late night thought

here's your answer....its all about where your siphon breaks from your tank into the wet/dry. If it brakes 2 high into the tank....not that much or none of your bio-media will be covered in water (keeping them soaked). If it breaks 2 low....yes, all your bio-media will be covered in water.....along with your floor and your fish may not have much or any water left 4 them!!! You have to find a good spot for your siphon to break in the tank so it will cover your bio-media and won't overflow your wet/dry onto the floor if you ever have a power failure.

I am getting a 220g this weekend with holes drilled in the BOTTOM and a sump. I have been worried about a power outage myself.

The ideal sump system will have it's over flow and pump lines drain back into the sump, covering the vast majority of the media.

Can we get things straight here first as there seem to be two questions...

Power outage worries...

Get a UPS to run the pump (size it so the pump can run for 10 hrs, if it is a blackout traffic could cause you to take longer to get home and when you do get home what are you going to do? That's a whole other disaster recovery program http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48578 ).

Consider aeration run off of the UPS too.

Pump dies...

Run a secondary pump of less gph but enough to keep everything healthy for a day or three till you get a replacement pump (if you are far from a store or shipping keep one on hand).

Remember Biologicals start to die off in about 20 minutes without circulation and nutrients.

Worst case scenario drain off 30% of the tank water & use it to rinse the filter out and restart (add bioSpira if it is available).

Dr Joe

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