overflow box

[ganjero]

I'm having a weird problem. I installed my over flow box, and it was working fine for like 3 weeks, but now the flow slow down, and the water raises almost to the top of the tank, way above the over flow. I checked and is not clogged
any suggestions?

[sjm817]

What kind of box?

[ganjero]

the cpr kind, with no sponges.

[drock59]

probably air trapped in the top of the overflow. Do you have the aqua lifter hooked up to pull out air bubbles?

Like This: http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_overflow_boxes_cpr.asp?CartId=

With these CPR's you need some kind of pump to prevent air bubbles getting trapped.

[ganjero]

I have the pump, there is not air trapped.

[drock59]

is the hole clogged? If nothing is clogged you are just pushing too much water through it.

[Spuds725]

Did someone raise it on you????

ALso, how close to your overflow capacity is your return pump... maybe you are getting some growies (sponges and stuff) in the overflow and you were close enough to your capacity for it to back up some???

[MNreefer386]

keep an eye on that... I have an Amiracle overflow box on my 58 and it ran fine for 9 months, then last week the night I left to Mexico on vacation the siphon broke and the return pump stayed on and pumped my sump dry until my powerstrip got wet and killed all the pumps. I just thank God my sister noticed it and got someone to fix it! Only lost a clown goby and 2 acros to rtn as there was no flow for almost 24 hours.

[sjm817]

How did the siphon break? They don't just break. Air has to be let into the siphon somehow. Odd it was working fine for 9 months and stopped when you left.

[drock59]

power failure, air bubbles, clog

[sjm817]

Air bubbles should not cause a siphon break unless you have very low flow. I would think that would have shown up previously, nor should a power failure be an issue unless again, very low flow.

[drock59]

not necessarily ture. I am running about 1200GPH through my overflow box and occasionally I get air bubbles built up. It doesnt stop the flow but could become a problem if not tended to.

Power failure is not the problem, but the restart after power generally causes more air bubble problems.

[sjm817]

I've never once seen a single bubble accumulate in either my single Amiracle, dual Amiracle, or Lifereef single setups. I've run from barely enough flow to keep it running to maxed out. This is with the pump running.

When things get powered down (every day during feeding), bubbles sit in the tube, but are pushed back out once the pump is started again. I'm always curious about how people wind up with bubble accumulation. I dont think I could make it happen if I wanted to.

[MNreefer386]

Unfortunately I wasn't there to actually see what happened. I am going on what my sister told me: the sump was dry and the water was low in the tank so I assume my scenario is correct. The prefilter spong was really dirty when I got home but like I said someone got it running again and it was draining water w/ the dirty filter. I'm as stumped as you guys. I think after that I'll only get a RR tank or a drilled one w/ bulkheads.

[str8kickn1]

Sjm817: you must be the fortunate one, cause everyone I know that has a siphon overflow box including myself, has had bubbles slow things down and cause overflows. (onto the floor) I came home from work one day to notice my rug was soaked, I looked all around to see what happened and there was some algae growing in the tube itself. Which actually caused air to get trapped into the tube. Learning my lesson I now check my overflow box at least twice a week just to make sure.

[sjm817]

There are many people here who have posted that they have run for years without issue. I have a friend that has one running for 6 years so far. Lifereef claims no failures in the 20 years they have been selling theirs.

[drock59]

Not everyone has a lifereef. :) I have not had a flood but there has been several instances of bubble accumulatino. When I had a CPR, there were several times the air hole got clogged. It happens and you must be lucky.

[sjm817]

Lifereef and CPR are total opposite ends of the spectrum. I've had CPR, Amiracle, and LR. The CPR was the only problematic one because same as you, the air nipple clogged (twice in 3 months). IME, the Amiracles were just as reliable as the LR. The major difference is flow capacity. The LR can handle a lot more flow.

I've never tested it, but I do think that LR may have somewhat of an advantage in the area of reliability due to its design. The skimmer box is very deep (8") and it has a long U Tube. If bubbles were built up during a power down, the deep skimmer box fills up more and will have more pressure to push them through. It seems so anyway.

[drock59]

ill be the first to admit i have a super cheap overflow box. It works fine for me. Just check it for air bubbles once a week.

[sjm817]

That's why I'm curious when people say they have bubbles accumulating. In theory, all of the U Tube overflows work the same, but I think there are some differences that may not be so apparent. Again, I have never had a bubble accumulation issue and I've had a lot of different setups. I had a SCWD go south (yes, it's true) and had maybe 300 GPH out of a Mag9.5 because of it. I was running dual Amiracles at the time which gave me only ~ 150 GPH through each of them. Even with that, no bubble accumulation.

BTW, the one my friend has been running for 6 years is some no name cheapo thing, so go figure.