High Tide Aquatics

Partial Siphon Failure: SUPER BUMMED!

magnetar68

magnetar68

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I came home tonight and my ATO pump on my 34G seahorse tank was sucking air. I had just filled the reservoir a couple of days ago, so I knew that was a bad thing. Somehow the LifeReef siphon had partially failed and had a huge air bubble in it. The caused an imbalance so the return pump was delivering more water to the DT than the siphon was sending down. This lowered the level in the sump return section causing the ATO float switch to be out of the water and it was stuck on continuously.

If the reservoir had any more water in it, the DT would have flooded over, but thankful it was up to the rim but did not flood. The bad news is the change in salinity. I imagine it took a while for the tank to fill up and the reservoir only had a couple of gallons in it, so I don't think it would have been much worse than a drip acclimation in terms if the change in salinity. My ATO pump is really slow and only goes on for a few minutes and then waits several minutes before turning back on. It looks like the tank went from 1.024 to 1.023 (my last measurement was Saturday).

The seahorses seem to be doing their mating dance despite the drama and the Xenia (which I have been told is a good measure of changes/water quality) seems to be pumping OK. The last time I had a partial crash of this tank (due to some type of contaminate), the Xenia shriveled up.

I put some of the water back into the reserve. I am just going to let the tank slowly increase in salinity over the next few days. Once the ATO is empty and the water level is back to normal in the sump, the tank will be back at its pre-incident salinity.

The biggest bummer is that I have the other float switch in a box and planned to install it soon. The double float switch setup would have prevented the issue. I had had two on here but used the other one for the setup in my 125G tank and order another would this seahorse tank. I figured, I have had the tank for 3 years, what's the big deal with a couple of weeks without the backup switch?

I am still not sure what caused the siphon to go partial. This did happen once a long time ago and it was because my return pump was too low. I am quote certain the issue is related to the fact this is a Red Sea MAX 130D and it has the mini-sump section where the overflow is. If something gets out of whack with the flow between the DT and mini-sump, then overflow sucks up some air and loses siphon.

I should just get a tank with a proper BeanAnimal setup for this seahorse tank, but I don't have the money for this now with my cuttlefish project in play.

Here's a video of the tank this month before the incident. I am hoping I don't lose anything, but realistically, I probably will.

http://youtu.be/Vixc93SXDsI
 
What a cool tank Ray. So clean and really beautiful. I am sure everything will be just fine. That is a very minimal change in Salinity. Everything looks very healthy in your tank, so I am sure they will pull through. Good luck.
 
Everything looks OK this morning. The Toadstool is closed, but it does that from time-to-time, so I cannot be sure the closure is related to the event. I'll need to keep an eye on things over the next few days.
 
Dogged another bullet. Power went out for an hour today, but I was home to turn on the generator. I need a good battery back solution of some sort.
 
magnetar68 said:
It's a Sony HDR-CX7. It's old though. I bought it 5 years ago. It's low light is not great, but it does OK with enough light.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Was looking at camera's today. They have gotten very expensive. Would be nice to be able to take a truly high def video of the tank though. Your video is a fine example.
 
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