Ack. Flood. Question.

[JWeb]

I walked into my house today to hear a faint thumping coming from the tank stand. It sure sounded like powerhead running dry. As I approached, I got the "squish squish". Great.

Looks like my sump-high float switch hung up on a wire from the switch below the ATO system pumped an extra dose of nice, fresh DI water. I'm not sure why the flood stopped (it wasn't overflowing when I came home), but the sump wasn't totally full. Doesn't make sense since the pump was still running.

Anyway, the salinity was down to 1.020. I brought the sump to the appropriate level and slowly added salt to the sump to bring the salinity back into range.

Should I worry? I know I have read on many occasions that a common treatment for tank ailments is hyposalinity... but I never paid attention to the details. Looks like a snail died and I hope there aren't more to follow.

 

[JWeb]

No comments on my low salinity? Things looked OK this morning, so I am assuming it wasn't a big deal... but I am still curious.

 

[~Flighty~]

I know itis bad for shrimp and anemones. Should be fine for your rock. I would bring it up slowly though.

 

[NateHanson]

I don't think you'll have any mass casualty from that episode. But it's a little disturbing to have a top-off disaster like that. Is there a simple way to prevent a recurrence?

 

[JWeb]

Nate, it was my own stupidity that caused the disaster - I have no one to blame but myself. I have three float switches in my sump: ultra-low level (shuts return pump off to prevent it from burning up), low level (switches top-off fill on), high level (switches top-off fill off). Of course, each switch has two leads running from it. Thus, I have six wires running up and over the side of the sump. Since I hadn't conceived my auto-top off system when I assembled the sump, I left the wires free so I could change the switch positions as construction progressed. Of course, I never enclosed these wires thinking "eh, they won't move and bind up that switch... besides, they buoyancy of these float switches is tremendous and even if the wire was in the way, the switch would still float up". Well, my theory was wrong. Lesson: finish the job.

It's fixed now (wires safely tucked out of the way).

(Also, even though my current ATO system is super-slick with the latching relay setup, it has many of the shortcomings we discussed in another thread... I am converting it to a solenoid-powered feed directly from my RO/DI system through a float valve).

 

[NateHanson]

Cool. I think the combo of a float-switch solenoid, and a float valve is as close to bomb-proof as you can get. Should be a good solution. Just make sure nothing is loose in that section of your sump to jam either of the floats.

 

[JWeb]

The problem is that the latching relay with low- high- level is the most balanced solution.

The solenoid fired by a float switch will constantly be on and off... and, consequently, my RO/DI will be on and off. Since I don't have the luxury of gravity feed into the sump, this is really my only other choice.

So, this all goes on my list of improvements for the "Ultimate Tank"

 

[jango]

IMO salinity change's aren't that bad it is when you keep it there you will have a problem (whether higher or lower). I would just wait for the water to evaporate to bring your salinity up, and I wouldn't recomend adding salt you could easily go overboard adding salt. then you would have to empty out a bunch of water and add a bunch of fresh..

 

[jango]

Looks like a snail died and I hope there aren't more to follow.

Snails are very sensative to salinity change's and it can kill them, it can take minute's to week's for them to die (won't happen in all cases)..