CPR Aquafuge flow question!

[reefNewbie]

I was just wondering, to all the other people that have these. Can you even tell there is water moving in there? That thing moves water so slowly you cant even see it moving. There is even accumilating **** and red algae on top of the water in the fuge.

 

[Will C1]

yep thats how they work, also why i dont like them i put about 700gph through mine and you still can barely see the flow but nothing builds up and the water params are still at 0.

 

[baseman]

Reefnewbie - I have one of these and true, there is not much water flow, but I don't have anything accumulating on the top. You might want to check the inlet. When I set mine up I closed the inlet valve (as per the instructions), and some plastic left over from manufacturing blocked the valve. I had to clean that out. I also had trouble getting the outlet to siphon properly (mine is hanging off the sump so I had to extend the inlet and oulet), so I removed the long tube on the inside of the outlet and I just let it gravity feed into the sump. My next step will be to replace the Rio pump that came with it to something with a little more GPH.

Otherwise it's working just fine. Does anyone in NH need any Chaetomorpha? 8)

 

[reefNewbie]

oops, you were supposed to close some valve? I just took it out of the box, hung it on the tank, put some sand in it and filled it up. Then i plugged it in! The valve is all the way open.

 

[monkeyboy]

The way it's built, there shouldn't be any scum on top of the water, it should all get skimmed off into the siphon chamber. Check your valve again, it may not be all the way open. You can see very noticable water movement through both my aqua-fuge's. If there isn't much debris floating around, it may be hard to see, so maybe stirr up a little sand where teh water comes in to track the water flow. Slow water movement is good, no water movement is bad! HTH

 

[reefNewbie]

you know how the level in the last chamber on the aqua fuge is usually below the last baffle? So in other words, the water usually over flows the last baffle and then get siphoned out. Well what happens on mine is that it starts off doing it that way, but then after a day or so the water level goes above the last baffle and it look as if its not even moving(though it is) then if i unplug the ph, it drains back down to where its supposed to be(below last baffle) and then when i plug it baack in its fine again for a bit. but then goes back to the way i described earlier. whats wrong with this>? The ball valve is straight up and down(fully open) there is that smaller valve above that one which i have no clue what its for.

 

[monkeyboy]

Whoa, when i see a water level like that in mine, that means that in 2 minutes there's going to be a lot of water on the floor. Your siphon cant handle the amount of water coming in to it becase there's likely a whole bunch of air trapped inside the siphon tube (could be a snail or something else too). A quick remedy for the air is to invert a food squirt or a turkey baster and stick it up the in-tank side of the siphon tube and suck the air out. You'll have to do a lot of sucking to make sure all the air is out, and you shouldn't have that problem anymore. Try it! HTH

 

[reefNewbie]

wow, thanks for the idea, that was exactly what the doctor ordered! The water level has gone back down to where its supposed to now...THANKS!

 

[monkeyboy]

Great! I've been toying w/ the idea of getting a venturi kit for the little rio that comes w/ it, drilling a hole in the top of the siphon, and hooking the venturi to that so the air gets sucked out 24/7.

I have no clue why they dont include that in their instructions, everyone should have that problem!!! Glad it worked out for ya.

 

[baseman]

I couldn't keep the siphon going on mine either, that's why I took out the long tube inside the last baffle. No siphon, just gravity feed from the outlet.
I did this after mine almost overflowed.

 

[reefNewbie]

well now after a couple of days, the water level has risen again, like its got another air bubble....whats going on with this thing?

 

[monkeyboy]

Get sucking!