overflow question

gskidmor

New member
I've decided to post this here since some of the other forums aren't that great to use - so many posts happen so fast, that they quickly drop of the radar.

I just set up my 65 gallon - first reefready I've owned in 8 years! So I'm a bit excited; but it was a bit louder than I had anticipated. I have an ehiem pump which is whisper quite - highly recommended!! The problem revolves around the circled part. There is a hole on the underside that the water sprays out and makes a lot of noise.

overflow.jpg



Now I see a couple of ways to go about this - I have to take the return apart to fix a minor leak, so it has to be done anyways:

1) I could glue the hole up so that the only path is through the 2 spray heads directly into the tank. Q: will this "break" anything?

2) I don't have any flow limiting pieces (gate/ball valves) on the PVC going into the sump. I can easily add one on (there is a quick disconnect) and keep the water level in the overflow high, but I don't see that as a viable solution for a couple of reasons. Should power go out, it will drain the area and require manual intervention. I was thinking of something else, but it escapes me at the moment. Q: is manual intervention always required for reefready's? (I've always used drilled tanks which required it and the overflow, which required it - I think I was expecting a little more with reefready's).

Thanks
Jerry
 
is it a hole or a crack. Did you buy it used? It could be a hole to stop siphon if the power goes out. The hole lets air out which breaks the siphon. If that doesn't appear to be it, perhaps a cover on that area, or a new elbow. You could alway try All Glass Aquarium on Monday
 
I just went through this. Its a Perfecto tank right?

If these are the Perfecto returns that came with the tank, the good news is the 90 piece is typically not glued to the standpipe. If you work at it (with the water off) you can replace this piece with a normal threaded 90 without a hole drilled in it. I would glue the replacement piece. Then drill an anti-syphon hole in loc-line on the other side of the overflow dam.
 
Yes, it is a hole that came with it, and I assumed it was to break a siphon in case of a power outage (but my sump is more than big enough to accomodate that).

I already glued it all together unfortunately - I didn't think it wise to test it all out with that much pressure, especially since that one end isn't screwed on, it just slides onto the pvc pipe. I can easily fill the hole in with superglue or make a new piece, I just wanted to know what others have done or if it's alright to run it without that hole since that's the source of almost all of the noise.
 
if your sump can handle to over flow you could certainly super glue it shut. I'd still drill a hole in the loc-line line Serpentmen suggested. Somewhere just below the waterline.
 
I would use some Aquamend epoxy putty or something similar. Super glue is so brittle that if you get it to seal initially it the whole plug might just pop out at a later date. The epoxy will hold pressure and you could smooth it about halfway around the pipe to get a better seal and better chances of it staying put. It's also great for mounting frags to live rock and cures underwater so any unused portion will not be wasted.

HTH
-- Kevin

aquamend3.gif


70078126-lg.jpg
 
That makes sense - could I use weldon-16 instead? I have a tube of that and it's specifically for acrylics/plastics.

Thanks
 
I doubt it would work. Weldon is more for filling small gaps in acrylic seams. You can give it a shot but you will probably have a lot more luck with epoxy.
 
I figured as much after reading more on it at ISP's website. So I just cut the piece off, used a coupling and remade the top half. That way I don't have to worry about the super glue coming out in the future. I found a product that would work (Plast-Aid), but I didn't want to wait the 4 or so days for it to arrive.

Again, thanks for all the feedback!
 
I think you made the right decision to completely redo the plumbing. Now you know you have rectified the issue completely. How does it sound now that you have the hole plugged?
 
It's still not as quiet as I would like, but it's sooo much quieter. The main source of noise now is the drain. I think I have to add a ball/gate valve to throttle it back a little. It starts draining fast, sucks a little air, slows down a little, and then restarts the cycle.

I had got the Eheim 1260 hoping that it could keep up with the drain level fairly closely to avoid this - the tanks I've had with the overflows and the ones that I drilled were always a pain to get everything fully synched up; I guess I will have to add a ball valve on tomorrow.

any thoughts on this?

Tomorrow I will be making my way to Salty in hopes they have a ball/gate valve that turns much more easily than the ones available at Lowes/Home Depot
 
Well I've added the ball-valve from Ace. Funny Thing is, that I added a 45 to open up the main space for the skimmer and now I can run the ball valve fully open and not have a problem!!

Here's a pic with the sump I built myself:)

sump.jpg
 
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