Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

maybe the return siphon from one of your growbeds failed and the bed over flowed?

Gosh

What a mystery! Important to find the problem. Can you leave the system off overnite? Before you have confidence the problem will not occur again, it would be best to only have it running when you can check on it often. Could anything have deflected the water out? Do you have animals that might be involved? You use flood & drain system? Could the mechanism have malfunctioned? Just shotgunning ideas.

We had our carpets professionally steamcleaned and they sucked so much moisture out of the carpet that it dried with fans in about four hours. If you do have a mold problem from this, you may want to get the rugs pro steam cleaned to kill the mold and get the carpets real dry. But first find the problem or it might happen again. My best wishes.

Still no answer to the mystery. We pulled up the carpet and set fans under them. All is dry and well at this point. I unplugged it at night for a week or so, but now it has been running non stop with no problems. I suppose I will just chalk it up to a fluke.....still, I hope it doesn't happen again. I have WIRED the pump in the top corner of the tank so at least it wont drain the whole thing.

water and pumps do odd things sometimes Hopefully it won't happen again.

good failsafe

I couldn't see one BUT do you have an airstone in the tank.
I had one in my big tank with the little air pump in the cabinet below, Power went out one night and sucked water down the air line through the pump and all over the carpet.

good point.

Check any pipes that do not need to siphon and put a hole in it at the top so it doesn't get a reverse siphon.

Happen to me the other day on my Aquarium, lucky will I was servicing it at the time. I was cleaning the gravel and I noticed how fast the water was draining. I looked in the bucket I was using and it was only half full... Oh, oh! The venturi hole in the sump return had blocked so when I turned off the pump, a siphon kicked in and it started draining water down to my sump. The sump then over flowed and I ended up with about 20 L on the floor. SO thank GOD the power had not gone off before I discovered it.

So yes.... things can and do happen. Easiest way is to sit in front of it and think about and trace all the water paths.

ever noticed how wet the carpet gets with 20L?

I have a slate floor where the tank(s) are so any 'accidents' are [s]easy[/s] easier to mop up. Just like in the kitchen when a mouse chewed through the water hose on the dishwasher during the night.... There was about 2 cm of water through the whole kitchen.

Kind of like a kid with a single chocolate chip or M&M - it's incredible what mess can be made with so little....

Well,

Hello all, it has been a while eh? I can safely say my first go round with this has been a dismal failure. That system I bought was a total waste of money and is now sitting in my garage awaiting the day I decide to resurrect it in some way. Next time I decide to trust technology over my own ingenuity I will save some time and just put a match to $500. It leaked out all the water a total of 3 times. Then the Pacus chewed through the cords on the pumps shutting the water supply down killing all the plants (well, not totally....but I ripped them all up in frustration when I went in and found them all wilted, nearly dead and my pumps destroyed). Then a few weeks later the (at that time) shortest member of our family found an unopened industrial sized can of fish food and decided to feed the fish one morning while I was at work, dh called me but I was unable to come home and by the time I got here only 1 lonely oscar was still alive. The stork paid us another welcome visit taking up much of my energy, so the oscar has been living in the huge tank since July of last year.

I have decided to start from scratch, using some of the things I still have and trying a new route. First of all I am bringing up those heavy glass tops and the tank is coming off that stand and onto the floor. If the glass doesn't keep the short ones at bay, I will engineer a locking lid. Next, the growbeds are going UP. I have the one expensive hydro growbed which I will use, and I am using cheap rubbermaid tubs from Walmart for the rest (I can spray paint them to match the other growbed). EVERY tub will be plumbed with an overflow going back into the tank. The pumps are going into a metal collander to keep curious fish away. I may slather an inch or so of silicone over the entire finished project (kidding). Once it is all put together and leak proof, I am going to board it up with screws (I can get in if I really need to, but cats kids dogs etc will be flabbergasted).

So help me if it leaks out all over the place, my posts will probably be coming from the looney bin. But, on the bright side we all really enjoyed the salads and strawberries that came out of the last system before I finally gave up. I have spoken with the kids about the fish, we will be using Tilapia instead of ornamentals this time out and WE WILL be eating them at some point.

Anyway, it will probably take some time to get together but hopefully things will work out better this time around.

I thought some one said that Pacu were harmless

Wow new rug rat into the bargain...
Sounds like you had a rough time of it!
Not good to hear...
Leaks are a nightmere...I know I fix them for a living.
Maybe you could build a cage for the cats dogs kids and have the house free for Aquaponics!!! )just a joke ...K!

Sounds like you are preparing for another journey! Tis good, we will be here with you if/when you need help...Welcome back.
C1

The Pacus were unreal, I have never seen a fish grow like that. We did not have them but a few months and they went from the size of a quarter to the size of dessert plates when they died. They also had very impressive looking teeth...not as razor sharp and small as a pirhana, but still a mouthful of large sharp looking teeth.

creative - I don't think a cage has been created yet that could hold them