Apex just saved my tank….and my house

[wdebenedettojr]

For anyone that is on the fence with getting a controller or questioning the benefits of one, one of my apex’s saved my reef tank and house today.

Long story short, one of my Bartlett anthias jumped into my overflow and took a ride down to my sump, well partially. He got stuck in the hose where it connects to my sump and was slowing the drain. Tank started to overfill due to the partial blockage.

I was in the other side of my house (thankfully I work from home) when I started getting notification from the app that my sensors were detecting a water leak; first time that’s happened to me. I shot up and ran over and smelled that electrical burn and as I looked behind the tank this power cord started to spark and smoke. Fortunately I got it to it right away so I was able to stop a potential fire.

I implore people, especially people that own their home, get an FFM module for the apex with the sensors so that it will detect a leak and notify you to stop the catastrophe.

Fortunately nothing was ruined but my ato was filing as the tank was draining so I would estimate about 3-4 gallons spilled out and went down to my basement.

Tank and sump all cleaned up and my dehumidifier is running. I got extremely lucky.

Side note, of course I was on a teams call with my work team at the time of the notifications so everyone got to see my face and run off camera so they got a good chuckle.

 

[kgstei]

Good save!

 

[scavdog]

Congrats on averting a disaster!

 

[PSU4ME]

Wow Bill that’s crazy! Good use of the leak detection for sure

 

[Cooper2]

I had a snail clog the return of a HOB skimmer on my first tank. When it overflowed it dripped directly on an old school mechanical timer for lights. I could hear the water hitting the floor and the smell of burning circuit board as I opened the door to the basement at 5am. I spilled most of my coffee on myself as I ran down the steps just in time to see the timer ignite. There was enough coffee still in my mug to pour directly on the timer and I hit the breaker. This near miss was so close it made me change all my plans for aquariums in my home.

1. No fire extinguisher in the area of salt water and electricity is just dumb. (And I didn't have one)
2. With a basement to use and not confined by the need to keep things under the tank in a stand, all
electrical components are above my tanks and unless gravity fails will NEVER get dripped on.
3. I build my own sumps and learned the value of a relatively small return pump chamber. The goal is to
have the pump suck air and cavitate BEFORE the display overflows. An Apex will see the change in the
flow meter and could be used for a warning alert, but the ATO if properly set will time out well before
it can deliver enough RO to buckle your floor and ruin the rugs.
4. Not having a cover on an overflow or fish smaller than weirs all end up in the same place....hopefully
with 2 eyes looking at you from the sump.....lol, but more likely with a milky looking dead friend.

An automated Reef Tank is an amazing assembly of parts and systems, but as a professional robotics engineer, I can promise you things are going to break.... Try to envision what could go wrong and incorporate failure scenarios in your design.

We won't be that lucky twice......lol
Glad you got it in time!

 

[MikeG]

This was fortunate you caught it. One other function to consider the way my leak detection is set up, if any water is detected under the tank, my return pump shuts off so no more water is pumped to the display. I have power heads in tank and a heater in the display and the sump so each can run independently as needed. I also have all cords with drip looks and outlets secured in a way that is difficult for water to ever get to them unless of was a catastrophic break and everything got wet.

Glad you had no major issues

 

[Reefried]

I am glad you were able to catch it in time. Did you not have those gfci protected?

 

[Zeefishies]

I had a 75gal really close to the wall some saltwater started to cause some moisture on the plug (gfci)
igniting a fire, the gfci did not trip turned out it was bad, LUCKILY the fire exploded the 75 gal filled with (soft corals/ many Zoas and plenty of fish maybe 4k in value lol ) ,and pocked out the fire and tankfully the tank was the one in the garage,
counted my blessings that day
My wife in the other hand was not counting her blessings lol
needles to say i moved all the tanks away from the walls and moved all the plugs up high.
Happy Reefing!!!

 

[Joe Rice]

I put intake strainers on the pipes inside the overflow as well. One of my filefish made it into the overflow recently and was probably there for a week or two after which my aiptasia-filled overflow was completely aiptasia free

 

[wdebenedettojr]

I am glad you were able to catch it in time. Did you not have those gfci protected?

So it was plugged into the ape. And the apex as plugged into non gfi. I will say tho after about 30 seconds of my shutting the system down the breaker on my panel popped

 

[wdebenedettojr]

I put intake strainers on the pipes inside the overflow as well. One of my filefish made it into the overflow recently and was probably there for a week or two after which my aiptasia-filled overflow was completely aiptasia free

View attachment 192745

Where did you get this?

 

[Joe Rice]

Where did you get this?

Low Profile Bulkhead Overflow Strainers - Lifegard

Low profile strainer that extends fractions of an inch past the bulkhead itself. Prevents fish, snails, and other tank inhabitants from getting sucked into your plumbing, sump or pump and subsequent damage. Slip Low Profile Strainer - Used to slip inside of a slip bulkhead Thread Low Profile...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Bulkhead Overflow Strainers

Prevents fish snails and other tank inhabitants from getting sucked into your plumbing, sump or pump and subsequent damage. Slip Bulkhead Strainers: ½” Slip Bulkhead Strainer ¾" Slip Bulkhead Strainer 1" Slip Bulkhead Strainer Thread Bulkhead Strainers: ¾” Thread Bulkhead Strainer...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Also, if you use them in your overflow, you do need to remove them and clean them every once in a while. I have extras so I can just swap in a new one and take my time cleaning the dirty one.

 

[Dave T]

Nice save! But it would be a good idea to have the Apex programmed to turn off the return pump and ATO if a leak is detected. If you’re just going to use it for leak notification, you could just use a cheapo leak detector.

 

[Greg Hiller]

Good save, but you really should have a backup drain to your sump.