Just say no to external overflows

[Emerald525]

So what is it about things going wrong when you are away out of town? I went to Texas for a long weekend (Friday to Monday to visit family and watch the Rangers and Cowboys. We come back and the fish in the aggressive tank are not doing well. The powder brown tang decides to be a jumper and is a crispy critter. Our Stars and Stripes puffer is acting ill.

Then our beloved Blenny has died but it gets worse....

he has clogged the external overflow box and the tank is about to flood the basement!

Once again we were lucky that we were home and we were able to bail the tank before there was any serious flooding going on.:shock: Unfortunately our aqualifter broke but fortunately a fellow local reefer Kendaroo happened to have a brand new one she let us use so external overflow is working again.

So lessons learned:

1.If you go out of town that's when something will go wrong for sure so better have a list of contacts.
2.There are some awesome people in this hobby ready to lend a hand at short notice!
3. If I had to do it all over again I would have drilled the glass tank instead of using an external overflow as this is the second time the thing has been clogged and was on the verge of overfilling!


__________________

 

[DonW]

Put a float switch on you return pump. Connect it to a dpdt relay so that it will auto start a second backup aqualifter. Latch the relay so when the float drops the pump turns back on and the second aqualifter stays on. Fixed for just a few bucks.


Don

 

[Emerald525]

Ingenious thanks for the tip. Much easier than draining the darn tank. I will give that a try thanks!

 

[moto826]

well at least it did not get every thing wet

 

[Emerald525]

well at least it did not get every thing wet

Yes I was very thankful for that and very appreciative I could find an autolifter at short notice at 10pm.

 

[DonW]

Ingenious thanks for the tip. Much easier than draining the darn tank. I will give that a try thanks!

Let me know if you want to give this a shot and need a wiring schematic. It should actually be two relays and a float switch to fully automate it.

Don

 

[Emerald525]

Let me know if you want to give this a shot and need a wiring schematic. It should actually be two relays and a float switch to fully automate it.

Don

Yes I would like to try this out and was gonna ask you if you happened to have a schematic I could go off of! Thanks!

 

[DonW]

Yes I would like to try this out and was gonna ask you if you happened to have a schematic I could go off of! Thanks!

Give me a few and I'll design one.

Don

 

[Emerald525]

Give me a few and I'll design one.

Don

Wow, the generosity of people in this hobby never ceases to amaze me! Very very cool of you Don. I owe you a frag when I make it up to Washington again!

 

[burning2nd]

sorry for you loss's

but i cant back you on the overflow haters club... Mine worked flawless for years and years and years... I cleaned it maybe twice over a 5 years period
again i was useing CRP overflows with the aqualifter

 

[DonW]

Here give this a shot all parts can be had at Rat Shack.

 

[mcoomer]

sorry for you loss's

but i cant back you on the overflow haters club... Mine worked flawless for years and years and years... I cleaned it maybe twice over a 5 years period
again i was useing CRP overflows with the aqualifter

Dude, do you want your overflow to stop. You can't go around jinxing yourself like that in this hobby. You need to run out and sacrifice a chicken or something.

Mike

 

[Emerald525]

sorry for you loss's

but i cant back you on the overflow haters club... Mine worked flawless for years and years and years... I cleaned it maybe twice over a 5 years period
again i was useing CRP overflows with the aqualifter

LOL! Great Idea! I should start an overflow hater's club! I'm glad yours worked well for you! Mine has not!

 

[noworries]

Give me a few and I'll design one.

Don

If you don't post this on the thread, would you mind pm'ing this to me as well.

Thanks!

 

[DonW]

If you don't post this on the thread, would you mind pm'ing this to me as well.

Thanks!

Its here look up post #11.

Don

 

[noworries]

Its here look up post #11.

Don

HAHA...I skimmed right over it, oops. Thanks

 

[Emerald525]

I missed it too! Thanks! Awesome diagram. Will give it a try and report back!

 

[grassi]

I feel guilty because I sold you that box lol
I think Don idea's is great.
If you don't want to mess up with soldering, maybe you can just get an switch like this http://autotopoff.com/products/SS1/ and hook it up to a second aqualifter.
No idea if it is correct

 

[Emerald525]

I feel guilty because I sold you that box lol
I think Don idea's is great.
If you don't want to mess up with soldering, maybe you can just get an switch like this http://autotopoff.com/products/SS1/ and hook it up to a second aqualifter.
No idea if it is correct

Yeah that's right Alex you did sell me that! I forgot that's how we met! So you feel guilty enough to fix it for me LOL!

 

[psb]

I know why your overflow quit working. It found out your were a cowboys fan. Sorry for your troubles and the overflows also. JK. I am so glad I have met many nice peeps and been helped out. I make it a point now to have a reefer on standby when I go out of town. One cool thing that I am going to set up over the next year is webcams. I am going set up 3 or 4 webcams looking at key thing in the aquarium so I can visually monitor when I go out of town. Also I am going to get the Apex controller so i can view what is happening with the tank when i am out of town.