Aqua lifter overflow boxes? Any good?

[Brtnpage]

I’ve been looking at the overflow boxes that use the aqua lifter pumps to remove trapped air, which would be a HUGE help for me, but right before I bought one I started seeing that they were generally overwhelmingly negatively reviewed. If they work well it would be fantastic, so I really want to look into it. Much of the negative reviews include that they clog very easily, and are hard to unclog,but I honestly don’t really see how they COULD clog easily, since it’s a very long area of siphon. Can anyone give me their thoughts from personal experiences with those overflows, please?

[Vinny Kreyling]

The area inside the box is too large causing a slower flow of water.
THE most important thing with an overflow box is betting any air out of the siphon tube.
If it remains it will eventually reside @ the top causing slower flow.
Eventually NO FLOW & a FLOOD.
If you are close to me I have one that never overflowed,@ a bargain, very similar to a Lifereef which is what I would recommend.

[Brtnpage]

Originally Posted by Vinny Kreyling

The area inside the box is too large causing a slower flow of water.
THE most important thing with an overflow box is betting any air out of the siphon tube.
If it remains it will eventually reside @ the top causing slower flow.
Eventually NO FLOW & a FLOOD.
If you are close to me I have one that never overflowed,@ a bargain, very similar to a Lifereef which is what I would recommend.

You don’t mean the total amount of water slows down, just that with all the room to spread out the water doesn’t NEED to move fast to get through? That wouldn’t be a problem with the air lifter attached though, would it? I guess maybe that’s WHY it’s made for use with an air lifter. That’s actually why I want one, cause air eventually slows down my U-tube overflow. I made a manual air remover, by attaching an airline tube to the top of the U tube, and have it hang down into the water in my sump, but it doesn’t(anymore?)continually run, so air still gets trapped, but it makes it easy to just suck the air, and then water back down through it. It would be nice to not have to worry about that anymore, so an overflow with an automatic way to remove the air from the flow is perfect....just as long as there aren’t OTHER problems with the overflow, which it sounds like there might be. I still can’t imagine how that overflow’s flow chamber could ever get clogged???

No, sadly I’m not in ur area:/ thank you, though

[hhaase]

Originally Posted by Brtnpage

You don’t mean the total amount of water slows down, just that with all the room to spread out the water doesn’t NEED to move fast to get through? That wouldn’t be a problem with the air lifter attached though, would it? I guess maybe that’s WHY it’s made for use with an air lifter. That’s actually why I want one, cause air eventually slows down my U-tube overflow. I made a manual air remover, by attaching an airline tube to the top of the U tube, and have it hang down into the water in my sump, but it doesn’t(anymore?)continually run, so air still gets trapped, but it makes it easy to just suck the air, and then water back down through it. It would be nice to not have to worry about that anymore, so an overflow with an automatic way to remove the air from the flow is perfect....just as long as there aren’t OTHER problems with the overflow, which it sounds like there might be. I still can’t imagine how that overflow’s flow chamber could ever get clogged???

No, sadly I’m not in ur area:/ thank you, though

You are correct that the discussion needs to be about both velocity and volume of water, when it comes to external overflows. They are related but not the same thing.

The air gets stuck in there due to insufficient flow velocity, the water simply isn't moving fast enough if the overflow is too large. A smaller U-tube will naturally flow at a faster rate in order to pass the same volume of water, and this allows it self-clear any air bubbles. It's something that really isn't discussed much when it comes to external overflows in that you need to make sure the flow rate of the pump and the flow rate of the u-tube are compatible in order to create this self-clearing effect. This is one of those situations were you need to use the correct size, and over-sizing can create serious issues.

The aqua-lifter pumps are a way to clear out air bubbles and I'm told work fantastic as long as they are functioning. BUT if the aqua-lifter pump fails and you don't notice in time, the air bubbles begin to accumulate. Eventually it's enough to break the siphon and potentially overflow the tank.

-Hans