Caught JUST in th nick of time!

smcnally

Tankless
I just walked over to my tank and the water was just over the center brace and was about 15 seconds away from overflowing. I'll tell you what...I can't wait until I get my new tank set up. CPR overflows are a joke! I can't believe that not only do they suck without an Aqualifter, but they suck with one too. My Aqualifter (2nd one in 3 months) loses momentum after a few weeks. I always have to just pop the hose off the CPR and then stick it back on for it to start sucking again. Believe it or not, this is probably the 10th time I've caught it from overflowing, and luckily it hasn't gone over the edge yet. For anybody who is looking at overflows and can't drill their tanks, U-Tube style is the way to go. I had one on for months and it never lost syphon.
 
I had a u-tube overflow for 7 months on my other tank and it never lost syphon.
 
Both u-tube and a Marineland SOS, they are fine, but I have found that I REALLY need to remove the bubbles once per week to avoid syphon loss.

So not really trouble free...
 
Steve, instead of the Aqua lifter, try running a piece of air line from the overflow to a venturi on a Maxijet(or other PH). It should suck the air bubbles out of the "j" channel. I've never tried this, but read about it. It's worth a try.
 
Best way to avoid losing syphon on the u-tubes is to buy on w/air hose attachment on the top of the u tube bend
Hook this up to a powerhead - that will draw the air out continously
Worked on my last tank
 
PHreef said:
Steve, instead of the Aqua lifter, try running a piece of air line from the overflow to a venturi on a Maxijet(or other PH). It should suck the air bubbles out of the "j" channel. I've never tried this, but read about it. It's worth a try.
This was how I originally had it, but the J Channel puls in so much air that my tnk looked like I had airstones going. I even lowered my return flow huge and it still did.
 
I use a penguin powerhead and so far so good the last 2yrs. I did try an aqualifter at first but as you said..always clogged after a while. Had to use the filter and that would clogg first. Try the powerhead in the sump attached with the airline tubing.
 
This is a timely conversation as I'm thinking about upgrading my mantis tank to two 10 gallon tanks in order to provide more water volume for a messy eater and ease water changes and top offs. I was planning on using a HOB overflow of some sort to plumb them together and use the 2nd tank for a fuge/sump. Should I just bite the bullet and drill the display tank? Or can a HOB overflow of some sort work as reliably? The tank will be setup at my office and while I have permission to do so the first time it makes a mess I'm sure it will no longer be welcomed.

--
David
 
IMO, drilled is always best. But, if I were to go with an outside overflow again, I would go with a U-Tube style.
 
I sympathize with your overflow issue. Unfortunately this risk exists in either scenario:
1) If you don't do anything about the bubble buildup, you will lose siphon
2) If you run an airhose out of the top of the j-channel, you have an overflow risk as well. The overflow boxes have a water reservoir on either side of the j-channel. These reservoirs not only control the speed of flow, they keep water in the j-channel when the water in the tank is too low to spill into the overflow (eg if you lost power to your sump pump). When tank water resumes overflowing into the box, the j-channel siphon resumes without needing to be primed. If you had an airhose coming out of the top of the j-channel, these would remove the water from the j-channel and reservoir boxes and the siphon would need to be primed.

If you're not going to go with a drilled tank, the best overflow setup is to have 2 overflow boxes, 1 with an air hose and 1 without. This way at least one of them would work in either crisis scenario.
 
Stanley Wong said:
If you have enough water flow, it would never has any bubble build up in the U tube.

Stanley
Actually, with the J Channel style that CPR sells, more flow=more bubbles. I had to lower my flow to stop the problems I was having.
 
Now you have me a bit concerned as I have a brand new CPR HOB overflow I was going to add since my tank isn't drilled... I was planning however of putting a float switch in the main tank so if the level hit to high, it would shut off both the aqualifter and sump pump simultaneously until I manually turned it back on.

-Mike
 
float switch isn't a bad idea...Never did it myself. Thought there'd be to much false switching. It's not like the water level changes all that much. If I want strong overflow, I need to have the water level pretty high anyways....Then again my overflow box was undersized.
 
capecodder said:
float switch isn't a bad idea...Never did it myself. Thought there'd be to much false switching. It's not like the water level changes all that much. If I want strong overflow, I need to have the water level pretty high anyways....Then again my overflow box was undersized.

I can kinda "cheat" on the wiring as I already have a home automation system with cheap n/o wireless modules (with battery monitoring.) Basically float switch closes contact, rule in home automation system causes it to issue command to X10/Zwave/UPB/etc module to shut off pumps. Can also send me an email to my cell phone or trigger a buzzer, etc.

-Mike
 
I don't think the size of the overflow box is the issue. It all depend on the size of the drain pipe and the slotted area in the overflow box. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Stanley
 
mloebl - high tech, me likey.

Stanley - yeah you're right. I was using loose terminology. By "size", I meant that I didn't have a wide slotted area, so I need to keep the water level fairly high to get the overflow rate up...It's not as good, b/c you'd prefer to only skim the very top. I'm holding out on $, since I'm doing home renovation that will include upgrading from my non-drilled 125g to a 220g pre-drilled....Can't have equipment hanging off the outside when it's going to be viewed from front and back.
 
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