[golfish]

Guess what? There was no problem at all with the way my top-off system was setup. I had bought 40 Astrea snails from Jeff a few weeks ago and one of them was not a snail. In the tank with all the snails at Jeff's there were a type of flat slug looking thing about 1.5-2" long and 3/4" wide. I found one of these inside one of the largest Astrea shells and since I didn't know what it was I threw it in the sump. You guessed it, this thing was hanging on the bottom of the float switch pulling down the bobber and telling the top-off system the sump is low. I was sitting down eating dinner a few hours ago and the GFCI kicked off, probably cause my Hamilton PC ballast was sitting in an inch of water on the carpet next to the stand. Stupid me!! I had the MH ballast's up off the carpet but not the PC ballast. This time the sump overflow so much that water went everywhere. The SG went down to 1.019. I got it back up to 1.022 but things don't look that good right now inside the tank and outside...

I had just got the water back to 1.025 and everthing running back to normal yesterday after the disater I had earlier in the week.

I'm about ready to give it up.


Dummy

[djheywood]

Wow, bummer mark. Sounds like you need to buy some new corals to heal your broken ego

So what is this inside joke between you and Barry and he always spending your money???

Jeff's tomorrow?

[golfish]

Brian,
The first time we met(Barry and I) was at Jeff's to pick up sand from Joyce. Jeff mentioned that I had an open account or something like that casue I had been there so much. So Barry has been trying to put things on my account ever since Right Barry?

Barry's a great guy. I just like to give him a hard time

I don't know about Jeff's. I'm so ticked off about this mess. I have the whole lighting system and cooling system tore apart. The house is a disaster, my wife and daughters are leaving for YMCA camp in 6 hours. The tranny cost went from 1000.00 to 2000.00 in a matter of hours.

I don't want to put anything in the tank right now cause I'm not sure if everythings going to make it. I do need some more salt tho.

I may also have to take my wife up to Big Bear late morning or early afternoon....

Hey!!! the Lakers won There's a good thing.

Mark

[djheywood]

I feel your pain. Don't sweat it. I'll catch you there next time. (I'm gonna try some of that concentrated DT's you were telling me about.

Good series for the Lakers, if they only wouldn't have lost that first game . . .oh well.

Talk to you soon.

[Ltspd]

Hang in there man, it will get better.

For future reference, I havent but intend to put my float switch inside a pc of large dia pvc with a screen or egg crate over one end. This would kep snails out of it and also keep waves from disturbing it.

[golfish]

Paul,
For a quick fix until I can do something like you mentioned I'm going to put the switch on a timmer. I figure 10-15 minutes twice a day should be more then enough. I may even go for 5 minutes 4x a day......

One point I would like to make to all who read this. If your tanks not on a GFCI you need to do it today. I have a 2 year old running around with one on the way. I would hate to think what might have happened if I didn't have one and the baby stepped in the puddle...

Mark

[thezookeeper]

OMG Mark! I feel so bad for you! How aggravating! Now that can happen to any one of us. I don't know about you, but Robert is always, always yelling at me about leaving my aquarium things laying on the floor. He even mounted the surge protectors up off the floor. What a bummer! But don't give up, you have too beautiful of a tank to do that. Besides, your tank is one of my inspirations and I can't lose that! Just get that ballast up off the floor and show that slug who's boss.


Joanne

[SCETT316]

I feel so bad for you........ I thought something like that could only happen to me, not once but twice in a week. I was looking into setting up my auto top-off with some sort of DIY and a switch valve, and decided to get an Aqualan Nurse system instead, which BTW I really like, thinking with my luck, and lack of knowledge, I would end up with a another disaster, and it would end up costing me much more.
I allready ruined all my wooden floors, collecting DI wtr, that over flooded at night.
Anyway I am sure you will make the proper modifications and everything will be just fine.

[FishKid]

wow that sucks!!! i wouldnt even have posted that one! was this on a wood floor? if so that has really got to bite!

