skimmer flooding and emergency flooding shut off system ? ? ? ?

[pat]

ok.. so I get a call this morning that the carpet in my office is wet .. ugh ..

needless to say I'm at work in my pj's cleaning up the mess ..

what appears to have happened is for some reason my shimmer pumped a lot of water out into my catch container , overflowed that , into the bottom of my stand , overflowed my catch walls an onto the floor , my guess is my be about 15 gallon loss ...

1, what causes the skimmer to do this , ? ?

2. dose anyone make a shutoff system that when water fills the stand it kills the power to the main pump,skimmer, and ato system ..

as of now everybody seems to be ok, snails , hermit crabs..

 

[Lesely]

HI, cant explain why they do this, but mine does if occasionally to, the problem being that the ATO then fills the lot in the tank, we have a 80lt one so it drops a lot of water in the tank. We have had it flood so badly that we woke up the the return pump running dry because the ATO has run out of water.
We have a very clever local reefer who made us a little black box, we plug our skimmer into it and then the mains power. When the float switch in the waste container registers its full the box switches off our skimmer until we get home and empty it.
So although we are in Australia and cant offer to get you one, they are obviously something fairly easy to make. I would ask around the place, i am sure that someone has made one of these before.
This is a photo its the black box with the white plug in it.

 

[pat]

Wow ..now that's a hell of an idea ! !
I believe I could make that happen moding an ato switch. .

I was thinking of buying the Neptune jr. Controller , and the wet floor add on box ..and have it set so if there's water in my stand ( I built my stand to hold 2.5 inches of water in case of minor overflow )
it will shut my pumps down ..and set off email alarms

but your way sounds much cheaper. ..

thanks for sharing. : )

 

[pat]

But I am not sure if the Neptune apex jr. Will let me program it that way ..working on trying to find that answer before spending a lot of money. .

 

[Lesely]

We have a couple if other modified float switches too. Alarm sounds when ATO container gets to a pre determined level & another that tells us if for any reason the return section of sump is below an acceptable level. The best thing we've got is a temp control box. Plug 2 heaters directly into it set the desired temp, with a 1 degree of variance. Minute it drops below desired temp both heaters are switched on reaches temp turns them off. We have extremely hot summers so if tank gets too warm it automatically switches on fans until once again desired temp is reached. Very accurate. & consistent temp is kept at all times. Please excuse wires & plugs every where it's a brand new upgrade that we haven't yet attached our power boards up to yet. It won't look that messy when finished.

 

[pat]

thats awesome , thank you

 

[pat]

Looking at the jbj auto top off system ..
after reading all the specs on it , it doesn't seem to have a timer incorporated into the fill pump ..and it dose not come with a hard wired pump , just an outlet for your pump that can handle up to 2amps
so..in theory. . if I plug my skimmer into it in place of a fill pump.. it will run my skimmer until the container is full and the float switch will shut the skimmer down in the event if my skimmer has another fit.
for 69. Bucks ...yeah...I'm gonna try that before I order a Neptune jr. Controller. ..

 

[mariobrothersleeve]

Skimmers do purge if the airline is pitched/ salt creep, or if adding a chemical.
I believe in the apex system. The money is worth it for calls like this. You could of burnt out your main pump, caused severe damage to the floor and stand.
When you add up the money that can be destroyed and livestock that may die..... it's just a drop in the bucket.

 

[Lesely]

Skimmers do purge if the airline is pitched/ salt creep, or if adding a chemical.
I believe in the apex system. The money is worth it for calls like this. You could of burnt out your main pump, caused severe damage to the floor and stand.
When you add up the money that can be destroyed and livestock that may die..... it's just a drop in the bucket.

I agree 100% with what your saying. Could end up a dangerous situation. But I have to also say that i don't know what the Apex cost you in USA but here in Australia the main unit is $1800.00 then each module you purchase is approx $400-$500. So ultimately you could end up spending $4000. I know we don't have that kind of money to spend at the moment, we are saving for one, but the little gadgets we have although not as good only cost about $80.00 and will give us some peace of mind till our bank balance is looking a little healthier. But yes your right, the gadgets are a temp fix only.

