MAJOR PROBLEM!!!-read

[wangotango]

just got back from church and my mom says that theres a problem with the tank, go in to look and the water level in the tank and sump are low, i though the return pump ran dry, and there was a burning smell, i thought maybe the ballast blew. i looked in the waste collection cup and that overflowed and there was water/skimmate all over the inside of the cabinet. i checked the sg, and it was 1.014!!!!! i took some water out and added a lot of salt to it, and am slowly added it back to the tank. fish are swimming corals dont look too crappy, but i dont see many of my other inverts making it. its been like this for about 1 1/2 hours, and the sg is at like 1.016-17 now. what i think happened was the level in the sump dropped due to the loss of water, the automatic top-off kept going and going and going then finally burned out. i am so unimaginably pissed off now! there needs to be some sort of fail-safe for automatic top-offs! besides slowly adding the saltier water back to the tank, is there anything else i can do? i'd really appreciate some quick responses!

 

[wangotango]

found out what the smell was... heater was in pieces in the sump! could this produce any other problems?

 

[tangs123]

unplug it and taking it out will keep from electric shock, the heater shouldn't cause any other problems, just have to go get a new one
feel sorry for you, just keep getting the water back to normal and since you caught it quick there should be no long term damage or fish/coral loss

 

[sign guy]

yes it could have electrically stressed the fish I still dont understand why your sg was so low

 

[wangotango]

the sg was so low because the top-off (which is fresh water) kept going and going until it burnt out so the sg went down to 1.014, but its up to about 1.017 now. thanks for the help guys, i hope everything makes it.

 

[stdreb27]

Where did all the water go? If your auto topoff was going, then your water level should have been up not down. Did It leak?

 

[wangotango]

thats the mystery of it all! the inside of the cabinet was all wet and the basement floor directly under the tank was wet. but there still should have been more water in the sump! since everything is wet its hard to determine where it overflowed/ leaked.

 

[sign guy]

what made the autotop off run so long?

 

[wangotango]

what made the top-off run so long? i think water kept leaking out through the skimmer/ collection cup making the level in the sump low. but there is no way in heck that that little amount of water could have done that. or there became a leak in the plumbing somewhere. the whole thing is a mystery to me. im leaning towards leaking something because of all the water in the basement. maybe i need to call CSI AQUARIUM? my anger has subsided, now im just confused.

 

[sign guy]

sounds like you had two diff problems

 

[oreo12]

just another reason not to run a sump or an auto top off. they sound like disater waiting to let lose to me thank God I don't have any of those on my 3 reef tanks.

 

[stdreb27]

I agree with sign guy you have two different problems

 

[wangotango]

well i finally got the sg where i usually keep it after about 6 hours of gradual increasing it/ checking all of the plumbing. so what do you think my two problems where?

 

[lubeck]

Is your sump glass or acrylic? do you have a leak in your sump? perhaps from your heater??? you may want to inspect... maybe thats why there was no water in the sump and all in the cabinet...

 

[sign guy]

Originally Posted by Lubeck
Is your sump glass or acrylic? do you have a leak in your sump? perhaps from your heater??? you may want to inspect... maybe thats why there was no water in the sump and all in the cabinet...
how can a heater leak? I think your heater went out today and your skimmer had been leeking for a cupple days

 

[lubeck]

no... possible for heater to weaken seal in sump.

 

[sign guy]

oh makes sence

 

[bojik]

They do make 'failsafe' autotop off controllers that stop the pump before the top off pump gets ran dry. But other than that i dunno. Hope you found the problem and fixed it.

 

[paulcoates]

if your auto top off tube gets into the water it can create a reverse flow, thereby overflowing your auto top tank.
Was your top off tank filled to the rim?

 

[sign guy]

paulcoates is that your yellow figi as your aveator ?