bluecheese
Active Member
125 gallon tank at my work. Right now there are only 2 clownfish in it. With Ida coming, I'm certain we are going to lose power, and I'm not sure when we'll get it back. We have generators that I'm certain will be fire up at some point next week.
I'm wondering if I should turn my sump off before I leave today, and just have the powerheads running in the tank. The way my sump is set up, there is a small piece of hose - like 1/4" - that T's off from the return line and feeds into the refugium. There is a line from the refugium to the return chamber that drains that water back to the return.
When the power goes off, the water from the overflows will fill the sump, which will also push water into the refugium via the line between the return chamber and the refugium.
When the pump kicks back on, it takes a while for the water to drain from the refugium back to the return chamber, which makes the water level low in the return. And that makes the auto top off think that it needs to kick in. So I'll have all this freshwater pumped into the system that really isn't needed. Plus, once the refugium levels out, there will be more water in the return chamber than there is supposed to be.
I have a Sicce Syncra 6.0 pump, which is wifi enabled. The pump is supposed to be able to sense when the water level is too low for it to operate properly and shut itself off.
So, should I disconnect the ATO, and just rely on the pump to see if the water level is too low and shut itself off?
Or should I just turn the sump off and just let the powerheads do their thing?
I'm wondering if I should turn my sump off before I leave today, and just have the powerheads running in the tank. The way my sump is set up, there is a small piece of hose - like 1/4" - that T's off from the return line and feeds into the refugium. There is a line from the refugium to the return chamber that drains that water back to the return.
When the power goes off, the water from the overflows will fill the sump, which will also push water into the refugium via the line between the return chamber and the refugium.
When the pump kicks back on, it takes a while for the water to drain from the refugium back to the return chamber, which makes the water level low in the return. And that makes the auto top off think that it needs to kick in. So I'll have all this freshwater pumped into the system that really isn't needed. Plus, once the refugium levels out, there will be more water in the return chamber than there is supposed to be.
I have a Sicce Syncra 6.0 pump, which is wifi enabled. The pump is supposed to be able to sense when the water level is too low for it to operate properly and shut itself off.
So, should I disconnect the ATO, and just rely on the pump to see if the water level is too low and shut itself off?
Or should I just turn the sump off and just let the powerheads do their thing?
