when i came home from school i was looking over at the tank and felt my socks were wet, the first thing i did was lift up my power chords and check if anything was on fire. then i noticed the overflow box lost syphon and the pump was pumping water over the tanks edge. i guess i am lucky since i caught it with only aprox. 5g on the floor, which means it was only leaking for a couple seconds. DO NOT KEEP ANY POWER CHORDS OR EXTENSIONS ON THE FLOOR, i am going to be spending the next few hours cleaning up the kitchen. sucks, since it is my second leak in about 2 years or so.
Almost Burned Down My House!!!!
- Thread starter blind1993
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Any aquarium device, power strip, etc., should be plugged into a GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interruptor) outlet. Hopefully, your outlets are these type. These kind of accidents are what they are made for.
If your tank equipment is not hooked up thru GFCIs, then get them installed.
Dave
If your tank equipment is not hooked up thru GFCIs, then get them installed.
Dave
I don't trust gravity.. It gets the best of me every chance it gets!
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A few tips.
1. Use an aqualifter or maxijet to siphon from the center of the U-Tube constantly. This will always assure that you will have a siphon. You can use the venturi on the exit of the maxijet to draw air from the u-tube.
2. Mount all of your powerstrips in an area where water cannot drip on them. To easily mount a power strip press a piece of paper against the back of the strip to make indentations of where all the mounting holes are. Screw the piece of paper to the stand and you're ready to hang your strip. You'll need something in the range of a 1/2"or 3/4" #4 or#6 screw. Go to any hardware store and read the packages, you'll see what I'm talking about.
1. Use an aqualifter or maxijet to siphon from the center of the U-Tube constantly. This will always assure that you will have a siphon. You can use the venturi on the exit of the maxijet to draw air from the u-tube.
2. Mount all of your powerstrips in an area where water cannot drip on them. To easily mount a power strip press a piece of paper against the back of the strip to make indentations of where all the mounting holes are. Screw the piece of paper to the stand and you're ready to hang your strip. You'll need something in the range of a 1/2"or 3/4" #4 or#6 screw. Go to any hardware store and read the packages, you'll see what I'm talking about.
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I trust physics. Never lost siphon in my overflow box. If it's set up properly, there should be nothing to worry about. The question is why did it lose siphon?
I had one of those CPR overflows, it was the best thing ever! Had an aqualifter with it and never had a problem. The aqualifter assures that the siphon will start correctly. It draws water from both sides of the overflow to create the siphon. Pretty smart thinking. So as long as you have water in the back chamber of the overflow (which you always should unless it's set up completely wrong) then you'll never have an issue.....unless something gets stuck in the U tube or cross over section...however it's setup.
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If the return pump kicks off, the water level will decrease until the edge of the teeth are reached. That will stop the water flow on the back side of the box. If the powerhead is drawing water out of the top of the tube, it will be pumping it back into the tank, thus causing a slight increase in the water level, and the water to overflow back into the box and up the tube. It's the same principal as running the overflow box in the first place and returning the water to the tank, just takes a short cut and circulates the water from the tube back into the tank and back into the overflow.
If set up properly, there is no reason why it should lose siphon. Any micro bubbles will easily be pushed through the tube. The only way I can think of it breaking siphon is if is flowing too little water (return pump is too small). When the water splashes down into the overflow box, bubbles will go up the tube. These would normally be carried out of the tube just fine, but if the return pump is too small and the flow is not strong enough, the bubbles will build up at the top of the tube and could possibly cause the siphon to break. I tested my current setup by putting an airstone in the overflow box for a few minutes. Tons of bubbles flowed into the U tube, and were carried straight out, no problem. I suspect the flow was too low and/or the pump is too small for blind's overflow box.
And always try and mount power strips off the ground so you can incorporate a drip loop and keep things like this from happening.
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Reef ready tanks never fail, overflow boxes with or without pumps do fail.
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sage advice. I never thought of making a template for mounting. I always made exacting measurements that were always slightly off. :doh:
I make templates, but I get the holes by using a pencil technique....you know where you shade over an uneven surface with the pencil and you get an image of what is under the paper....rubbings..that's it. I get rubbings of the strip slots, cut them out then use them to position the mounting screws.
Dave
I would. A GFCI is easy to install. Basically swapping out an outlet. Just make sure you flip the breaker at the box to cut power to the outlet you are replacing.
You really only need one GFCI if you place it first in line.....meaning that power outlets are usually daisy chained to each other....one outlet feeds another which feeds another and so on down the wall. If you Install a GFCI upstream in the chain...every outlet you feed power to from that will have GFCI protection as well. A GFCI only costs about $14 from Lowes...just make sure you have power turned off to the receptacle before you replace it with the GFCI. Safety first!
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Know what you mean, I'll cut a board 2 or 3 times and it will still be too short.
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GFI and circuit breakers are a little different. When you have curent going to ground, ie water making a circuit for you, the GFI will trip. Only an overload or a short will trip a normal brealer.
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