[thefatman]

well i leave next weekend for my four day camping trip on the mohican river. canoeing, kayaking, and mountain climbing.

i have been very nervous about leaving the tank unattended from friday afternoon until until monday afternoon. my main concern was a sump or tank overflow.

i'm wondering, can i jsut turn off the sump, and let the tank run on jsut powerheads for those four days? the tank currently has 2 hagen 402's, one in each corner. it's only a fowlr, with 2 green chromis, 1 coral beauty, 1 blue damsel, 1 cinnamon clown. other inhabs are 20 small hermits, 1 lone surviving astrea, and 1 green brittle star. can these do OK on reduced flow for a few days?

i feed the tank every 3 days, so they'll be fed friday before i leave, and monday when i come home, so there will be no interuption of food cylce. only there will be reduced flow, and no skimmer.

i'll have the lights on timers, that i need to pick up this week, and get them working, so i know they are actually working.

so, will the tank be alright with the powerheads?

thanks
jay

 

[NewReefer]

Why are you afraid to leave the sump on?

I'd say go for it, my tank went last weekend without a sump and I have corals. As long as you don't have a real heavy bioload and ned the skimmer 24/7, which seems like you don't at this point.

 

[thefatman]

i'm afraind of the durso stop draining, and tank overflows. or if power goes out and sump overflows.

any number of things could go wrong. and in the last few weeks i've seen a few different posts with poeple whose tanks went to hell when they were away.

yeah i keep the bioload low, 55g tank, with just the 5 small fish. and only fed every third day.

i'm gonna g ofor it. it will help me enjoy myself better on the vacation, rather than worring if the tank overflowed.

i am so nervous, i had considered setting up one of my webcams pointed at the tank, and taking my laptop camping with me, and then getting a pcmcia modem to plug into my cell phone, jsut so i could periodically check in on the tank from the campsite but i decided that was a bit TOO paranoid

 

[NewReefer]

Leave it disconnected you should be ok but one day you will have to hold your breath and leave it all on but there are things you can do to try and avoid problems. It seems like if I leave for one day I get trouble but I continually try to improve things to prevent this from happining. One thing I use a Stockman overflow, It has a huge hole in it, I don't see how It could plug up over night, two my sump is made to hold a few extra gallons for thoes long weekend and still not overflow, I test it often. Three Clean pumps and equipment well, do water change etc.. two days before going on a trip, this allows for mishaps. Have made up water on the side, and have a buddy stop by to check things out, slowly force him information over a long time so he will already be familiar with your tank (ok finding someone to do this and finding someone you can trust isn't easy, I still don't have anyone set up on this part). One last thing, when you close the doors to your house, do just that and have fun try to relax and let whatever happen happen, not much you can do from afar and sooner or later you will have to leave, just say a prayer everything is ok or very little damage has occured.

 

[thefatman]

yeah i use a stockman on the current 55 as well.

the sump is a converted wetdry and only holds about 5 gallons, 2 more than whats in it already.

the new tank will have the 30g sump, only filled half way, so i'll have room for 15 gallons of overflow. MORE than enough. then i wont beso worried.

i'm still tryign to figure a way to makea stockman for the new tank, but not sure if its gonan be possible. i may however be able to merge a stockman and durso together somehow.

my concern with a durso is if the airhole gets plugged, then the drain line wont drain

 

[NewReefer]

Where do you plan on mounting the Stockman?
I made both and the way I have mine, you can plug up the little holes and it still will work, just lots louder. I will have to take it out and snap pictures of it in peaces. If your putting it outside the tank then yes this project will need some thinking through. I'd like to see what you have planned and see how it will work. Both work well but I find the Modified stockman to be better and easier to make, also easier to clean if necessary. It is even quiter and I didn't have to make a million adjustment to make it quite.

http://www.rl180reef.com/pages/standpipe/standpipe-ken_stockman.htm

if you look at this design, I didn't drill the big holes on the long return, instead I cut a 3/4" slot across half the pipe at this point.
My Bulkhead is 1" so I converted the long piece to 1 1/4" pipe and used a 2" coupling, which I ground down the inside lip to make it slide tightly over the standpipe to where it just covered the big slot i made in it. I left just enough sticking out on the tope to put a cap with 6 3/32" holes in it. I glued all the reducers and bottom pieces except, I didn't glue the pipe to the bulkhead or the cap and coupling, these are left upglued so I can clean if necessary.

 

[RayPollett]

thefatman,

That is one of the reasons I will not set up tanks with a sump anymore. If you do turn it off, I would add a small airstone to the tank if you do not have something else putting air into the system.

 

[NewReefer]

oops said that wrong, I put the coupling on the slip reducer and ground down that instead, like in the instructions.
Yes I have a 30g sump half filed also, works well.
Yes use an air stone, it is necessary.

 

[Prismaco]

You havent adjusted your sump so that if your power goes off it wont over flow... ???...I added a 15 gallon sump to my tank last night and I also did what you are going to do. Fill it half way so that there is plenty of room if it over flows....


-Paul

 

[Joel]

Jay if you have an extra ups lying around I've heard they will run the return pump (depending on how big) for up to several hours. Whenever I go outa town my computer gets turned off, unplugged and my tank gets the ups. Haven't had a problem yet (knocking on wood).

 

[thefatman]

joel- nah. dont use UPS's kinda funny coming from a guy whose entire income is from computers

paul - no, it's kida hard to have the sump adjusted like that, when the tank is 55g and the sump is only 5g AND be able to have 3 days of water evap before water line goes below pump

scott- i like the stockman too (never used a durso yet) i have a stockman on my 55, but it's in my external overflow, that's plumbed on the bottom. so it was easy.

for the 75, i had it drilled at the top, in the back (really on the side) so the pipe will be outside, but the elbows will be inside. i think i have an idea that will work like the stockman, same concept and prinicple. i'll draw it up, and post it, or jsut pick up the parts and slap it together for some input.

 

[NewReefer]

I'm really intrested in seeing that set-up or how you design it to work. I agree, on a big tank, you need a good size sump, and pump for circulation. Thoes pumps suck out more than a 5g can handle, even with an overflow higher rated. I hooked up a Little Giant to my first 15g sump and it would suck it out of water even full to the top LOL! OK it was 1200 gph so that was way over rated LOL!

 

[Buzz_Hog]

Jay, a 20 gallon tank is very inexpensive.... That's what I use as a sump on my 30 gallon...

Ditch that old wet/dry and use a 20 gallon tank for a sump...

 

[thefatman]

why bother.. this tank is going away

 

[grazhopr]

my concern with a durso is if the airhole gets plugged, then the drain line wont drain

Jay, that's not entirely true. I've seen some standpipes with the air valve plugged, adn what happens is that the level in the overflow swings. Goes up when there is air trapped in the standpipe, then it comes back down. You can check how yours behaves by closing the valve on top of the standpipe. The other big concern would be getting the stanpipe input clogged. If you have big enough holes, that is not likely, unless something really big falls into the overflow box. But, with detritus......I doubt it'll clog.

 

[Buzz_Hog]

yeah..... Mine acts like grazhopr described...

It's the "flushing" sound that everyone used to complain about...

 

[grazhopr]

BTW, my tank has been running with tap water for a couple of weeks now. I eliminated the need of an air valve by drilling a 1/8" hole on top of the standpipe, and used a reducer at the end of each drain line (drain lines are inmersed, of course). The reducers aren't glued, just dry fitted. It works great. I have one overflow box with the level slightly higher, because one drain is three times longer than the other. The system drains quietly. I only get lots of big bubbles, though they pop once they reach surface (I guess it helps aereate the water!)
:beer: