Sump safety overflow

[Catskiller]

Hey folks.

125gal. with 30gal. sump

This tank will be my first with a sump. I did the math and will have room in my sump to take water if my return pump stops working for whatever reason. That being said, I plan on putting a large ATO on the sump return chamber. If something should happen and my ATO where to be all added to my system, it has the possibility of overflowing the sump. So I was thinking why not install a 1 inch bulkhead below the rim of the sump and pipe it to daylight outside the house just as a precaution in case the sump water levels should rise unexpectedly. I’ve been looking around and I haven’t seen anybody set up an emergency overflow for the sump. Perhaps there’s a reason I am not thinking of that no one does it?
Thanks

 

[dedragon]

Just annoying to do that, you could also install a simple emergency float switch to shut off the ato for super cheap

 

[T-J]

Don't place an ATO reservoir above the tank it's filling. You could get a siphon, which would empty all the fresh water into your tank. Most ATO's have double or triple protection about overfilling: electric eyes, float valves and timed shut-off.
With an emergency overflow, it still wouldn't prevent all the fresh water from mixing with your salt, possibly lowering your salinity too much.
Honestly, it seems so much easier and a better fail-safe to just set it up correctly in the first place.

 

[BlennyTime]

If you are concerned, it would be easier to just add a float switch in line with the pump. That will add an additional layer of protection.

 

[dedragon]

actually should have asked is this before, is this a gravity fed ATO with float valve to control or is it an ato with sensors?

 

[costaricareef]

I have a 1/2" bulkhead 1" from the top of the sump and directly to the drain. I also have it on my ATO and on my salt mixing container. If for whatever reason something happens, a solenoid gets stuck or fails, the float valve fails or the Osmolator fails, there will be no water on my floors, short of catastrophic failures (glass breaking, etc.). Its a pain to do it, but the peace of mind is worth it for me.

 

[DaddyFish]

I get your concern. My biggest tank has more than double the volume in the (internal) overflow chamber than my sump will support as additional water. So my What-if? concern is a drain pipe becoming dislodged at the base or damaged during maintenance resulting in the entire contents of the overflow chamber draining into the sump.

I had a spare 1-1/4" drain line installed under the floor and plan to do exactly what you suggest, drill a hole in the sump and run a pipe somewhere.

 

[Catskiller]

This is where I am at too. My work involves treating 6 million gallons of water a day and no matter how many redundancies are built in, something will fail sooner or later. Just the way it is. I just wanted to verify that there was no good reason not to incorporate an emergency drain on the sump.

I planned on getting a tunze 3155. I’m not brave enough to rely on a mechanical float valve alone to control an ATO. We replace mechanical, mercury, and pressure sensors to often for me to bet the bank on any one of them.

 

[MPS]

I like the idea on paper but I’d have a few concerns. How would you plumb it to keep critters from crawling up the pipe and into the house? It also seems like a lot of extra work for little benefit. I’ve the a very similar setup. My sump is only about 1/2 filled even when the return pump is off and the overflow has settled into the sump. Meaning, I’ve got lots of room for error.
Regarding my ATO, consider something like this. I’ve piped my RODI into a 3 gal container that automatically fills when empty. When the sensors on the tank trigger a top off, water from the container goes into the sump. At the very worst case, the tank only gets 3gal of water at a time, which is no big deal. Further I trigger an alarm on my Apex that tells me when the ATO system turns on or off. If I notice anything “fishy” I can investigate before problems arise.
just another couple of ideas to consider.