Check Siphon Breaks

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lappiesreef

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Hey Guys

A big catastrophe hit my tank this weekend.

The power went out in the middle of the night. The siphon break on one of my return lines were cloged and so the siphon didn't break.

Result:
a third of my display drained into my sump. A good 100L to much for my sump to hold.
The water went through my living room all the way onto the patio :swoon:
I felt like dying.

My tank DT was now only two thirds full exposing half my live stock to air for half the night!!! My clams, Acro's, Zoa's ect.

Found my Butterfly on it's side. All ym shirmps lay around and looked dead.
I wanted to burst out in tears.

I switvhed on the power. Big nono. I was so distrought I didn;t notice that the water in my sump was all over my lights.
Sparks flew, then some flames. Power went out again.
At this stage I really felt like dying.

I drained some water, Disconected the lights and most electrics.
Switched on again and filled my DT slowly.

Looked like most of my stuff was dying. I added airlines to pump in O2.
Drove at 120km/h to the LFS and got 100L water.
Changed water and began the big clean-up operation.

I sent my Acro's to Geoffrey to recoperate under his MH, since i only run T5's.
The rest of my stuff started showing signes of live slowly as the water heated up and O2 returned to the water.

In the end I only lost two pumps and one lighting unit in my sump.
Wow. All my live stock is still alive!. For now anyways.
Some of the fish have whitespot now after the shock.

All else looks O.K.

Moral of the story.
Check your siphon breaks regularly and make sure they work and is not getting cloged with Caroline algae!!!!
 
hi lappies hope your tank recovers and all is restored to normal, have my fingers crossed...
 
Thanks Guys

So far so good. Most of the fish have whitespot now, but I'm trying to be optimistic...
 
sorry to hear this:( when the power does off here my return pipe is the one that starts back siphoning, luckily my planning on sump size was naive and i didnt use all the space i could cause when the pipe starts siphoning the water level on the DT does below the return pipe before my sump tank gets anywhere remotely close to the top:) so it works out, but when i change the sump i will better use the space and then i may be off to astore to buy some one way valves:whistling:
 
Wow!!! Sorry to hear about your tank Lappies! I trust it will all come right;)
 
Sorry to hear that lappies, I've also come home to wet floors, not a nice feeling. Hope everything survives.
 
Sorry to hear. This is the main reason i do not hav a sump. Everythings gonna be hang on.
 
Sorry for your bad luck dude.

Once a week when I do my water changes I switch off the return pump and this gives me an indication if the siphon break is not working or needs cleaning.
 
Eish not good. Sorry to hear buddy.
 
There are only two types of aquarists, Those who've experienced a disaster such as this... and Those who are still going to experience a disaster in the near future...

Look on the bright side, you've now had your turn... but I do sympathize with you (I know how it feels, having had ~ 500 liters of water dumped into my living room when my previous tank burst).

Good luck with the recovery :)

Hennie
 
Thanks Guys. Yeah Bad luck seems to have a grip on me now..

Yesterday my auto top-up decided to dump my whole reservior into my tank :(
Luckily it is only about 50 L fresh water...

So far I have only lost an air pump through this whole disaster..
My powder blue only has two or three little white spots left after looking like a christmas tree.. Rest of the fish are all hunky dori :thumbup:

Hopefully I had my share of bad luck now...

The one that surprises me most is my one clam that was out of the water for half the night with the syphon disaster. He seems very happy. Opens completely, mouth normal size. He's a survivor :)
 
AWESOME man Lappies....
Here's a funny story to make you feel a little bit better (I did not loose any lifestock or electrical equipment though - just one HELL of a lot of water - and a few days of wifey being p'ed off with me)......

About 2 weeks ago, one EVENING (or should I say VERY VERY EARLY MORNING) at 2:00am, I went to the loo..... We have a duplex that we live in, and the tank is on the ground floor..... we sleep on the top floor)....
I hear one HELL of a noise coming from my tank....
SO - still FAST FAST asleep, I walk down the stairs, just to step into a DEEP PUDDLE of water..... tank water....

After freaking out, I found the problem.... my return piping came loose and my HUGE 26000 litre per hour pump was spewing all the water from my sump onto our tile floor.... LUCKILY WE HAVE A TILE FLOOR!
Our loose afghan carpet SOAKED in water.... water all around our TV cabinet.... and all the way across the floor to the area below the stairs where I hide my SCUBA kit away.....

I used up about 70 litres of spare water I had left in my 25 litre drums...... and about half the water from my 2nd tank (the 1.2 metre) - JUST to have my tank cycle (through the sump, and back up to the tank, and back down into the sump again) going!!!

Hope you had a good chuckle at this!
Hope it makes you feel better at least!
 
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