:shock: You guys have better eyes than I have I guess. What I saw I just ASSumed was plastic. Looking at it again it sure does look like a brass valve. Pulling the sponge prefilter is definitely to be recommended if you are not sure you are the type that will religiously clean it every day, it is due to a bacterial thing you will get into eventually. It will make your overflow a little louder without the sponge, but you can buy or make a silencer overflow pipe which is very quiet. If a person is having a problem and needs help why is that not a concern of others who should want to help? At that I am confused.
Rainer's 55!
- Thread starter Rainer
- Start date
NewPortRichey
Sushi Anyone????????????
Yup, take the brass valve off. With regards to your plumbing: try not to have too many 90 degree turns like fatman said. If you have to use 45's. Also, You're always going to have sound issues, especially if you don't have good flow. Check this site otu. I just made my own version of this with a few parts from Lowes.
Durso Standpipes Portal > Home
Check out the popular mods section. You can do what they suggest for an overflow box but I just did like the picture on the first page. Bought a T, inserted the 90 and put a cap on it with a hole.
Voila! No more sound. You'll have to adjust the return flow because this does slow things down just a notch but it's no big deal. Put a valve somewhere in your return line and that's it.
Durso Standpipes Portal > Home
Check out the popular mods section. You can do what they suggest for an overflow box but I just did like the picture on the first page. Bought a T, inserted the 90 and put a cap on it with a hole.
Voila! No more sound. You'll have to adjust the return flow because this does slow things down just a notch but it's no big deal. Put a valve somewhere in your return line and that's it.
The below URL is the site for the original Silent One standpipe designed for siphon overflows, whereas the Durso was designed for bottom drilled tank overflows. A new modified machined version of the Silent one is available at a few net aquarium sites for around $20. :Cheers:
R. Durso's 180g - Ken Stockman Standpipe
R. Durso's 180g - Ken Stockman Standpipe
NewPortRichey
Sushi Anyone????????????
I actually made several different versions of this for my overflow. It differs in every application I'm sure. Mine took quite a bit of messing around to get right. Had to add holes, then it was too much, then not enough, etc. etc. It severely cut down on the flow also. They're both pretty cheap. The only way to find out what will work for you is to do it. LEt us know how it goes.
those look like great ideas, may have to give it a shot. However im not sure i can afford to lose any flow on my overflow, at the moment. I upgraded pumps like fatman suggested and its much much better, however now the pump kicks the overflows ass so i had to really restrict it to keep it from empything the return chamber in my fuge. Any ideas or suggestions other than restriction? Im thinking about adding another overflow.
Larger siphon tube. You can make it out of PVC pipe and fittings however you would not be able to see when a bubble was forming. For safety sake I would opt for a double overflow. Ask BifFer, she runs a heavy flow through her refugium I believe. Unless you go insanely heavy with your flow your refugium will be OK. The main thing is to give it as raw water as you can. If your worried to much about your pods and such just throw some rock rubble in the fuge to break the velocity of the flow so it will not be a laminar flow rushing through the refugium. Meaning the life forms can handle a turbulent flow better than a single direct heavy stream at full force.
NewPortRichey
Sushi Anyone????????????
..............or put aball valve into your return line. then you can adjust things to suite your needs. dont worry about your fuge in your sump, it'll be just fine with some rock rubble.
If you want to do it up right get the pump curve diagram of the pump your using. They are all available from pump manufacturers. Some pumps running costs actually decrease when you throttle them back with a valve at their outlet. Some however drop way back in performance when throttled back. Some people put a "T" in there return line and send part of the pumps flow back to the sump to solve the problem your having. I however would get a larger siphon tube and if I still had to throttle back I would get a second overflow. It is also safer as the chances of two overflows not working at the same time is nearly non existent. If you do loose flow in your single overflow setup you have a chance of overflowing your tank and burning out your pump by running it dry. If you do get a download of the pump performance curve and do not understand it send me a personal email and I will explain the graph to you. The graphs show the relationships between watts used, flow and head pressures.
i messed with it quite a bit tonight and i think im pretty happy with the way its running at the moment, all except for the noise in the overflow that is. Ill fix that soon tho with the silencer contraption. Im still deciding wether or not to hook the second overflow up or not, my main concern right now is a power outtage or somehow my pump dying and reverse siphoning my tank, it would be a cotastrophe, cuz i dont think my fuge is big enough to handle the water that would come down if my pump stopped.
How big is the sump? How tall are the baffles? Did you put anti siphon holes in the return lines just below the water surface? How far is the water from the top of the sump tank when the pump is not running. Your overflow will only drain water into your sump when the water level is higher than the bottom of your overflow tooth notches. Your return lines will quit draining water back to your sump until the tank drains down to the anti siphon holes you need to put in your return line(s) is they protrude into the tanks water. If your sump partition height is to tall before your tank return pump you might have to shorten it. If you have no partitions you just need your water level above your pump inlet while the pump is running, plus maybe another inch or so to allow for daily evaporation of water. So basically if you have partitions the partition right before your pump only needs to be an inch or so above your pump inlet.
here is my fuge, i try to keep the water about an inch higher than my pump inlet in the last chamber to the right. Tomorrow ill get those anti siphon holes drilled in my return lines. The only other problem im having now that im getting good flow through my overflow is the its sucking a lot of air in and its coming out in bubbles in my fuge. I guess tho that once i get the silencer built and put on my overflow tube that it will fix that.
on an update side my ammonia and nitrates are getting pretty low, so hopefully ill be able to get a fish or 2 pretty soon. Im thinking about getting a good ole percula or maybe a chromis or two (cuz i love how they school together). Any other suggestions for a first fish that is reef safe ?
