My air pump is syphoning water????

[babyg2.0]

Hey y'all, so it's about 12:10 AM and I just noticed that my TopFin air pump had syphoned water from my freshwater tank onto the floor. I'll add some pics at the end to give y'all a better idea of what happened.

I have a 3 way thing (I'm blanking, not really sure what to call it but I have a picture of it) that takes air from the pump to three different air tubes. Two of the tubes are in my saltwater tank and the third is to a bubble wand in my freshwater tank. Both tanks are relatively small and only about 8-10 feet away from each other. I had just moved my tanks today as I was switching bedrooms but y'all don't need my life story(lol). I had everything set up exactly how it was before, except the tube to my freshwater tank was no longer long enough and I didn't have a longer one to use so I used whatever strong tape I had on hand (painters tape then duct tape as shown in picture below). My dad taped them and we made sure no air was able to come out of the tape. We also were able to fit the black tube into the blue tube so it worked (so we thought). Little did I know, I would be coming home to water all over my floor. I'm honestly so confused. This has never happened to me but maybe it has to someone else so if y'all have any ideas, throw 'em at me! [emoji16]

 

[Katrina71]

You can buy a check valve. Kinda like a one way valve in pool floats.

 

[babyg2.0]

You can buy a check valve. Kinda like a one way valve in pool floats.

I'm gonna be honest babe, I didn't even think of that. *facepalm* you're a genius.

I'm still not sure why it happened. Our power never went out or anything of the sorts.

 

[Katrina71]

Genius? Lol. No. Had the same thing happen once.

 

[babyg2.0]

Genius? Lol. No. Had the same thing happen once.

It's the worst! Original hardwood floors, soaking wet [emoji849]

 

[Katrina71]

Oh no! Got a fan?

 

[babyg2.0]

Two of them! My room sounds like a train station.

 

[Katrina71]

Is it old hardwood floors?

 

[babyg2.0]

Yes! They're super skinny and beautiful. Over 60 years old I believe

 

[Katrina71]

I am willing to bet they have been waxed a time or two. Probably will be ok. I had a Victorian.

 

[babyg2.0]

Yeah they've been waxed plenty lol. My mom was adamant about that, however they haven't been waxed since I was a kid so it's been a good while. Plus all the traffic in my house doesn't help (10 of us including my two big dogs)

 

[Katrina71]

How much water? How long?

 

[babyg2.0]

About a gallon maybe? I'm not completely sure, I grabbed a towel and got it up as soon as I saw it. Used a fairly new, thick bath towel and it was mostly soaked, not dripping but definitely wet. I have no clue how long it was there but the floors look okay

 

[Katrina71]

I think you'll be fine.

 

[Forsaken77]

I'm gonna be honest babe, I didn't even think of that. *facepalm* you're a genius.

I'm still not sure why it happened. Our power never went out or anything of the sorts.

You should actually put a check valve on every air line going into the water. The check valve obviously goes out of the water. If air was to stop flowing, or the pump is unplugged, it'll start to back-siphon all of the water out of your tank without one. It's a necessity to have one on every air hose for this reason. I hope your pump survived.

They sell packs of 5 or 10 on Amazon for cheap unless you need it right now. But you need at least 3 for each of your lines. And the 3-way is called a "T" btw

 

[Piranhapat]

If you don't buy check valves. I always like the air pump to be above the tank. So I'm using gravity so the water can't go back to pump. We really should take advantage what you can do in the hobby. Especially to eliminate valves ,pumps, ect...

 

[Katrina71]

How did they look today?

 

[babyg2.0]

You should actually put a check valve on every air line going into the water. The check valve obviously goes out of the water. If air was to stop flowing, or the pump is unplugged, it'll start to back-siphon all of the water out of your tank without one. It's a necessity to have one on every air hose for this reason. I hope your pump survived.

They sell packs of 5 or 10 on Amazon for cheap unless you need it right now. But you need at least 3 for each of your lines. And the 3-way is called a "T" btw

My air pump is fine. I removed the tubes from the T before turning my air pump off (as I usually do) and everything was fine. I set the air pump up first, then re-plugged in the airline tubes without them in the water to make sure they wouldn't back syphon but it still did, three hours afterwards. That's why I was so confused. I was cautious because I didn't have any check valves.

 

[babyg2.0]

How did they look today?

The ones in my saltwater tank are doing great! But I haven't gotten around to my freshwater yet. I will have an airline up and running tomorrow. I'm buying new airline tubing and a pack of check valves at my local petshmo after work so they'll be just fine! Thank you so much!

 

[babyg2.0]

If you don't buy check valves. I always like the air pump to be above the tank. So I'm using gravity so the water can't go back to pump. We really should take advantage what you can do in the hobby. Especially to eliminate valves ,pumps, ect...

My pump has been above my tanks since I've had an air pump. I keep it on a shelf above the tank. So I'm completely baffled as to why the heck my stuff never works but it's okay now! [emoji16]