 

[pat]

Skimmers do purge if the airline is pitched/ salt creep, or if adding a chemical.
I believe in the apex system. The money is worth it for calls like this. You could of burnt out your main pump, caused severe damage to the floor and stand.
When you add up the money that can be destroyed and livestock that may die..... it's just a drop in the bucket.

I understand that ..the apex jr. Is around 250.00 usd. Another 100.00 for the leak detector. And 30 for each water sensor . I would want two..

but I can't seem to find out if I can program it to shut pumps off if it finds water ..
so until I can get some answers .I'm gonna try a lower cost fix now .and do more research on the apex jr.

If anybody here uses one ..please tell me what you think about them .

 

[mariobrothersleeve]

I understand that ..the apex jr. Is around 250.00 usd. Another 100.00 for the leak detector. And 30 for each water sensor . I would want two..

but I can't seem to find out if I can program it to shut pumps off if it finds water ..
so until I can get some answers .I'm gonna try a lower cost fix now .and do more research on the apex jr.

If anybody here uses one ..please tell me what you think about them .

It is the program you write for it.
It is in the (eb4) that comes with the apex jr. You write a program that says " if module ...... then shut of (the outlet for the main pump)
It sounds complicated, but rather simple looking back.
I'm not a sales man for them, but my story is I traded some coral for brand new heaters. I put the heaters in my tank and walked away. They were cheap aquatop heaters and never worked. My apex emailed my phone letting me know. I was able to get home and take care of the problem.
I also had a leak from the shift seal on my return pump. It shut my pump down automatically and emailed me. I had a spare seal kit and replaced it for pennies. Saved my pump.
Apex will help you set it up and there is a fourm out here to help establish it too.

 

[pat]

It is the program you write for it.
It is in the (eb4) that comes with the apex jr. You write a program that says " if module ...... then shut of (the outlet for the main pump)
It sounds complicated, but rather simple looking back.
I'm not a sales man for them, but my story is I traded some coral for brand new heaters. I put the heaters in my tank and walked away. They were cheap aquatop heaters and never worked. My apex emailed my phone letting me know. I was able to get home and take care of the problem.
I also had a leak from the shift seal on my return pump. It shut my pump down automatically and emailed me. I had a spare seal kit and replaced it for pennies. Saved my pump.
Apex will help you set it up and there is a fourm out here to help establish it too.

do you have the jr. Or the full blown model. ..
what all dose it control in your system ?

the other issue is I'm not sure how it's going to work with the computer network at my work ..
Do use any of the apple or android aps ?

 

[mariobrothersleeve]

I have the lite (mid grade model)

It controls everything.
Lights ramp up/ ramp down
Power heads mp40 and wp25 and WP10
Main pump
Protein skimmer
Dosing pumps
Ato
Leak detectors
Heaters
Ph probe controls alk. Dosing pump
everything.....

they have different apps for your phone service, I personally use android.
You will have to open up your network in your office for the apex contoller.

word of advice, order an eb8, there is so much to control. With the apex jr., it only comes with the ability to plug 4 things in. (EB-4)
you don't have to buy top of the line, you can slowly upgrade if money or just not understanding is a problem.

make sure you check on other fourms too, people come and go from this hobby all the time and are selling things off. That is how I snatched up 80% of my stuff.

 

[pat]

I'm sort of screwed when it comes to lights .. I'm running a beamworks 48" and a marineland 48" both led. But have independent timers built in ..

I didn't plan on this tank on being a hard core coral tank .. :/ but now I would like to put something in at some point ..

as for control ability .. I would like the leak detector. .pump control, heat control would be nice . And maybe some dosing pumps I guess .. I'm still learning on what the coral needs are ..and how to achieve them ..

 

[mariobrothersleeve]

You won't need to be dosing with leathers and zoas.
If you have a lot of lps then yes.
I went a year before I needed them, but if you look into my tank, there is not a spot for coral..... or my arm to clean. For a long time, water changes is all you will need to do.

Once again, the apex isn't about being hard core. It's about not having to go in on the weekends to clean the floor. You can put auto feeders on and be set for the weekend.