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huntinweim
06/16/2008, 11:12 AM
With all the talk of tank leakage and plumbing disasters I was wondering how many of you keep spare tanks running or atleast available.

As well as how many of you guys keep spare plumbing parts around the house? I know you can find a lot of what you need at the hardware store but what about the stuff you can't? Do any of you keep a stash of 'Just In Case Plumbing' parts around?

How many have thought about back up plans for different types of failures?
* I have though of running 2 midsized skimmers rather than one large one just in case one breaks I still have a decent amount of skimmer capacity.

OAD
06/16/2008, 11:15 AM
I will be running a 12G here in a bit so it would be financially unsound to purchase a separate tank to run it. When I had a 29 or 110, my father and I never kept a separate system running.

We did however use a large plastic garbage bin to breakdown my 29 and move it when there was a hurricane coming.

Slakker
06/16/2008, 11:25 AM
I would think that running 2 midsized skimmers would probably be much less effective than running one, appropriately sized, quality skimmer.

A tank can go without a skimmer and be just fine...many people have successful tanks without a skimmer at all, so I'm sure yours would be fine in the time it took you to replace the pump/skimmer.

SeanT
06/16/2008, 01:11 PM
Dear Lord do I have a stash of plumbing parts, pumps, skimmers, lights...too many years and too much money and too many upgrades. :D

I sell some but I like to keep back up pumps and such around.

Peace of mind.

joshkennedy07
06/16/2008, 02:15 PM
Keep lots of epoxy putty and superglue - The duct tape of the reef tank.

Ingenuity has always worked for me. I have 2 big Rubbermaid bins full of misc. equipment, but It is impossible to have the right part everytime.

TWallace
06/16/2008, 02:38 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12757273#post12757273 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Slakker
A tank can go without a skimmer and be just fine...many people have successful tanks without a skimmer at all, so I'm sure yours would be fine in the time it took you to replace the pump/skimmer.

I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. I'm quite confident my tank would be fine for a few months if my skimmer failed. I used to run the tank skimmerless for a period of about 7 months. Nitrates stayed under 2ppm with minimal water changes. I just don't feel it's the absolutely vital piece of equipment that most others do.

I do keep a lot of spare plumbing parts around and it came in handy just last night. I'll be upgrading to a 120 soon, as a result I have lots of pvc and some bulkheads laying around. While sawing through the overflow drain hose to add a union, I accidentally snapped the bulkhead on my CPR overflow. I initially tried repairing it with pvc cement, but it didn't hold. I had 3 bulkheads on hand, but they were 1", and the overflow uses 3/4". So using a dremel I bored out the hole on the overflow to accomodate a larger bulkhead. Trouble was, the bulkhead itself was too big to fit in the back compartment, but not by much. So I dremeled down the sides of the bulkhead disc above where the gasket is. This allowed it to fit into the overflow and it all worked perfectly from there. This compartment contains less than a quart of water at any given time, so water pressure on the altered bulkhead was not a concern. I'd feel less confident in dremeling down a bulkhead in a high pressure situation.

In the process I also rinsed out the overflow in the sink, found several 2-3" bristle worms inside it along with other junk. This helped increase flow through the overflow both by cleaning it and increasing the bulkhead size. In the past I had some trouble with it not draining fast enough to keep up with the rather low powered Mag 7 return. My pump is around 480gph with head loss, while the overflow is rated for 600gph, so it should not have been a problem. Cleaning it was the key I think.

Skeptic_07
06/16/2008, 02:44 PM
whenver i have to plumb anything, i always buy extra parts just incase i glue something in the wrong place etc.. i wont have to go back to depot again just to replace the one part. Its because of this practice i have a huge stash of "just in case" parts. i was even able to build a silencer for my overflow box out of these without even going to depot! i havent been in the hobby long enough to have a backup skimmer but i do have a few backup 10 gallon tanks and a 29 gallon that holds a whole bunch of 'fish junk' that i've collected. A fishing tackle box is handy for storeing any of those wierd parts that you get every time you buy a pump or a filter. ;)