8gal salt water on floor- CLEAN YOUR ANTI-SYPHON HOLES!

[esmithiii]

Night before last the power cut out on the house and my sup overflowed due to a clogged anti-syphon hole being blocked. I was out of town and my wife was not happy about the whole deal.

Take my advice- clean your anti-syphon holes today! Now is the season for power outages.

Ernie

 

[texman]

Maybe you can post a pic of your wife, not standing in front of your BMW, but on the wet floor, with a mop in her hands! I suggest you buy a good, Y-check valve. I have been very happy with mine - they are virtually self cleaning as long as they get activated once in a while.

 

[Anonymous]

Wouldnt a properly cleaned anti siphon hole, and a properly sized sump be a safer route?

 

[Anonymous]

Texman said:

Maybe you can post a pic of your wife, not standing in front of your BMW, but on the wet floor, with a mop in her hands!

ROTFLMAO, good one tex. Ernie, and why not edit Dennis Rodman into the photo! 8O :lol:

I'm gonna go clean my hole now! :wink:

Louey

 

[Mogo]

I once put a carbon filter into my overflow. Went out and forgot to remove it. It clogged. Got home much later to at least 50 gal. water on floor. Tank overflowing as RO water makeup pumping into tank. Tank was likely 75% freshwater. No inhabitants as I was cycling tank. Took days to get the carpet dry. Lesson learned.

 

[esmithiii]

Wouldnt a properly cleaned anti siphon hole, and a properly sized sump be a safer route?

Yes, the sump is the right size (50 gal) but the syphon holes needed to be cleaned. Lesson learned.

Ernie

 

[Anonymous]

I dont understand

if the sump was the right size, why was there water needing to be cleaned up?

My definition of a properly sized sump, in the event of a failure, all water will be held in sump, sump will not overflow, this includes if the seaswirl, or other device siphons from the tank, untill the water level drops to it's level. So a siphon break being plugged will not result in water on floor if the pump is turned off.

Maybe I'm just crazy?

 

[esmithiii]

Maybe I'm just crazy?

Or just ignorant.

My return lines go deep in the tank so I would need a 150G sump to handle all the water if the anti-syphon holes are blocked.

Maybe I need a check valve.

 

[MDboyz]

Yeah.. that's why I have 2 holes. 8O
I was thinking about this problem since I drilled the first one.

 

[Anonymous]

>Or just ignorant.

It's not me with the wet floor and mad wife now is it?

 

[esmithiii]

>Or just ignorant.

It's not me with the wet floor and mad wife now is it?

I would say that I am not ignorant about this topic, but rather foolish. I knew better, but procrastinated cleaning the holes.

As for my quote, you forgot the emoticon (the winking smiley face.)

Do you understand now, or do you need further clarification as to why my sump is in fact big enough and as to the importance of anti-syphon holes?

Ernie

 

[dizzy]

Ernie,

If the pipes go deep and the power was off with anti-siphon hole clogged, how was the damage limited to 8-gallons? 8O At least you didn't get the full 150 on the floor.

 

[Anonymous]

I didnt use the "quote" option, and I refuse to use those emoticons, makes me feel like I'm on aol

Exactly why do you run your returns that far into the tank?

Doing that, you took a risk, the risk was possible overflow. Which is exactly what happened

Check valve, and rework the plumbing so it CANT happin again.

Check valves fail too, there's a post about somebody's valve failing at least once every 3 months, years working with the military have taught me one thing, if it possibly can fail, it will, it's only a matter of time and some luck....

Sounds like maybe you need a sump that's 8g larger?

 

[freshwater]

I am in the proccess of installing a sump. Can someone explain me what is
anti-syphoning holes and Y-check valves. If any PIC that will be great.

I want to make sure my plumbing is water proof no more water on my carpet.

 

[texman]

An ant-siphoning hole is a small hole in your return line, on the tank side, just below the water line, such that if your pump goes out, water can only siphon back until the water level in the tank drops to the level of the hole. This will allow air to get into the line and thus break the siphon. I have used this in the past, but even with careful cleaning, sometimes, it can get blocked by a snail or other thing, thus negating its effect. A Y-check valve is probably the best type of check valve. It has a little plunger which pushes out of the way when water is flowing, however moves into the path of flow and seals, when reverse flow occurs. Here is a link to a site which carries them, although some of the online aqurium stores also carry them - I just cannot remember which at this time. (Check Champion and Marinedepot) www.usplastic.com/catalog/product.asp?c ... eck+Valves

 

[texman]

Just checked Champion. They do have them and they are cheaper than usplastic. Here is the link:

www.championlighting.com/e/env/0001LXGZ ... check.html

I realize that they are a little expensive, however these are high quality valves and are well worth it. So far, mine have never failed, and I have 8 of them between my two tanks.

 

[freshwater]

Texman,

Thanks for the info. I guess the valve are installed at the output of the pump going to the tank.
If their is a power outage, then pump will stop working, these valves will make sure their is no back syphoning but what happens to the input from the overflow which brings the water from the tank to the sump and then to the pump. IS the syphon stays to the tank even if pump stop working or overflow will flood the sump since pump is not pumping any water to the tank.

Thanks.

 

[MandarinFish]

Ernie - it's God's way of punishing you for being a conservative.

Seriously, sorry to hear that. Wack.

I asked my LFS about it and they suggested running a return near the top of the tank to help break siphon just in case.

It's not worth it to me to sacrifice that extra redundancy, and the water flows fine... even if it's close to the surface.

 

[esmithiii]

Sounds like maybe you need a sump that's 8g larger?

The only reason it only put 8g on the floor was that my wife caught it in time and cleared the anti-syphon holes under my direction on the cell phone.

As for why my returns are that deep, because of my rock work, it is the only way to get flow to certain spots deep in the tank. I doubt that I am the only one who does this.

Ernie

 

[texman]

Freshwater:

Once your pump stops pumping, water will stop spilling into the overflow and therefore, should not flood your sump, unless your sump is very small and almost full while running.

Ernie:

I have 4 returns going from my sump to the tank. The first one runs through my chiller and then runs to pipes which are buried in the sand bed and under the rocks. These pipes have small holes in them, allowing the cool water to slowly trickle up from beneath the sand. This line has 2 check valves and a safety hole. I have three other returns, one which runs to a sea swirl, and two, which run to a series of jets, hidden in the rockwork, on either side of the tank. These three are on three hour cycles, creating a sort of tide effect. The check valves are constantly going on and off since the pumps are switching on and off. This keeps them relatively clean. I also have an automatic backup generator, which kicks in 30 seconds after a power failure to give me some extra piece of mind. Even though I have been quite anal about setting things up, I still had a disaster about 1 year ago, when a temporary cannister filter hose came loose and drained my entire 600g onto my brand new $30,000 mahogoney floor and killed virtually everything in the tank. I should have posted a pic of my wife with my shotgun in her hands!