Best Practices And Procedures for Avoiding Large Tank Crashes and Disasters?

[robf]

I'm putting a 400 gallon system in my office and want to have a disaster prevention and recovery plan to avoid a tank loss. Nobody will be in the office in general on the weekends. What items are considered essential to preventing and detecting problems and failures? What would you do to protect your 10k plus investment? I have 3k budgeted to spend on disaster equipment. Discuss.

 

[revsgirl]

:bump:

 

[Degener8]

Well I would definately get a controller for it so everything possible could be automated. This should also have a leak detection module for it.

I would have a redundant ATO so that if one part sticks open the other will close it if your ato tries to dump to much water. I would also get a skim mate locker that would shut off your skimmer if it gets to full.

This along with all the normal temp probes light control etc should be about all that is necessary. You have a large budget for disaster stuff. We have no idea what your plan is though.. how its plumbed and if it will have a fish room behind it or a remote one that will hold all the ro and water change stuff etc.... because if its remote I would say you need some protection in there also...

I am assuming this is in the planning stages so share your plan and everyone may be able to help more, and be mroe specific about certain controllers you should research for this project.

 

[fab1971]

Most disasters I've heard of seem to stem from 3 main areas. faulty equipement (heaters, dosers, etc..), power outages and to a lesser extent additives/media (carbon, salt mix, etc..). I don't have any controllers or automatic dosers and mostly rely on close inspection, hands on care and test kits to help me keep my reef in order. I have a few friends that have everything on controllers, dosers, reactors and still suffered with a crash. Especially during vacations or in someone elses care. I think it's easy to take a hands off aproach when everything is automated and that is usually when disaster strikes.

 

[Degener8]

Most disasters I've heard of seem to stem from 3 main areas. faulty equipement (heaters, dosers, etc..), power outages and to a lesser extent additives/media (carbon, salt mix, etc..). I don't have any controllers or automatic dosers and mostly rely on close inspection, hands on care and test kits to help me keep my reef in order. I have a few friends that have everything on controllers, dosers, reactors and still suffered with a crash. Especially during vacations or in someone elses care. I think it's easy to take a hands off aproach when everything is automated and that is usually when disaster strikes.

I can definately see what you mean. I guess what i was trying to get across but worded it poorly was to automate the disaster side of things.. and the top offs etc since it will be an un manned setup on atleast a weekly basis. Defending on the controller and options bought with it the system could report to an iphone or droin or email etc and give the best available response time in the event of a failure. It could also report water parameters to an extent atleast and help if there is a failure, death or breakdown somewhere in that area as well.

 

[swannyson7]

A controller with web access is a big one so that you can be emailed when parameters are outside of normal ranges, if a water sensor is activated, etc. You'll also be able to run your heater & ATO off of the controller for extra redundancy. In the event of a power failure, you'll need a backup power system to maintain oxygenation within the water column. This could be acheived several ways including a generator with an automatic transfer switch, battery backups for pumps such as a vortechs, battery powered air pumps that kick on during outtages. The generator is obviously the best option because water quality (skimmer/return pump) and water temp (heater, chiller, A/C) will also be maintained, but unless it is an extended power outtage in a cold climate, a few pumps will get you through it. GFCIs are another must have to prevent any fires in the event of a leak. Mesh tops will prevent any livestock from jumping due to aggression or stress and can be built in about 15 minutes... time well spent. You may also want to consider adding a pan/tilt IP camera so that you could log in from home and take a quick peak at the tank. It will give you great peace of mind to have eyes on the tank whenever you wish.

 

[Taylor t]

If it was my build, I would just keep it simple, less to go wrong. I would have a 25% waterchange station with water up to temp, ready and waiting to do a waterchange in a blink if needed, and I would have a battery back-up for circulation and return pump, with a module that called me if the GFI tripped. That's it. Simple has less problems. My tanks can go a few days with no one, even if the skimmer overflows, or the lighting GFI trips, or my ATO stops working, I only keep a 5 gallon ATO for a 280 gallon system, so any overflow or malfunction won't wipe it out. ATO can run out, and sump has enough water in it for a day or 2 still. Keep livestock with an easy care level. Hard to keep stuff that dies with little fluctuations won't be realized until monday morning, after they've been polluting the tank for a day or so, creating more problems. Just what I would try to do.

 

[robf]

Really not much to see yet. Here are a few shots. The back wall of fish room will be installed after the tank is put in. More to follow. The tank is being delivered from Glass Cages (kind of nervous about them after doing some reading). I bought the commercial grade glass tank 96"L x 31"W x 30" tall. Front panel is starfire. This will be an in the wall install with decent sized fish room for holding everything. The stand will be fabricated by my company. Skimmer is MRC Orca Pro I. I'm going to install a Reef Mania Calcium Reactor. I'm installing a Renew water changing system. In addition to the display tank. The fish room will contain a growout tank for my frags that shares water from the display and a hospital/quaranteen tank that is of course completely separate. Additionally, the room will have small laundry sink, 75 gpd RO system and saltwater mixing station. More photos to follow. I'm lighting the tank with 4x400w MH and accenting with T5. The room will have it's own electrical panel board and a floor drain for emergencies. Still figuring out ventilation and cooling config but want to ensure lots of air turnover in this room and minimal heat build up. The tank back still needs to be skinned with acrylic and the rock needs to be selected.

