A Little help Please

1st i built a canister filter...works great...now i've built a refugium.
Water is siphoned from DT to refugium then pumped a short distance to canister filter then back to the DT. BUT when the electric goes off the siphon continue and because my canister filter is higher than my refugium that water also (of course) drains to the lowest point. So if i'm not home and the electric goes off for even 5 minutes the siphon is broke and the pumps when they come back on pumps all the water thats left back (what not on the floor) so tell me what to do guys. Right now I'm only running it when i'm home

 

You have to put a little hole in the problem line so that when its not under power it sucks air and stops the syphon action. Let me know if you need more help.

 

That is the problem with siphons, you need a siphon that will re-prime itself after the power goes out. The basic concept is outlined here.

Melev's Reef - How to start an overflow box

There are also commercial overflow boxes that will do it all for you, siphons are always a little risky though, they get clogged, get air in the u-tube and fail to re-prime etc. You can try googling for overflow boxes. These are popular though I believe.
http://www.lifereef.com/siphon.html

I would get the tank drilled and put a real overflow in there though, much less risky personally. Good luck.

EDIT: Also most people leave enough extra space in their refugium/sump in order to accomodate all water that drains out when the pump goes off, but a siphon break like janderson will prevent some of that, there is almost always some extra water that flows down though, especially if you have a canister that has to drain as well.

 

thank you guys , i've got it all in the works to fix except the re-prime , need to read the article again. but tytytyty