Mark

p.s. i had something like that happen a while back, it involved a 10 gal FW community and a slippery floor. (i think you can finish the story with that much said!)

[skipm]

I truly feel for you and can relate to the way that you must feel. A few weeks ago the drain on my skimmer malfunctioned and blew water all over the carpet, the only thing that stopped it (I was at work) was the top-off (18 gal) ran out of water and the sump almost ran dry. Don't let this mishap get you down, take your time and correct the problems and it will soon be one of those stories that we all have. Take care, Skip

[MarkS]

Mark, with your luck, you need to sell it all, kiss your family good by, pack up what's left and become a monk on some remote mountain in some even more remote country.

But then, with your luck, you'd probably fall off the mountain.

Mark

[Ironreef]

bad luck happens in three's. was this the third? Or we gotta wait til the next post?

[golfish]

Mike,
I've been on a real roll as of late. Its probably about 8 or 9. If you recall my AC compressor went out in April (2000.00) they also told me my forced air heating unit in the actic has been recalled,something about fire, carbon monoxide and explosion. The comapny who makes them went out of buiss a about 8 months ago. The gas company came out and looked at it and shut it down and said I would be breaking the law if I use it. Hmmmmmm, oh yeah, my oldest graduated form high school so you know that cost $$$ (I don't have to pay the 4000.00 a year tuition anymore).. The tranny went out in my truck (2125.00) so as you can see I'm on a real roll. Oh yeah and there's one more thing. Its a good thing but I just haven't goten used to it yet. we're expecting another child

The reason I posted it was for a learning experience for others with a float switch or with out a GFCI.

Mark,
Carpeted cement slab. I made an appointment ( a few days ago) to have the carpets cleaned cause my 2 year old spilled a qt bottle of Olive oil. Their goin got have to lift up the carpet and replace the padding that has soaked up the oil.


BTW,
I was able to save the PC ballast, I guess just the bottom got a little wet. So far everything in the tank seems fine.

[FISHme]

Feel the pain about the flooding sump.
My system was power failure safe until I added a few more items ie: chiller with mega plumbing and some extra sump tanks.
Well one day a couple months ago Florida Power And Light decided to do some upgrades in the neighborhood and cut the power for about 7 hrs. Well the sump oveflowed some 2-3 gal or so. wet carpet STINKS for quite a while !!!!
I decided to build an overflow drain so that when the power goes off it drains into a seperate container. To compensate for the water that drains out when the power comes back on I set up the skimmer on a gfi that kicks off when the power goes off but doesn't reset when the power comes back on. This way when all the other pumps in the sump come back on when the power comes back on they won't run the sump dry because the skimmer that would normally fill up and use up the portion of the water that overflowed does not come on.
This is especially helpful when I am not at home when the power goes off.

I will post photos for those that are interested to see this setup.

[FISHme]

GFI CONNECTED TO SKIMMER

[FISHme]

CPR SR6 SKIMMER

[FISHme]

Overflow tank.
The sump is on the other side of the wall in this picture, the drain goes through the wall. This drain tank is under my 95 FOWLR tank in the living room.
Pretty cool hey ?

[Ironreef]

yeah tanks and carpet/wood floor spills don't mix. I'm gonna put tile in my family room and a drain under the tank to the crawl space.
well maybe since the pc ballest didn't burn up your luck may be getting better?

[asmith]

Golfish,

I am really sorry to hear about your string of bad luck. I hope it isn't contagious and can't be spread over the internet. My wife and I will be moving two tanks 200 miles in a month and we can use all the luck we can get. I hope things start looking up for you. Don't give up on the tanks.

Andrew

[Ironreef]

Hmm maybe golf anf ishing was the safer hobby? My family (uncles) golf in a league 3-4x a week. We are planning a Hawaii vac( family 20+ pl) And there only concern is being albe to make all the Golf courses. I just want to see the 2 aquariums and the live reefs. makes it hard . The women don't want them to golf all 7days so they agreed to only do 6. Sound like a battle to me. At least when ppl ask if gfi is needed you have good experiance with one.