Interesting discovery...

[seedless reefer]

We had a pretty good storm tonight and power went out.

My ultra battery backup came on just like it was supposed to.

Backup has LCD readout and it showed load at 20% and maximum battery life. However, instead of gradually diminishing, the power bars (like cell phone signal bars) just went down.

Back up gave me a warning that only 5 minutes remained. Backup only lasted an hour so the investment was incorrect. I will post the brand and model # as a product to avoid.

During this time I checked the system to make sure nothing was overflowing.

This is the first time I have ever looked at this tank with a flashlight.
I saw all kinds of critters just like when we watched Lindas tank when we first set it up. Shrimpy lookin things, bristle worms and those fast running bugs that look like they should be on land BUT when I inspected the fuge there wasn't a one. Zero, zip, nada.

Does this strike anyone as strange? I believe what I just learnd was I have my sump, fuge, return hooked up wrong.

 

[gwen_o_lyn]

Are you saying that when the power goes out your system might overflow?

How is your sump/fuge/ and return hooked up?
I have 3 sections in my sump. The far leftside are the skimmer and one drain, the middle are the returns, and the right is the fuge with the other drain.

 

[gwen_o_lyn]

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[seedless reefer]

What I think is that if the back up were not there it is possible the hob overflow could overflow the sump with no pump running to pull the water out to the return pump.

The return pump line has a siphon break and it works fine.

The only way for me to know for sure would be to shut everything down and to see just how far the water comes into the sump.

I have a new setup including an emergency overflow in the works but right now runs hob overflow to sump and skimmer than drained into fuge and then to return pump to display.

 

[flyingarmy]

Once you get any system set up utilizing a overflow, the only way to test it is to turn everything off just like in a power outage.

 

[roundman]

I have thought about the ups issue and did you have lights and everything on the ups? I use a lot of ups's of varying sizes and the small ones are designed to keep a computer up until you can shut it down and not run on it for extended time. I think if you had only the return pump on the ups you might get a good long time. Only put what is absolutly necessary for the tank on the ups.

 

[jefft]

One of the things I did when I set my sump up was check how full it got with power off. I then adjusted the return line to break siphoning before the sump overflowed. I was getting worried the first time I did. The biggest worry I have with mine is when power comes back on. I'm hoping the siphoning starts back up or I will overflow my display tank. I have a little pump that is suppose to help the HOB start, but.

 

[dakota9]

The beauty of canister filters.....

Found out when I got home at midnight that my power went off for an hour at some point yesterday...... But tank was running as it should. What went off during the outage came back on afterwards. No worries at all

 

[budsreef]

jefft;72407 wrote: One of the things I did when I set my sump up was check how full it got with power off. I then adjusted the return line to break siphoning before the sump overflowed. I was getting worried the first time I did. The biggest worry I have with mine is when power comes back on. I'm hoping the siphoning starts back up or I will overflow my display tank. I have a little pump that is suppose to help the HOB start, but.

I did the same and it worked just fine last night when the power went off and I wasn't home. I have the same worry about the siphon breaking at some time so I have mine balanced where there is not enough water in the return chamber to overflow the top tank. However, once the water gets down to the top of the pump it sucks in a lot of air and I imagine if left alone it would eventually burn out.

I'm going to get an ATO unit and hook it up so that the return pump will turn off if the water level reaches the upper limit switch in the top tank or if it reaches the lower limit switch in the return chamber.

I've got power heads in both tanks so if the ATO shuts off the return pump I'll still have flow in both tanks.

 

[jefft]

Most ATO modules will auto shut of after x number of minutes in case a float gets stuck. I'm thinking of putting a float running to a relay to control my return pump. I did build a little stand in my sump to raise the level of the pump so it wouldn't pump the sump compartment empty. If only you could lower the water level in the main tank and drill it in place that would be nice.