My first big disaster

colettem · 03/04/2006, 03:45 PM

Had my first big tank disaster today - Thought I would share it with you all - will be wortwhile if I can prevent someone making the same stupid mistake!
I'll describe my tank first so you can get a picture of what happened. My system consists of a 150g display and a 30g sump divided into a skimmer compartment, fuge and return compartment. I have a durso style standpipe in the corner over flow box. When the system was first set up there was a horrendous gurgling like water going down the toilet continually. The guy who installed the tank recommended sorting this out by placing an open pore filter sponge on top of the standpipe - worked a treat - but little did I know at the time - BIG MISTAKE.

During my maintenance session today for some reason (can't even remember why now) I switched off the return pump from my sump to the main display. When I switched it on again I noticed that the return compartment of the sump was draining dry and quickly figured out that there must not be enough flow getting down to the sump. Went to check the standpipe to find the piece of filter sponge had been sucked all the way down the stand pipe and was causing a flow limiting blockage right at the 90 degree bend at the bottom (unbelievable!). Tried to grab it with my very long graspers but couldn't get grip of it and just ended up pushing it in further. Did the same with a bit of wire with a hook on the end. Bit of sponge by this time was firmly wedged in the pipe. Had to end up sawing through the horizontal portion of the pipe just past the bend under the bulkhead to extract it. Of course this all happened just as all the shops are closing for the weekend. I've managed to restore flow but will have to wait probably until Monday to get an appropriate bit of piping to join it all back up. At the moment the water is splashing into the sump - I've had to shield all the electrics which are at the other end of the sump cabinet to prevent water from splashing on them (and an even worse disaster

).

Just hope I can find the right type of piping and glue on Monday. Saving grace is that I have no fish in the tank - just inverts so far which seem to have survived all the equipment being off for a while with no problems.

Sk8r · 03/04/2006, 06:11 PM

Ow. You might try a baffle of lighting-department egg crate or drilled plastic sheet to reduce the noise a bit.

colettem · 03/05/2006, 03:59 PM

Thanks for the tip. The nightmare continued today when we realised that the piping was a non-standard size that cannot be found anywhere (48mm) so couldn't get any fittings to get the hole in the pipe back together. Luckily though 40mm pipe was able to fit inside to give an inside join when welded with PVC glue. I've just switched the circulation on after 8 hours to allow it to cure. So far everything looks OK.

bertoni · 03/05/2006, 04:16 PM

Sounds like you dodged a bullet! You could look into a Stockman or Durso standpipe to reduce overflow noise, or maybe the Hofer Gargle Buster:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/domitron2/HGB/HGB.html

03/04/2006, 03:45 PM	#1
colettem Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: UK Posts: 191	My first big disaster Had my first big tank disaster today - Thought I would share it with you all - will be wortwhile if I can prevent someone making the same stupid mistake! I'll describe my tank first so you can get a picture of what happened. My system consists of a 150g display and a 30g sump divided into a skimmer compartment, fuge and return compartment. I have a durso style standpipe in the corner over flow box. When the system was first set up there was a horrendous gurgling like water going down the toilet continually. The guy who installed the tank recommended sorting this out by placing an open pore filter sponge on top of the standpipe - worked a treat - but little did I know at the time - BIG MISTAKE. During my maintenance session today for some reason (can't even remember why now) I switched off the return pump from my sump to the main display. When I switched it on again I noticed that the return compartment of the sump was draining dry and quickly figured out that there must not be enough flow getting down to the sump. Went to check the standpipe to find the piece of filter sponge had been sucked all the way down the stand pipe and was causing a flow limiting blockage right at the 90 degree bend at the bottom (unbelievable!). Tried to grab it with my very long graspers but couldn't get grip of it and just ended up pushing it in further. Did the same with a bit of wire with a hook on the end. Bit of sponge by this time was firmly wedged in the pipe. Had to end up sawing through the horizontal portion of the pipe just past the bend under the bulkhead to extract it. Of course this all happened just as all the shops are closing for the weekend. I've managed to restore flow but will have to wait probably until Monday to get an appropriate bit of piping to join it all back up. At the moment the water is splashing into the sump - I've had to shield all the electrics which are at the other end of the sump cabinet to prevent water from splashing on them (and an even worse disaster ). Just hope I can find the right type of piping and glue on Monday. Saving grace is that I have no fish in the tank - just inverts so far which seem to have survived all the equipment being off for a while with no problems.

03/04/2006, 06:11 PM	#2
Sk8r RC Mod Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Spokane WA Posts: 34,628 Blog Entries: 55	Ow. You might try a baffle of lighting-department egg crate or drilled plastic sheet to reduce the noise a bit. __________________ Sk8r Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp 78-80, nitrate .2. Ammonia 0. No filters: lps tank. Alk and cal won't rise if mg is low. Current Tank Info: 105g AquaVim wedge, yellow tang, sailfin blenny,royal gramma, ocellaris clown pair, yellow watchman, 100 microceriths, 25 tiny hermits, a 4" conch, 1" nassarius, recovering from 2 year hiatus with daily water change of 10%.

03/05/2006, 04:16 PM	#4
bertoni RC Mod Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Mountain View, CA, USA Posts: 88,616	Sounds like you dodged a bullet! You could look into a Stockman or Durso standpipe to reduce overflow noise, or maybe the Hofer Gargle Buster: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/domitron2/HGB/HGB.html __________________ Jonathan Bertoni

03/05/2006, 03:59 PM	#3
colettem Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: UK Posts: 191	Thanks for the tip. The nightmare continued today when we realised that the piping was a non-standard size that cannot be found anywhere (48mm) so couldn't get any fittings to get the hole in the pipe back together. Luckily though 40mm pipe was able to fit inside to give an inside join when welded with PVC glue. I've just switched the circulation on after 8 hours to allow it to cure. So far everything looks OK.