bet you have a deep sand bed and fuge that you don't know about!

[spamreefnew]

well a few days ago I went to raise the water level in my tank by raising the standpipe in the overflow by 1/2". As I tugged and twisted the whole pipe popped rite out of the overflow! OOPS. To my dismay my 20 gallon sump now had a 1" layer of sand,dirt,fan worms,and pods lying on its bottom. I knew there would be some sediment in there but WOW. Goes to show you that even when you think you have a bare bottom tank, a clean tank,,or when you think there is no possible place for (x) to hide that there can be a LOT of stuff lurking in that overflow!

[newtank]

Yep, alot of folks are using the overflow boxes as fluidized bed reactors, aptasia farms and other sorted process steps. Me I chose to completely remove stand pipes so I get maximum O2 saturation. Just made sense given that all of our systems completely rely on aerobic oxidation for life support. Funny that no one ever seems to talk about dissolved oxygen levels in our tanks as a parameter...Anyway, you have the space, might as well use it!

[bif24701]

I have two over flows in my 120, one is full of LR, the other I think I may put 4-5" of very fine sand for another DSB. Makes the most of the space as far as I see it.

[bif24701]

Yep, alot of folks are using the overflow boxes as fluidized bed reactors, aptasia farms and other sorted process steps. Me I chose to completely remove stand pipes so I get maximum O2 saturation. Just made sense given that all of our systems completely rely on aerobic oxidation for life support. Funny that no one ever seems to talk about dissolved oxygen levels in our tanks as a parameter...Anyway, you have the space, might as well use it!


If you have a skimmer, that should be a problem. Especially downdraft skimmers, they super saturated the water with O2.

[tgunn]

When I tore down my old 140g tank I pulled the standpipes in my overflow so I could drain it out. I had a grocery bag full of valonia (bubble algae) in there.

Needless to say my next tank will have a shallow HOB style overflow.

[spamreefnew]

just wanted to give people a heads up. when looking for a problem don't forget to look in your overflow!

[jamesdean3]

why? that sounds aweome acutally. giving an safe area for the algae to grow is great, it reduces phosphates and other bad algae food. Have you ever looked into someone fuge before? mine is full of Hair algae, cyano, bubble algae, i got it all and its great. Biodiveristy in a safe place. I bet 5 bux you didn;t have a bubble algae problem in your display.... something to think about.


p.s. i have a HOB overflow on one of my tanks and i think its tacky and just last month i came home to find that the siphon just stopped for some reason and i had a mini flood from the DT. I read up and found out that HOB can and will lose siphon over time as air builds up in the u-tube. again something to think about....

[nrbelk]

what is an aptasia farm for?

[tgunn]

why? that sounds aweome acutally. giving an safe area for the algae to grow is great, it reduces phosphates and other bad algae food. Have you ever looked into someone fuge before? mine is full of Hair algae, cyano, bubble algae, i got it all and its great. Biodiveristy in a safe place. I bet 5 bux you didn;t have a bubble algae problem in your display.... something to think about.
p.s. i have a HOB overflow on one of my tanks and i think its tacky and just last month i came home to find that the siphon just stopped for some reason and i had a mini flood from the DT. I read up and found out that HOB can and will lose siphon over time as air builds up in the u-tube. again something to think about....

The problem was that the overflow filled with so much bubble algae that it eventually started growing up along the rim of the standpipes, raising the water level enough my tank overflowed.
Couple that with the fact that being in the middle and back of the tank it was next to impossible to get in there to harvest anything for export.

No thanks; in my next tank the overflow will be a dark, compact and easily cleaned area where nothing will be allowed to grow. The 7' sump in the fish room will have a large dedicated refuge space for things to grow and subsequently be harvested for nutrient export.

Lol, you'd think I'd have had no bubble algae in the tank, but couldn't be farther from the truth! Lol.

Tyler

[emooring37]

How will removing my standpipes improve O2 sat?

[nrbelk]

I believe that removing the standpipes will give the water more surface area and turbulence for gas exchange as the water falls over the overflow walls.

[Palting]

That is going to be one noisy ovefflow. Imagine all that water cacading down the full height of the overflow box when you remove the standpipe. Anyway, I disagree that the O2 content will be raised to any significant extent just be removing the standpipe. The durso standpipe design creates a lot of turbulence and bubbles, and in fact is one of the complaints about the durso design. But all those bubbles in the water makes for great oxygenation. Plus, you have the oxygenation from the skimmer, and the whole surface area of the DT. I'm keeping my standpipes, thank you vey much :).

To help avoid any unwanted growth in your overflow weir, place an opaque cover over it. Make sure to leave room for air exchange for the durso. Granted my tank is only 2 years old, but the overflow weir has no algae, aptasia, nor any kind of significant growth.

[Vinny Kreyling]

My HOB had ALOT of vermid snail tubing but not too much dirt and -0- algae