just about any mesh that would allow for the needed flow. I've even heard of people using the mats that you use to croche(sp?) to stop critters. Gutter guard also seems popular.

Welcome back!

[drummereef]

Your maxi-jet pump should have had a screen on the intake to protect it and your inhabitants. Was it a new pump?

[stash98]

Yes, the maxijet has a screen, but not big enough to stop a little snail from getting sucked in and chopped up. The tank went down quickly after words.

I bought the pump new in 05. maybe there is foam or something I can get for it, but will that slow the flow down? If I can get that handled, and get an auto top off system going that is not a pain to make, I may jump back in this hobby.

[Shagsbeard]

Probably a better solution is to rely on redundancy. In this case, use two powerheads. Anything that your tank absolutely needs to function should either be redundant or have an alarm if it fails. My tank beeps at me if the temp gets out of range, and has actually three powerheads in it. I currently have an auto top off, so there's day's of warning if evaporation becomes an issue. My autotopoff isn't a pain... it's a model of simplicity and cost less than $20. You can see a picture of it in my gallery.

[rob28]

Im in the process of building ATO, i found a good plan here
http://www.melevsreef.com/plumbing/auto_topoff.html

[meco65]

Good setup rob28

[stash98]

Originally posted by Shagsbeard
Probably a better solution is to rely on redundancy. In this case, use two powerheads. Anything that your tank absolutely needs to function should either be redundant or have an alarm if it fails. My tank beeps at me if the temp gets out of range, and has actually three powerheads in it. I currently have an auto top off, so there's day's of warning if evaporation becomes an issue. My autotopoff isn't a pain... it's a model of simplicity and cost less than $20. You can see a picture of it in my gallery.

Yeah I have 3 powerheads for this tank since it is barebottom. But once a snail hit the main one, well the tank was nuked. Nothing I could do about it when I got home and saw the cloudy water.

It sucks because the tank was perfect before that happened. The water was absolutely crystal clear and the livestock was incredibly colorful and healthy.