Here I where the aquarium will be viewed from

Here is my skimmer

Here is my calcium reactor

Here's a pic from the other side of the wall. The back of the fish room will be installed after tank is in place.

 

[Mr bigolsworth]

Where do you work?!?! I'm jealous!

 

[robf]

Where do you work?!?! I'm jealous!

We are a family owed company in the Midwest. We make enclosures for large generator sets. Lots of experience with welding and fabricating metal. This tank is going to make the office atmosphere a bit nicer. Its a small enough company that everyone is pretty tight. I'm really lucky.

 

[Mr bigolsworth]

Family owned company's are the best to work for aswell. Worked for a couple family owned company's and you'll never get the chance to get as close to your boss. Now work for the military and constantly get screwed. Lol. Good luck with build.

 

[Kbra]

I installed an emergency overflow in my sump that drains outside in case to stuck or something else failed. Also adding leak detectors to the apex controller for email notification if im gone. The ultimate failure you can't plan for is a tank leak or rupture but everything else can be worked out

 

[robf]

Most disasters I've heard of seem to stem from 3 main areas. faulty equipement (heaters, dosers, etc..), power outages and to a lesser extent additives/media (carbon, salt mix, etc..). I don't have any controllers or automatic dosers and mostly rely on close inspection, hands on care and test kits to help me keep my reef in order. I have a few friends that have everything on controllers, dosers, reactors and still suffered with a crash. Especially during vacations or in someone elses care. I think it's easy to take a hands off aproach when everything is automated and that is usually when disaster strikes.

Wise advice. I've been guilty of hands off errors. One needs balance. All the equipment in the world means TONS of failure points! LOL

 

[robf]

The tank just arrived.

Its a biggie alright.

 

[Timfish]

Nice! I would stress redundancy. Lay out a flow diagram and logic diagram of your plumping and electrical. Go through each component and look at what happens if it fails. There are very good arguments for using one of the controller and monitoring systems available but what happens if it fails? (This happened to a local aquarist while he was at work and cooked his tank, it wasn't the temperature probe or the heater but the controller they were pluged into). In moderate or lightly stocked systems fish and corals will survive days without light and only minimal water flow so a backup system can be designed that does not have a heavy electrical demand. And air pumps can provide surprisingling good water flow with little current draw.

 

[cdness]

As Timfish said, look at the tank and basically draw up every scenario for failure based on your plumbing and setup. Plan a solution which takes all of them into account.

Not the controller example where the controller fails and cooks or freezes the tank, you need to do smart programming. Have your target values programmed, but add in values for out-of-range temps. If it falls below a certain mark or above a certain mark, turn heaters, coolers, lights, etc off to hold the temp where it is at and engage manual human interaction to see where the issue exists. Personal example, my temp probe failed and started to read 135 degrees. There was no way it was 135 degrees, but I had programmed the controller to shut down non-essential equipment that affected heat when the temp got below 72 degrees and above 90 degrees. This prevented my tank from being "chilled to death" from the failed probe...

Some things to consider:

- Float switch in the display to detect a plugged drain (turn off return pump)
- Floats to control water height in sump return chamber. This is for ATO, but add one at the point of the return pumps going dry so you can prevent a pump burnout due to increased evaporation
- PH probes to control the calcium reactor so the tank doesn't drop too low
- consider a temp probe for ambient air temp to verify surrounding environment
- Battery backup for your internet systems and controller for power loss alerts
- water leak detectors to tell you if water is on the floor
- ATO reservoir large enough to handle a few days of evaporation. Place a float in here to alert when the ATO level is low.
- Use two return pumps to allow for redundancy of pumps. If one fails, the life support systems still function since heating, cooling, and skimming is done from the sump...
- GFCI to prevent fires, but use multiple circuits and distribute support systems accordingly
- If possible, hook up to a generator to prevent issues with power loss.

Just some ideas to get you started.

 

[robf]

How do you protect against a controller failure?

What happens when a controller fails? If it's a heater running awry. Buy a programmable heater and then plug it into the apex. That way if the outlet stays on too long the heater will still shut off. This gives you redundancy. Better yet. Buy 2 smaller heaters?

If the main apex controller fails completely how would you handle this?

My calcium reactor has a co2 tank with a solenoid valve. The valve is controlled by a milwaukee ph controller. It monitors and controls ph in the reactor. As a fail safe. This unit will be plugged into the apex controller. It will shut the reactor down if ph drops in the tank below 7.8.

From the sump, I will install 2 return pumps. Pumps will be configured to operate in parallel. Should one fail, the tank will continue to function. Can I use smaller pumps if I'm using 2?

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Nice tank!

 

[Degener8]

Yea you should use 2 pumps that together will equal the desired total return volume.

 

[LegoZ81]

make sure you put check valves in the output manifold for the return pumps.
if you y them into one return pipe and one pump fails it will backflow through the other pump as that is the path of least resistance.