Dumb Plumbing Question

[Ursula]

What would make a sump suddenly overflow?

I have a 180gal. My LFS helped me do the plumbing and set things up. The overflow boxes were tested, more than once, for any leaks. We've been running for 3 weeks with no problem.

I lost all power the first time today (long story), and the sump (one of two) filled up just to about 1cm below the top, and then showed no further rise. I got the power to the pumps restored, and things corrected. Happy days, everything is working like it's supposed to!

For some reason, about 1 hour later, when I had to shut off the pumps again, it overflowed. :huh:

I'm completely ignorant about this whole plumbing aspect. The water may have been a little lower in the sump during the second power loss (I was acclimating fish)???

I'm wanting to sleep next to this behemoth tonight. My DH is away, and I don't think he'll take kindly to 180gal of salt water on our ground floor :(

[Reefscape]

does not really make sense to me...unless the first time it went off, it had not completely finished draining down to the sump....only thing i can think off, unless you added more water to the system in between power offs...

Niko

[SHK_ATK]

if the sump level had been lower for the second power off there is no way that it would of overflowed. You said that you where acclimating fish? Where you floating bags? Maybe that gave that extra 1 cm for the water level to rise and overflow. Best thing to so is to turn off the power. Let the overflows drain completly to the sump. Then add more water (not from the main tank) to the sump till its about full dont make it where its 1cm full just enought to where you can see its 95% full. Then turn the power back on once you are getting return on your sump via your overflows look at the water line. That is your max limit for water (Mark It!!) then whether you do top off or water changes you can always see if you are above or below that water mark. Thus ensuring that you are going to be safe and dry or wet and missarable.:hang:

[Ursula]

Thanks guys!

I called my LFS guy, and he explained what happened (my fault, moving the stuff above I should not have + adding all that LR pushed me over).

I'm going to mark things for next time, though! However, I'm scared to death to turn anything off again...

Maybe tomorrow...

[Reefscape]

once you have your water levels marked, i mark mine on my sump, there is no need to worry about overflow..as the water volume of the system is not going to increase by itself...unless you add items that are going to create volume in the tank... I.E more live rock, sand or decor...

Niko

[5xevy]

Marking the water level is a great idea. There are also things you can build to prevent this. I'm looking into this now as I barely have any leeway for one of my sumps. I believe there are 2 simple things you can do. I'll post here when I find the info- may take a little bit of time.

Also, you may want to add an automatic refiller so you don't have to constantly add water if you need to keep your sump level low.