So I left for the weekend after having my wet dry up for a few weeks now. I come home to a nearly empty sump and a pump barely sucking any water with plenty of it in places I don't want it like the floor. Since the floor hasn't been sealed yet and it's bamboo I'm in for a fun time later on when the mold hits, yay. Turns out the overflow unit had a bulkhead fitting that decided to crack. Following the tubing down it hits the floor first, then loops back up to the wet dry.
Why did I do that? Well, I wanted some consistent back pressure on the ball valve so I could throttle the flow out of it and reduce the splashing. It's a Herbie style plumbing method and the emergency overflow was fine. It's more just a case of WTF and Why Now after a few weeks in operation? Because I wasn't there of course is the obvious answer. No float valve cutoff switch or anything like that naturally. The pump seems fine and the fish are fine since I didn't pull the cannister off that tank yet. So I can definitely recommend those marineland utility pumps. Still...
So now I have to rethink how to make it so that in the event of a leak like this the natural tendency for the water is to flow down into the sump somehow and not off into the tank stand or floor. This also strongly leads towards a submersible pump method vs. the other ideas I had in mind. Lessons learned. Keep your plumbing simple and don't just blindly assume it'll be fine just because it has been thus far. Failure is ALWAYS and option.
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S
Why did I do that? Well, I wanted some consistent back pressure on the ball valve so I could throttle the flow out of it and reduce the splashing. It's a Herbie style plumbing method and the emergency overflow was fine. It's more just a case of WTF and Why Now after a few weeks in operation? Because I wasn't there of course is the obvious answer. No float valve cutoff switch or anything like that naturally. The pump seems fine and the fish are fine since I didn't pull the cannister off that tank yet. So I can definitely recommend those marineland utility pumps. Still...
So now I have to rethink how to make it so that in the event of a leak like this the natural tendency for the water is to flow down into the sump somehow and not off into the tank stand or floor. This also strongly leads towards a submersible pump method vs. the other ideas I had in mind. Lessons learned. Keep your plumbing simple and don't just blindly assume it'll be fine just because it has been thus far. Failure is ALWAYS and option.
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S