New Oceanic Half Circle Tank with Megaflow Overflow

[btkrausen]

I'm fairly new to the hobby, about a year in now, and I've learned a ton of stuff. I just switched from my regular 55 gal tank to a 76 gal, half circle, Oceanic tank with a Megaflow overflow. I have everything runnning beautifully, and it looks gorgeous with the new MH bulbs I bought.

The only problem I am having is the drain pipe in the Megaflow. The Megaflow fills up, and when it gets over the drain pipe, it siphon's out, which is loud, and then stops and waits for it to fill back up, then is loud again when siphons a big "gulp" out. I have tried to pull the adjustable drain pipe all the way up, and then slowly push it down to see if I can get it to drain continously, but seem to have no luck. anyone who has one or anyone with any suggestions, please help me quiet this this down and get a continous drain.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[bertoni]

That sounds like the return pump is too large for the overflow's output. Can you open that up a bit? I'm not at all familiar with the tank that you have, though.

 

[crumbletop]

It actually sounds like the return can't keep up if the overflow empties and then refills. Are you using a durso drain pipe? I'm not familiar with the megaflow kit. I have an AGA megaflow, but have my own drain pipe hooked in. If you do the durso, you can make sure just enough air gets in to make a constant flow that matches your return. In order to get adjustable air flow, I drilled a hole in the top of mine and then siliconed in an air hose from a MaxiJet powerhead so I could dial in the right flow using the air tube end cap.

Here is a link that shows what a durso setup looks like:

http://www.dursostandpipes.com/

Mine has a piece of pipe to cover the opening with holes drilled all through it like swiss cheese to keep any snails etc out of the main pipe. I drilled the air hole in the very top (the nub that sticks way up), inserted the maxijet tubing, and siliconed it in.

Hope this helps.

Jack

 

[btkrausen]

Finally a response. haha.

Thanks, and truthfully that is what I have been thinking. I have a Mag Drive 9.5, and it moves a ton of water. I had it going smoothly once, but I can't get it going like that again. I was hoping to cycle more than 10 times per hour, but I guess I need a smaller return pump. I have a Mag 5, but I don't know if thats enough water to cycle on a 76 Gal.

Do you think that 500 GPH is enough for the 76 Gal? I have quite a bit of coral:

Yellow Leather
Devils Hand
Two Spaghetti Leather - used to be one
Toadstool
Another small leather, not exactly sure of the name, i forget
Torch Coral - two pieces, one big, one small
Cup Coral
Candy Coral
Green Star Polyps on rock with like 30-40 mushrooms
and a Purple Tip Elegance

I have 8 fish, only a few that are bigger.

 

[bertoni]

You could add a closed loop or powerheads to the tank to add more flow. I don't think any of those corals requires particularly high flow, so maybe a total of 800 gph or so? How much would the Mag5 move with your setup?

 

[crumbletop]

Is your drain pipe 1 inch of inner diameter? If so, that's the same overflow that my 90 has. I use an eheim 1262 which is roughly equivalent to a mag 9.5, and right now I am using all of the output of the pump (none is diverted back to the sump). My guess is that with the head loss, I'm getting around 700 gph or so of return. It may be more, because I just changed from 1 to 2 loc-lines, so I guess my resistance has dropped and I had to readjust my durso drainpipe in order to match the flow. My tank filled to about an inch above the whole overflow until I lowered the amount of air in the drainpipe (which speeds up the return). Now its adjusted again.

So now to your question about flow: Is all the flow you have coming from your return? If so, that's probably way low on the flow to keep those corals happy. You could increase flow by adding some power heads to the mix. That way you get pure flow and are not paying to overcome the force of gravity (which is what the return pump has to do). I use a couple of seio 820's in my 90 gal. I've seen others use more, and some less. I've got a book by Michael S. Paletta called "Ultimate Marine Aquariums" and there are tons of different setups in there. Something that was pretty consistant across all the different setups was the need for lots of flow if you are keeping corals. Usually between 20x and 30x turnover per hour. I'm shooting for 20x in my 90, and with my 2 Seio 820's + my sump return I'm probably around 22x or so...

Hope that helps.

Jack

 

[crumbletop]

BTW.

[welcome]

 

[btkrausen]

Thanks for the replies.

The drain pipe is 1 inch, so its the same as yours. I was thinking it has to do something with the amount of air flow into the durso pipe, but still wasn't sure. I don't want to drill it to make more air available when I don't need to, but if i have to I have no problem doing so. I just need it to work, since I have to get it running ASAP. Still not sure whether it needs more air, or less. I tried to put my finger over the hole at the top, and it pretty much did the exact same thing.

In addition to splitting the return to two nossles, I have a Maxijet 900 and a Maxijet 1200 in the tank moving water as well.

I was just down in Brentwood TN like last Thursday, trying to find this little business off of Franklin Rd. Funny.

 

[crumbletop]

I'll try and post a pic of what I did for the air hole when I get home from work. Basically, I took one of the air lines that comes with the MaxiJets, and glued it into the top of the durso using silicone. That way you can easily adjust the flow.

Here is also my understanding of the flow / air situation:

More air = less flow.

No air = not self priming (pure siphon), but fastest flow.

Depending on how much room you have for extra water in your sump, you might try adding more water to the system, and see if the water level change makes it work better. For my tank, the dynamics with the drain pipe change if there isn't enough water in the system. You just need to be careful that your sump won't overflow in the event of a power or return pump failure.

I'm no expert on overflows, but this is how I understand it and how it seems to work for me.

That's cool you were in Brentwood. You should check out the <a href="http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=286">Middle Tennessee Reef Club</a> area on reefcentral. I'm new to the club, but they're a good bunch of people...

Jack

 

[btkrausen]

Ok, I'm going to talk to the owner of the LFS, the one who sold me that tank, and see if he'll come out and help me figure it out. I'm getting nervous with everything in the tank and no sump running for heating, protein skimming, UV sterilization, etc.

I checked out that MTFC, and I might download an app to join. Swapping frags sounds like fun, something I've never done before. But of course, Nashville is still a 40 minute drive for me, but usually worth it since I only go for specific purposes.

Thanks again.