Has this happen to anyone else?

B

BigMonkeyBoy

Has this happen to anyone else. I went and shut my return pump off tonight as I always do. The next thing I hear is water spilling. I looked under the tank and I had a flood. It seems my MAG12 decided to siphon water out of my tank from my internal tank lines and over flooded my sump. Turned the pump back on and the water level returned to normal but now every time i turn the tank off the siphon process starts all over. Any Ideas?
 
Why all of sudden did this start to happen? I'm thinking about drilling a small hole in my return line inside the tank to create an anti siphon.
 
The return lines on my Oceanic tank came with small holes drilled in 'em in the 90 degree elbow before it goes to the Loc-Line... However, after years of being ignored, the holes had cruddied up and I too got a flood when the return pump was turned off... So see if yours already had a hole, and if not, I'd recommend putting at least one, if not multiple, ones in there...

Think carefully of where you put the holes though. For instance, you definitely do NOT want the holes pointed up where you can create a water gun right onto your lights...
 
The hole in the underside of the 90 that is on the return nozzles will help. If you make sure they are constantly cleaned out. That maybe what happened this time. You might have had holes in those 90s and they just now got clogged up. That is why all of a sudden it flooed and has not in the past.
I used to trust that option. But after thiinking I was doing a very good job keepin them clean, One day while I happened to there next to the tank, the power went out and I watched as the sump went to a dangerously high level. Now I just keep the return nozzles right under the tank water level, so that when the power goes out I do not have to worry about it again.
 
Dang now this is a timely bit of news.
Doing my plumbing this weekend.

Noted keep return nozzels high enough to prevent a flood and drill a hole in one 90. check
 
TJay - Ya' need to have a hole drilled in the final 90 degree in each return line, if you have more than one... Otherwise, the un-drilled one will still just siphon on it's own...
 
Man I love this board. you guys be soooo soooo smart. Serk you got the trophy. bing bing bing bing.

That was it I had seaweed growing over the hole and that was exactly it!

Thanks for the AWSOME help!
 
I always recommend you drill two holes in each return 1/2" beneath the normal water surface. This way if one is clogged or a snail is sitting on that very hole at that precise moment, you don't end up with a flood.

http://www.melevsreef.com/what_sump.html

It would be wise to clean the holes one a month. And you should test the anti sipon at least weekly. Mine are tested every night because when I feed, the pump is off.
 
Agree with the redundancy Marc sugests. Not only might a snail clog it up but algea or sponges or any number of things can clog it up. Better safe then sorry.

Mark P. It's not so much smart as we been there and done that, caused floods, made lots of mistakes. Experience is a cruel teacher :lol:
 
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