advice needed

[saltank]

Until I can afford the tank I want to put in my great room (72gal RR bowfront) I'm considering adding a sump to my 46gal I have in my basement. The tank is not drilled and I don't want to go with the traditional overflow method for fear of flooding so what I am thinking is this-

Putting a 20 or 30gal tank in the storage room right behind the main tank(this is where I currently keep a 5gal topoff contianer that gravity feeds through a tube snaked through the wall). I have an aqua c remora skimmer with the prefilter box, I will leave the prefilter box in the main tank with a powerhead in it and a tube attached to the powerhead and routed to the sump tank through the wall (the top of the sump tank will be just a little bit above the top of the main tank).

The sump tank I will drill, or have drilled, near the top of the tank. This will drain to the main tank through plumbing routed through the wall. I think I can avoid flooding potentials by positioning the prefilter box in the main tank so that if the sump drain becomes clogged the water level in the main tank will fall below the overflow slots on the prefilter box before the sump tank overfills. And in the case of a power outage I think I have enough "spare" room in the main tank to accomodate 2+ gallons of additional water. If I engineer the sump drain right I think I can control the amount of overflow to the main tank enough, in the case of power outage or malfunction of powerhead, that the sump level will fall below the drain level before the main tank overflows.

The reason I want to do this is (1) add some additional water volume (2) put my skimmer and heater in the sump (3) move a couple rocks that are infested with macro algae from the main tank to sump

I'm not interested in maxing out water flow through the sump, as a matter of fact a nice slow, steady exchange would be fine. I have ph's in main tank for flow.

With that in mind, any recommendation on powerhead brand/size that will be in the overflow box in the main tank? Are there any brands which allow you to adjust the flow rate, I had one years back but cannot remember the brand (keep in mind I will need to attach flexible tubing running from it to the sump) - and any recommendation on the size of drain hole in the sump tank? Or engineering suggestions on that as well.

Thanks for the advice, I hope I didn't confuse anybody too badly.

 

[Anonymous]

Its early - me a little sleepy!
When are you planning the upgrade to the great room?

 

[Anonymous]

I guess what I am thinking is what you are thinking seems like a whole lot of work! If you are planning on upgrading anyway, I would be trying to do the least amount of work.

There are lots of people who use HOB overflow boxes who have never had a flood...



:mrgreen:

 

[saltank]

Well that depends on when a good deal appears. It does sound like a bit of work. But in the meantime if it is a year before I can upgrade the stupid macro will have to be managed until then

It is only on a couple rocks right now but if I don't deal with it it will continue to spread, once this stuff attaches to the rock it is nearly impossible to completely get off. Any good ways of ridding the stuff? Are there fish/inverts that will eat it, I think the problem algae I have is caulerpa (the other "ball of hair" stuff is great, no problems with that)


Anyone else have comments on the HOB overflows? I've just read too many cases of flooding...makes me nervous

 

[Anonymous]

Next time you W/C, take some of the used S/W and a HARD toothbrush and scrub the rocks in the S/W where the caulerpa was anchored. It may not be a permanent solution, but it takes a while to come back from the scrubbing. I am using that to keep my hair algae under control until I can afford more nutrient extraction.

 

[Ben1]

A lifereef overflow is flawless, and people who do flood their u tube overflow dont have enough of a return to properly use them. I have never had an overflow in years of using U tube overflows, even after long power outages.

In any case if you would be more comfortable use a dremel and drill a hole your self in the back panel. There is info here on how to do it and it isnt so hard, if you already have the tool.

 

[saltank]

Thanks for the respones. I did do the toothbrush scrubbing of the rocks, what PITA! And there is till one rock I couldn't get to, I guess every day or so I will pull out as much as I can - I will never make that mistake again..

From my research I'm finding the lifereef overflow is the one to go with but I do have a question - one their website they advertise that the syphon will start back up after a power failure - is this a true statement? How can it be?

And I have considered drilling the tank but it is full and if something went wrong in the process I'd be up sh*ts creek!

 

[Tink25]

Making sure an overflow doesn't flood a room is pretty easy.

It really is based on design.

The bottom of the u-tube in the skimmer box must be lower than the top of the drain in the back box (siphon box, drain box - whatever you want to call it).

When the power goes out, the back box will stop draining once it reaches the top of the overflow standpipe. If the u-tube in the skimmer box is below that level, it remains submerged and does not lose its siphon. Once power is turned back on, the siphon is once again fully engaged and starts right back up.

It's just a matter of physics. Now, if your return pump is pushing too much water for your u-tube and drain, that's another issue. The average 1 1/8" u-tube pushes 600 gallons per hour by gravity, and a little more by force. As long as you aren't pushing more water than you can drain, you will be just fine.

Good u-tube overflows in my opinion:

www.lifereef.com

www.hurricanefilters.com

www.proclearaquaticsystems.com

I had a CPR overflow for 2 weeks before I threw it out the window - my opinion - u-tube overflows are the most reliable.

 

[saltank]

Thanks for the response. It finally makes sense to me now, I knew it had to have something to do with the height of tube and drain

I've been researching and am convinced the U Tube is the way to go, more precisely lifereef; been looking for a used one to buy now for a while