fixing my overflow

[cocoa_pleco]

about a week ago my 125g almost flooded, i caught it a hair away from flooding over. a guy on RS said that my overflow is capable of taking in more water than my sump pump, and the water got too low in the main tank and the overflow stopped for a while and the sump pump kept going

i read that this has happened to people with aqualift overflows, and theyve flooded alot. Dustin on RS told me how to make it flood proof.

all you have to do is install a ball valve on the overflows intake. after, get the overflow and sump pump running. put tape on the sump and main tank on where you want the water level to be

with things running, have the ball valve 1/4 closed. if the water level in the main tank goes above the tape, open up the ball valve more to allow more water. if it goes too low, close the ball valve up more.

once they are balanced, you can add some water to the sump to get it to the level you want. with the ball valve regulating the overflows flow, its impossible to overflow

Dustin said that you should be home for 8 hours after things are regulated to make sure that the water level stays balanced, after that its good

tomorrow im home all day so i can get it going. ive got the ball valve installed and everything so hopefully things work out

[Miltonic]

good luck fixing your overflow :)

[W_Oz]

Sounds to me like poor engineering on the part of whom ever made the overflow or the pump. Honestly you want your overflow to be able to handle more water than your return pump can throw at it and it should not lose prime if water isn't flowing into it (such as in the event of a power outage or if the return pump is turned off for any reason).

If the overflow is losing prime it either has a leak somewhere in the siphon (hose, nipple, etc.) or elsewhere in the box itself (baffles) OR the pump is faulty/leaking.

Since this seems to be endemic to the Aqualift pumps I would blame that. A properly built overflow should be able to stay primed even if the display tank is completely empty.

Edit: Of course I could be completely wrong, I did try to have a look around to find the overflow you're using and I'm assuming it is a CPR style overflow.

[Rue]

Glad to hear you guys got it figured out!

[cocoa_pleco]

yeah, really it is poor design. the aqualift takes out the air of the overflow, so the overflow takes in a constant amount of water and not as much as gets returned like in U-tube overflow. a ball valve fixes it

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Cocoa, something doesn't sound right about this to me. I have a continuous siphon overflow on my tank, and it is the cheaper aquatraders.com version of the CPR style overflow. I also have an aqualifter pump running on it to keep air out of the top of the overflow. The only time I would have a problem is if the aqualifter stopped working and I was getting too much air in the overflow then the return pump would be pushing more water into the tank then would be getting to the sump or if I have the bypass on my return pump allowing too much water to be pushed back to the tank. The CPR style overflows are way way more reliable then the U-tube style overflows.

[cocoa_pleco]

hmmm, thats weird. with the TOM overflows, alot of people have had the same thing happen so its not new. nothing could have clogged the aqualifter so im hoping the ball valve fixes things

[jimpierce]

I think I'm happy with my home made over flow all of a sudden. lol

I sure hope it works good for you Cocoa.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Cocoa, can you get a picture of your overflow with the aqualifter?