Almost had a flood today.

[Planedoc]

I woke up this morning to a strange gurgling sound. I noticed the water level in my corner overflow was a little high. I plugged the air hole on my durso and the level did not drop like it should of. I turned off the return pump and took apart the durso drain. (glad I never glued those fittings since they are inside the tank). I found two nerite snails stuck down in the bottom at the 90 degree fitting. I used my shop vac and a 1/2" hose to get them out.
I feel pretty lucky that it didnt restrict the flow enough to let my tank overflow. It could of been real ugly.
The purpose of my post is to share my fix. To prevent this from happening again I used weld on to put some egg crate on the inlet of my overflow. Now there is no way anything larger than 1/4 inch can get in the 1 inch pipe. I really wish I had an emergency drain but it's not an option on this 75 gallon with a single overflow. I didn't want to add any type of filter media because it can clog and /or become a nitrate factory after collecting debris. Plus it's another thing to clean. Anyway here is a pic of egg crate glued with weld on to inlet.
Tapatalk on Galaxy S3

 

[Reefing Madness]

Got the egg crate on mine for that exact reason.

 

[SeymourDuncan]

Oh man! I had this happen once but it was a Valentini puffer.

He went down the drain a stayed right at the bottom. Luckily my drain beneath the tank was flexible so I lowered the tank below the drain, filled the pipe all the way up, grabbed the bottom of the hose and blew as hard as I could. He survived the cannon ball back into the tank and thrives in a buddies system


"Live like tomorrow already happened. Yesterday is only 3 days ahead. Today will be here soon."

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Close call!

 

[ReeferBob]

Great news on finding the issue before it became a problem, but your tank should be able to hold the sump volume that will pump up in the event of a drain clog. You should consider redesigning how it works if this is not the case.

 

[beaslbob]

I agree close call.


FWIW and one of the things i learned very late was that even if the drain plugs you should get no flood. just adjust the pump intake and sump water level so that if the drain plugs the pump runs dry before the display floods.


my .02

 

[AZDesertRat]

Doesn't work if you have an ATO though.

One reason I prefer the Stockman style standpipe to most of the others is its just about impossible to plug the intake. The coupling that surrounds the standpipe has continous openings all the way around and protects the inside or standpipe openings. Its also more compact that the Durso so fits better in most applications. I tried both way back when and settled on the Stockman. I recently tried a Maggie Muffler which really is a premade Stockman and it is very similar if someone is not handy with DIY projects.