why is my sump/refugium overflowing???

[SharkBait_Mtl]

hello all....

I just moved into my house about 3 weeks ago.... moved my tank and everything went well.... here a some pice of the new setup.

I placed my sump/refuge on the other side of the wall behind the DT. I did not have to change any of the plumbing/hoses that I had from where the setup was at my apartment. Also, I never had a spill at my apartment.

until this weekend.....

I shut off my main pump and skimmer to feed my fish so that the fish have a chance to eat before the food goes down the drain.....

and when I walked back into my fish room I noticed that there was water all over my floor.

I have shut off my main pump before to simulate a power out and did not have any spillage... I also checked my SG to make sure that my top off wasnt adding too much fresh water ... my SG remained at 1.025 - 1.026.

How did this happen??? is there anything that I can do to prevent this from happening again??

I was also wondering if it is possible to have the sump/refuge at the same height as the DT, this way if there is a powerout, less water would syphone out.

 

[kfisc]

The best guess I have is that a siphon has been created in this set-up that wasn't there before, which would mean the need for cutting/drilling a siphon break hole somewhere below the water line- possibly in your returns, which may be sucking water out?

 

[frank2926]

raise your return lines closer to the surface. You did not leave much room in the sump for the overflowing water either. I would bet your skimmer would run a little better if it was in 8-10 inches of water.

 

[K' Family Reef]

might be worried about those bulbs...
we use the cfl bulbs commonly found at lowes/hd... they have a built in reflector and glass case around them - designed for outdoor use and if the water splashes on them they wont break... espec being in the sump (like you have it)... reaching in one of these times might cause a problem... never had bulbs like you have there but they dont look safe to me (???)... you be the judge

regards

 

[SharkBait_Mtl]

my return lines alreday have anti syphone holes in them...
and the water line in my refuge is the same as it was when I lived in my apt.

Also there is no way for me to lower the height of the water line in the refuge due to height of the baffle after the refuge section. The only way I could change the height is if I remove the baffle between the refuge and return section of the sump.

front view of sump

left

right

top

while running I have a 3" water line from the top.

when I had it setup at the apt it was the same.... and when the pump was off it went up to 1/2" to 1/4".

when I turn the pump off now it will go right to the rim if not spill.

I added some more anti-syphone holes and the water level did not go up to the rim... I am thinking that possibly something has clogged the old antisyphone holes.

now back to one of the original questions....

is there anything that needs to be done to the plumbing if I want to raise my sump to the same height as the DT?

 

[SharkBait_Mtl]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13263489#post13263489 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Neptune's Oasis
might be worried about those bulbs...
we use the cfl bulbs commonly found at lowes/hd... they have a built in reflector and glass case around them - designed for outdoor use and if the water splashes on them they wont break... espec being in the sump (like you have it)... reaching in one of these times might cause a problem... never had bulbs like you have there but they dont look safe to me (???)... you be the judge

regards

I appreciate your concern....

I had the same cfl bulb that you have described but my chaeto never grew... I was told that the bulb that I had had the wrong color temp...

old light

new light

I purchased these cfl at a LFS and still my chaeto has not really grown. it has been under these lights for over a month and my chaeto is still about the same size as when I got it about 3 months ago. (about the size of a softball)

I was thinking of putting my Jalli light (1x 250W MH and 2x actinic)over my sump but I think that is overkill....

what do u think??

 

[K' Family Reef]

that would probably be overkill
but it might make an interesting experiment... to see if that might cause the chaeto would grow (if it didnt get fried)...

i know people have talked about iron supplementation
have never tried it... but that might be something to research if you're interested

regards

 

[sjm817]

You should be using a daylight spectrum for chaeto. 6500K or so.

That sump level is pretty high. As others have said, move your return outlets higher, just under the surface.

 

[SharkBait_Mtl]

I appreciate all the replies.... thanks to everyone who has given some input

my return outlets are the same height that they were at the apt... and never had a problem.

the extra anti syphone holes that I drilled today seem to have solved the problem... I guess that the old ones got plugged with coraline or something else because I cannot seem to find them.

I am gonna start a new thread because I was thinking of changing the return to something a little more efficient for the sump ( I think that the mag 12is moving the water to fast for the skimmer to skim efficiently)and using my mag12 in a closed loop system.

 

[Salamander]

I have to use a wire to clean out salt etc from the siphon holes every couple months or they start to plug up.

 

[Pseudo12]

I had a similar problem with a friend after he moved his system. With all the movement the seal on the overflow sprung a leak. Meaning after power to the tank was cut out and the water dropped to the level it was supposed to a small amount of water kept leaking into the overflow through the break in the seal. If you dont have a durso standpipe or its not cemented at the base water will continue a slow leak into your sump. We only found it after we used a wetvac and sucked all the water out of the overflow section and saw where the leak was coming from. Easy fix though.

 

[SharkBait_Mtl]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13264228#post13264228 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Pseudo12
I had a similar problem with a friend after he moved his system. With all the movement the seal on the overflow sprung a leak. Meaning after power to the tank was cut out and the water dropped to the level it was supposed to a small amount of water kept leaking into the overflow through the break in the seal. If you dont have a durso standpipe or its not cemented at the base water will continue a slow leak into your sump. We only found it after we used a wetvac and sucked all the water out of the overflow section and saw where the leak was coming from. Easy fix though.

I will have to look into that... thanks for the tip....


salamander... thanks for the tip as well...