friendly reminder

[picoreefguy]

just wanted to remind everyone to check and secure your ato lines. i had a mishap this morning that lead to more than 8 gallons of water on to my carpet which i am now trying to soak up using towels. i had my ato line suction cupped to the side of my sump but i guess it came loose and the pressure from the pump kicking on must have knocked it out of the tank and since the tank didnt get any of that water the sensor never turned the pump off causing it to completely empty my almost full 10 gallon reservoir over the course of a few hours and since my ato pump is so quiet i didnt notice it till i heard the gurgling of it pulling air. so please learn from my stupidity and properly secure your ato lines.

 

[ghbrewer]

Brijesh,

Sorry to hear about the mishap, definitely worth bringing to attention.

 

[mattgee87]

Aw man I'm sorry to hear that. If you need any help I can be at your place after 4:30

 

[kilralpine]

Did this the other day on accident, now have my tubes secured. Sorry buddy!

 

[marquiseo]

Aww man that sucks. I know the feeling. It happened to me once.

Additionally to what Brijesh said, I would recommend everyone getting a wet vaccum. Spills happen and a wet vaccum can suck up the water better than towels. Luckily, we purchased one a year before my spill to clean the carpets in our apartment.

 

[picoreefguy]

thanks everyone
matt i should have it cleaned up by then but thanks for the offer

MarquiseO;978963 wrote: Aww man that sucks. I know the feeling. It happened to me once.

Additionally to what Brijesh said, I would recommend everyone getting a wet vaccum. Spills happen and a wet vaccum can suck up the water better than towels. Luckily, we purchased one a year before my spill to clean the carpets in our apartment.

thanks for that i totally forgot i have a mini wet vac somewhere in our storage building out back. ill be busting that bad boy out shortly

 

[picoreefguy]

and for those of you who cant/dont want to afford a wet dry vac heres a good alternative, all you need is a 5 gallon bucket and lets face it no self respecting reefer would be caught dead without at least 1 laying around.

 

[kilralpine]

OMG thats so sick! I have a wet shop vac but ill be buying me one of those! Never knew they existed

 

[rdnelson]

Picoreefguy;978968 wrote: and for those of you who cant/dont want to afford a wet dry vac heres a good alternative, all you need is a 5 gallon bucket and lets face it no self respecting reefer would be caught dead without at least 1 laying around. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Bucket-Head-Wet-Dry-Vaccum-BH0100/202017218">www.homedepot.com/p/Bucket-Head-Wet-Dry-Vaccum-BH0100/202017218</a>[/QUOTE]


I have both and use them all the time. Both in this hobby an my woodworking hobby.

 

[tonymission]

I have a shop vac but it's a pain in the butt sometimes. Gotta love the bucket head!

Also for those with an apex,
You can build in language to make sure your ato doesn't run over a max amount per hour in case something like this happens. you can reduce the damage and get sent an alert.

 

[mattgee87]

Tony do you have an example of that code? Or to send me an alarm if it runs for lets say 20mins

 

[jdw]

tonymission;978991 wrote: I have a shop vac but it's a pain in the butt sometimes. Gotta love the bucket head!

Also for those with an apex,
You can build in language to make sure your ato doesn't run over a max amount per hour in case something like this happens. you can reduce the damage and get sent an alert.

Those with ReefAngels, this also applies.

 

[picoreefguy]

tonymission;978991 wrote: I have a shop vac but it's a pain in the butt sometimes. Gotta love the bucket head!

Also for those with an apex,
You can build in language to make sure your ato doesn't run over a max amount per hour in case something like this happens. you can reduce the damage and get sent an alert.

yea ill have an apex before i put this tank into service so ill definitely be doing something like that.

 

[picoreefguy]

kilralpine;978988 wrote: OMG thats so sick! I have a wet shop vac but ill be buying me one of those! Never knew they existed

i had no idea they existed either till another member posted about it a year or so ago.
i havent got one yet but if/when my shopvac gives out ill definitely pick one up.

 

[dawgface]

The smart ATO regulates the amount of time "on" based on an average of the last three fills.

 

[marquiseo]

I have an actual wet vac but that works too! I have this one

 

[redstang]

Yeah, who would've guessed that our dog would crawl into the cabinet from BEHIND pulling out the ATO line and unplugging the return pump in one fell swoop. And this is on the first day of a 9 day vacation just over a week ago. Honestly surprised that more stuff wasn't unplugged and messed up.

Thankfully Nathan(Wildernet) drove over, on the morning of his birthday no less, to assist my father-in-law with getting everything back up. And no losses!

We got about 5 gallons of water pumped onto the floor.

 

[tonymission]

mattgee87;978997 wrote: Tony do you have an example of that code? Or to send me an alarm if it runs for lets say 20mins

Don't have that right now but I stole it from the Neptune forums. Basically I just have it set to power up the ATO for five minutes every 2 hours... If it powers up and the sensor determines that it needs a top off then it gets five minutes to do its job.

I have sump float switches rigged to the breakout box which would tell me if my sump drops too low (below the ato sensor) so if my tube were to fall out of the sump (it's bracketed so I doubt it) and wasn't topping off during the 5 minutes into the sump then the level would drop low enough to notify me and then shut off the return pump (could also indicate blocked drain) or dry return section.

Sometimes I think I'm more into the technology and fiddling around than anything else! Lol

 

[fierogtdude]

Sorry to hear this. At least it was only 8 gallons. I almost had the same thing happen a few weeks ago when my suction cup let go. The line was literarily hanging on the edge of the tank. x2 on the shop vac and a fan.