Another question I have regarding my fuge is about pod survival. Are the pods small enough to make it through the pump without getting chopped up? lol been watching that propeller spin and it worries me...
You should have your water just overfowing the last partition with an inch over your pump, not an inch over your last partition. What size is the tank your using for a fuge? Bubbles going into your sump/fuge is OK as long as they disipate before being pumped back out. If the bubbles are not disipating you might want to get a particulate bag (filter sock) to go over your overflow outlet into the sump/refuge. They have to be cleaned often, but it would be easier than modifying your sump/refuge to put in a bubble baffle, as you would need to either drain the sump/refuge to use another glass baffle or use a tight fitting piece of plastic for a baffle placed to the left of your pump chamber baffle. The new baffle would run from the top of the tank to about 1 to 1 1/2" above your sand.
Most of the pods will do fine if pumped into your main tank. Some of course will possibly be killed but they will become food none the less. The bubbles you need to eliminate are referred to as micro bubbles. Larger bubbles usually go directly to the surface of a tank. Micro bubbles like to stay suspended in the water for a while and thereby causing problems. Needle wheel skimmers and leaks in external pump suction lines are often big producers of microbubbles.
i have neither of those but a lot of micro bubbles :D
im thinking if i can modify my overflow output a tad and make it not so violent when it hits my fuge it will help a lot, now how im going to accomplish this im not sure....maybe put a 90 out the bottom where it hits the inside of a piece of pvc before it comes out...
im thinking if i can modify my overflow output a tad and make it not so violent when it hits my fuge it will help a lot, now how im going to accomplish this im not sure....maybe put a 90 out the bottom where it hits the inside of a piece of pvc before it comes out...
ho hum...ok got my fuge all set up (apart from getting a sock to fix the bubbles) and still waiting for ammonia and nitrites to drop. They are both lingering around .5, which seems odd why they are staying at that point, its been about 4 or 5 days at that level and a few weeks now total. Also all the lovely corraline that came on my rock seems to be all but gone now, what gives? I have no algae in my tank at all that i can see.
At this rate ill be bored of the tank before i can put anything in it :frustrat:
At this rate ill be bored of the tank before i can put anything in it :frustrat:
Are you running your lights 10 to 12 hours a day. Also your calcium, alkalinity and pH are all effected by a cycling, especially one without water changes (these effect your coralline). Did you introduce or are you introducing anything into your tank that is organic besides your live rock. Plus it is doubtful you are providing the same light levels as your live rock supplier. In time the coralline algae that is able to best adapt to your tank conditions will start growing again. Then spots of other coralline will start regrowing. But do not expect a lot until your parameters meet a balance. It does not take much coralline to repopulate a tank, unless you have very intense lights. I have seen a lot of reef tanks with multiple 400 watt halides that were only 24 to 30 inches deep that took over 2 years to get heavy coralline growths, yet their coral grew great as did their fish. I have seen a whole lot of tanks with standard fluorescent bulbs with heavy coralline in 6 months. After you have made one or two water changes your levels of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate will be at zero (unless your adding organic matter more than your bacteria levels can deal with which you haven't mentioned), then you can start looking at your calcium and alkalinity readings before you should worry too much about coralline algae growth. Hopefully it won't need to go as far as looking at magnesium levels. They are all easy to adjust though. Patience. If the need is there I can post some simple charts on adjusting pH, alkalinity and calcium. They are simple charts with simple directions and give you choices of methods between Kalkwasser and bottled balanced two part mixes and such.
Below ia the site with simple directions for diagnosing and fixing problems with calcium and alkalinity.
Chemistry and the Aquarium
Below ia the site with simple directions for diagnosing and fixing problems with calcium and alkalinity.
Chemistry and the Aquarium
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Algae should be considered a given result of the establishment of a new tank with live rock or live sand. Heavy algae problems are a result of grossly excessive nutrient levels due to large amounts of organic input/die off of live organisms, lack of water changes, and poor circulation. The few that do not have early algae problems are pretty lucky at most. Coralline algae does need light and nutrients can be controlled even during a cycling or rock curing. Water changes! Light is needed to keep coralline whereas a hard/quick cycle is not a necessity so heavy ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are not needed for a cycle/curing. Control the nutrients that feed algae, maintain good circulation and run your lights at least 6 hours or so per day when cycling with live rock/sand. It is obviously easier to turn lights off if, even with good circulation and water changes you still get a heavy algae break out, but it is not easy to just get back coralline growth lost due to a lack of lights, heavy pollution and poor circulation. Cycling of a tank should be done with the same equipment in place and most often in use that you will use after the cycle. Meaning use all pumps, heaters, filters, skimmers, ATO pump, and lights. Do not use UV lights during a cycling. I even use half strength Kalkwasser for auto top off (ATO) water during cycling.
