Overflow Question

[intarsiabox]

I have just set up my first tank that has built in overflows. It is a 52g tank with overflows in each corner and a 1" Durso stand pipe in each. It empties into a 20g sump. Every now and then only one of the overflows seems to fill up more than usual and then empties out really fast causing a flushing sound. It will do this once or twice and then stop for a few hours. I have a Mag9.5 return pump going into dual 1/2" loc-line returns. I had the pump running at full discharge for a bit but turned it down by 1/3 until all micro bubbles stopped coming into the tank. My problem seemed to happen more often when the return was at full discharge.

Do I need a bigger air hole in the top of my Durso? Should I dial the return pump down more? Any ideas would be great!

Thank-you! :biggrin:

[banditpowdercoat]

Sounds like the air hole. Either needs to be a little larger, or it's getting covered with salt creep?

[intarsiabox]

Maybe I'll try enlarging the hole a bit. It's not salt creep as I just finished getting my salinity to 35ppt today (only added water yesterday) so I have a month or so to play with it. :razz:

[Borderjumper]

I have duel overflows on my tank and one or the other will do that if I have the end of the pipe that emptys into the sump totally underwater. I cut a bit of a slot out of the pipe and have the top of the slot a little above the surface and that seemed to sure it

[intarsiabox]

Actually both of my discharges are under water in the sump. I opened up the air hole to 1/8" and so far so good. I guess I'll have to look at putting my hoses above the water but won't this be a lot noisier?

[intarsiabox]

The one overflow is still making that flushing sound every hour or so. I drilled a hole in the line above the water in the sump see how this goes. I figure the other overflow isn't doing this because the line travels all the way across the tank to empty into the sump so it has more head pressure.

[mark]

I'm running two separate chambers with Dursos no problem.

Sounds like yours just need a bit more tuning.

[golf nut]

It sounds like the two overflows are not the same height, one of them is doing more work than the other.

[intarsiabox]

Seems like drilling a hole in the pipe above the sump water line did the trick (So far). Thanks for the suggestion! Both Durso's are are the same height but one has about double the length of pipe to flow through to get to the sump. The one with the longer line has given me no problems but I also have a ball valve on it that directs some water into my refugium that I haven't tried out yet.