Overflowing

[mono19]

So this is probably dumb on my part, but maybe you guys can help me out with why this happened...

Last night I decided to replace the crappy overflow box that I had with a PF-300 overflow box, got it home and out of the box. I turned off my return pump and unhooked the old overflow box...To my surprise the tank started overflowing! :frustrat: I probably lost about 7 gallons of water, which I later replaced and thankfully I was doing it after the main lights went out and I didn't lose any fish. But why in the crap did it overflow? I originally thought that water may be coming up from the sump into the tank, but the sump wasn't draining at all. So where would the water be coming from?

The box is working great now and I got the tank refilled with the water and it seems to all be ok. I will see this afternoon when I get off work how everyone is doing for sure. Man I was mad though....The bulkhead also leaks very little but after reading some reviews apparently this is a normal problem, so I took some sealant and put it all around the bulkhead..It will probably take longer to cure because the tank is running but hopefully it will hold...if not I will take it apart and fix it.

 

[blando]

did it over flow at the sump or display tank.. what i do is turn the overflow off or whatever first then unplug the return pump.. the return pump is going to still bring water back to the sump atleast for me it does until i take the nozzel that is in the display tank up so when it hits air it stops sucking water back down. No over flow for me yet.

 

[FishyReef]

Was the new overflow box rated the same as the old one in terms of gph of flow?

 

[mono19]

See that's what I thought was weird blando, it was overflowing from the display tank. That's what confused the heck out of me.

And one thing I did that you may want to try blando, is instead of taking the return pump out of the water to get it to stop drill a small hole in the nozzel where you would like the water to stop at. Once air hits the hole it will stop.

 

[blando]

oh i dont take it out of the wateru kno the nozzle that goes into the tank? mine like you can turn it water direction i just point it up so when the wwater drops then it stops when air hits it.. and yea that is weird.. and you unplugged the return pump first? if so that is very odd.

 

[mono19]

Fishy they were both rated for 300gph. Yeah I turned off everything in the sump first...

 

[mono19]

CPR CS Overflow Boxes
Here is the old one.

Reef Aquarium Filtration: Eshopps Overflow Boxes
Here is the one I replaced it with.

 

[snyderju]

I use an Eshopps that has a continual siphon. All I do is shut off the power to the return pump and the overflow keeps overflowing until the water level reaches the hole I drilled in my return line to break the reverse siphon. I plug the pump back in when it is done and the overflow siphon automatically starts again. Couldn't be simpler. The only time I overflowed my DT was when I stopped my overflow and forgot to shut off my return pump. Stupid error but it happens when you are not thinking. Did it overflow when you had your new overflow installed and working?

 

[mono19]

Did yours leak when you first installed it? Cause mine has 2 small little drips every now and then. I used some sealant on it, so hoping that stops the problem...if not I will take it apart and fix it. No I've got all of that. Honestly I have no clue why it overflowed. It overflowed the moment that I took the old overflow box off the tank. After the return pump was shut off. It could of been that I didn't let it drain enough but I don't know...hopefully it won't be happening again anytime soon

 

[snyderju]

That is very strange. I hooked mine up using flex pipe and those Eshopps overflows use metric fittings so I just friction fit a standard PVC pipe fitting to the bulk head and used hose clamps and PVC cement for the rest and have had no leaks that I know of. How is the noise with yours? Did you make a Hoffer Gurgle Buster for it yet?

 

[mono19]

Anyway you could get me the measurements of the pipes that you used? I tried to find some this morning, but had no idea what to look for..I read in the reviews that you have to almost tighten the bulkhead to the point of breaking to stop the small leaks....I just took some tank sealant and put it all the way around the bulkhead, which seems to be working but who knows....

Noise hasn't been too bad so far, but the box has only been up for about 8 hours, so I'm sure it will be..are you talking about sticking the air hose down inside? How does it work with power outages? it seems like if you have to suck out the air every time the box stops that could create problems....

 

[snyderju]

I have a video of my tank that shows my overflow and gurgle buster let me find it quick

 

[snyderju]

Sump.AVI - YouTube
That is the video of the tank towards the end I show the Gurgle Buster I modified it a bit since and I'll post the pic with it.

 

[mono19]

Hmm that is interesting. I'm gonna have to look into that.

 

[snyderju]

Quiets it almost completely and our power has gone out and came back on with no troubles or work on my part. Totally self sustainable besides the occasional cleaning. It also does away with that crappy foam thing it comes with that just traps gunk and can easily clog up causing it to fail. I think it was an inch and a half PVC adapter I used to friction fit into the bulk head and hook put the flex pipe fitting to it. Not positive though All I know is there should be a coupling that is standard that friction fits well enough that it is water tight. From there you can get the proper fittings for flex pipe and use hose clamps.

 

[mono19]

Hofer Gurgle Buster Construction
I looked up gurgle buster online and got this page...is this kinda the same design that you have running on yours?

 

[snyderju]

That is the exact site I used for mine. Lots of people go off that design and it works great

 

[mono19]

Sweet, here is another dumb question, does the end of the buster fit nicely into the bulkhead?

 

[snyderju]

Ya, we have the same overflow and if you use the exact sizes for the PVC that he does on that site then it fits in the bulk head snugly. The only thing I changed on mine from his design is the hose coming through the top. I added an air valve on top of the hose. This allows you to fine tune the amount of air going in while also preventing the tubing from slipping too far down the hole and screwing up your adjustments.

 

[snyderju]

There is also a Stockman's Standpipe that is similar in design to the HGB and I tried that as well. The HGB takes some fine tuning but in my experience, once you get it adjusted well the HGB is far better than the Standpipe design.