CPR Overflow

[Willie_6]

I am so sick of this #@%@#% thing. I did a water change and strted my system back up. I noticed my overflow was struggling to keep up with my return pum. The water was trickiling back to my sump/fuge, while my Gen X was pumping away. Since I am not a big fan of floods in my kitchen I decided to turn everything off. This time when I turned on my pump I poured cups of water into my overflow to help get it going again. I could not get the overflow to draw enough water out to keep up with my water return from the Gen X.

Please understand that I have had this system (system= gen x and CPR HOB Overflow for about 8 months) running with no problems in regards to my overflow keeping up with my Gen X. Also understand that my CPR came with the repriming pump so that it should regain it's flow without my help. I still tried helping it along, no luck.

My last effort was pulling out the sponges in the resevoir leading down to my fuge. I thought this might be restricting flow. I rinsed them out a put them back on.

That leads me to my issue. Afterall this, I still can not get my overflow working properly. Is there something I am missing?? Any suggestions?

 

[clnreef]

CPR overflow's IMO are the worst ever. My boss has one on his tank and what we did so we don;t have to prime it all the time is drilling holes on the bottom of the intake side of the overflow. Its worked almost <wink wink> trouble free for a few months now. Hope this helps.

 

[Dubbin1]

Clean out the nipple on the top.

 

[UnderwaterExotic]

Get a Aqualifter pump for it if you do not have one! They are $9.99 and mine on my old tank never had a problem! They are made for that! Check DRSFOSTERSMITH.COM!! HTH

 

[Willie_6]

clnreef- bottom of the intake side? Can you explain this a little more? I would hate to drill the wrong thing and have water spilling out.

 

[Willie_6]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6892122#post6892122 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Dubbin1
Clean out the nipple on the top.

Nipple? Let me find some pics and see if we can clear some of this up.

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The overflow is on the left. Not sure if these help or not.

 

[Willie_6]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6892141#post6892141 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by UnderwaterExotic
Get a Aqualifter pump for it if you do not have one! They are $9.99 and mine on my old tank never had a problem! They are made for that! Check DRSFOSTERSMITH.COM!! HTH

I have one. It came with it.

 

[sjm817]

The air nipple is probably clogged. The Aqualifter cant work when it is. It happened to me a couple of times. You can poke it out with a paperclip. I ditched the CPR and now run Lifereef. No more problems..

 

[ledford1]

Even with the AquaLifter, I had a rough time with my CPR overflow.

My advice - ditch it. There are many threads on RC about troubles with the CPR overflows.

Get a Lifereef or Amiracle overflow instead.

 

[Willie_6]

Is the nipple the fitting on top of the overflow itself???

 

[dr.darkness]

Yes the nipple is on top.I drilled mine out one size bigger,no more problems clogging.

 

[TereKers]

I've had one working for 1 year now....no issues dunno maybe I am just lucky.

 

[okdave]

My CPR overflow box serves one good function. It sits on my desk to hold pens and pencils. Too much aggravation for me, with or without the air lifter,

 

[aufan1]

I've had mine for a year now and in that time I can say that I havenââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t had any major problems. A few months after I installed it, I noticed that it wasnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t siphoning water as fast as I thought it should. Like Dubbin1 said above, I had to clean out the air nipple and it started working again. To me itââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s no big deal every few months to clean it out. I whittled down a toothpick to clean it out instead of a paper clip.

 

[okinawafish]

The question is would you pay $109.00 for piece of mind that you tank will not flood? If you answer yes than go here: www.lifereef.com

You won't regret it!

Take care,

Josh

 

[raw88gt]

i don't have an aqua lifter pump but i did run that air hose to a power head in the tank never had a problem no bubble problem either an it always restarts...

 

[Connoisseurpoet]

Why do you guys say CPR overflow are worse!! Please EXPLAIN!! because i have purchased one and i would want to know pros and cons.. please do tell..

 

[snulma1]

I have one, and part of my weekly maintenence is to clean out the nipple with a pipe cleaner. I even let my aqualifter run for about 1 hr with both tubes in a cup of vinegar to help break up any deposits. But I've heard that you should purchase an extra one or 2 aqualifter pumps, there are rumors that they have a tendency to clog or breakdown. I haven't had a problem yet (5 months running!)

 

[Willie_6]

connois- They are the worst, due to issues like I was dealing with in the beginning of this thread. I again am having problems with it. This is 3 times in 11 months. If you get a leak you too will not be happy.

Now on to my current problem. As you can see from my above picture, I used a flex tube as my return line. I have tried to adjust it twice (tighten the clamps to seal off the connection to the overflow). I have also used silicone on the connection. I recently sprang another leak.

My next step is to try pvc as my return. My problem is I am not sure how I should connect to the threaded end of the overflow. Any suggestions to get me started?

 

[HornetMech242]

Alright, I don't know what everyone is talking about when they say it is a piece O' junk. Some people have the aqua pump to keep the syphon, but you don't even need that. All I did was get a piece of of tubing for two bucks and connected it to the nipple on the top and started a syphon with it. The tube goes to the fuge and any air bubbles that gets in the overflow gets sucked out the tube. I have never had any problems what so ever with the over flow and I know that tube keeping the syphon is the reason. I am at work right now so I will post pics when I get home tonight.

Chris