External Filter Leaked

[westonsupermanc]

Within 4 minutes of an unattended tank my external leaked and emptied over 100 litres of water all over the lounge carpet. Managed to save the fish but was wondering is there any sort of valve available to stop this happening again please

 

[arielsworld17974]

Oh my gosh! That's horrible! My worst nightmare would be my tank breaking or like in your case leaking everywhere. I can't be of an help though. Filters aren't my strong suit. It's something I still need to research. I'm sure someone else can be of help though. Best of luck.

 

[DrRob]

There are 2 things I've seen that work, one is to put a syphon break (essentially a small hole that'll let air in) into the intake pipe, that way, if the water level drops then the filter will start to suck on air. Alternatively you can simply terminate the pipe higher in the tank, but that'd mean that it takes from the top of the tank, rather than the bottom.
 
The second part of this is to put a float switch on the power supply to the filter, otherwise any break will burn out the motor as it tries to run on air. Can also be run to an alarm if you're wiring minded enough.