Lifereef Overflow Advice Needed

[luke33]

Yea, if you like the 3-5x. I go with alot of flow so i use the double unit. I don't have my skimmer in the flow and understand if i did, it would cause skimming problems. To each his own.

 

[Mtown]

Thanks for all the replies.

Anyways the thing about these overflows are that if they lose siphon, the return pump will continue to fill the main tank with water from the sump, as a result OVERFLOW! This can't be prevented because we can't always be there to shut down the return pump when the UTUBE loses siphon.

I know I should be prepared to allow extra volume for the sump in case power shuts down and the water in the pipes back flow to the sump casuing the sump to overflow. Everyone should know that is a preventable overflow situation.

I want a overflow good enough that I can sleep or vaction worry fre. I gues the lifereef is my best option because there are no reviews on it overflowing their tanks. Since air bubbles are the number one cause for overflows, then lifereef is the option becasue the GPH is so fast that it would fully suck all the bubbles.

 

[rleechb]

I actually had low flow going through my lifereef (under 200gph). There were bubbles that would accumulate in the Utube, but it was never enough to break the siphon, even after a couple months. Everytime I did a water change (monthly), I'd take a piece of airline tubing, shove it up into the Utube, and suck the air out of the tube.

 

[sjm817]

Yes, you need ~ 200 GPH or so to keep bubbles blown through. If you want to run lower flow, they sell a 3/4" dia U Tube.

 

[46bfinGA]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8947748#post8947748 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sjm817
Yes, you need ~ 200 GPH or so to keep bubbles blown through. If you want to run lower flow, they sell a 3/4" dia U Tube.

you can also install a seperate 3/4" u tube in the 700gph model to increase flow or have a spare running for redundancy.but honestly i have never had an issue with losing syphon on the lifereefs.after turning off the return pumps to clean out the sump 20 times or more it always starts right back without problems with restarting the syphon.

 

[bpulmano]

FWIW, I have never lost siphon with the hurricane overflow, and it never has bubbles..

 

[luke33]

I second that bpulmano!

 

[Paulairduck]

lifereef

lifereef

I ran a 59.00 overflow from eshoppps for a year and it never overflowed or lost suction, but I never felt totally secure, until I got the Lifereef.

 

[bpulmano]

What are the dimensions of the litereef inner box? They look pretty slim, like maybe 2 inches? The hurricane that I have is about 4 inches wide and 4 inches deep.. Too deep for my taste.. Blocks too much light when you only have a 55 gallon tank.

 

[Mtown]

The only way to feel secure about a overflow box you have is if that box has no history of ever overflowing according to other people and saying that, if enough people bought the box so that its convincing