sotvotkong

hey guys, i recently went out and bought a T for my return line to the tank, and an extra nozzle with some bendy snaps. i put em on and wham! my flow was too much and my tank started to overflow till i unpluged the pump.

i have a rio 2100 on a 3/4 return line, and a overflow box with 1 1/2 pvc. the box has a single elbow siphoning the water. this worked great for me for a few months untill i decided to change the nozzles in the tank. so i quickly changed it back and it seems that its still going too fast for my overflow.

so as i write this i have a plastic bag rubber banded to the pump on 1 side to slow it down a little till i figure out whats goin on.

could i add another elbow for increased siphoningm thus speeding up the draining of the tank to match the filling? its a single drain, so would 2 elbows be to much? i have room for another in the box...

im thinking that the pump might have had a blockage somewere that i didnt know about and its free now.. or something. i just dont see how a T could cause all this. now im stuck watching the tank for the next few hours to make sure it doesnt overflow.

looking for some ideas here as i am stumped.

Nereaga

The easy fix would be to add a ball valve AFTER your Rio 2100 pump, this way you can throttle back the pump to what you need. It seems like your pump is too much for the single 1.5'' bulkhead.

Your pump is 700 gph, and your bulkhead pushed around 600. This still shouldn't be a problem since the head pressure should have slowed the pump down enough. The cheapest way is to go get a ball valve asap! $6 fix...

Other than that, check your overflow and make sure it is operating properly. Which model do you have?

Sorry for the delayed response!

Brad

Loman

I would also add a teein the return line and a ball valve in the return portion. Same idea as the ball valve that Nereaga talks about. but that way you let the pump run full out which is IMO opinion better on it and the water flows part back to the tank and part back into the sump. The ball valve regulates how much flows to the sump

__________________
Loman

24 Gallon Salt Aquapod
20 Gallon Freshwater
Various QT tanks
2 x 75 Gallon Reefs in planning stage

sotvotkong

ok well that helps out. thanks guys, tomarrow im off to get a another T and a ball valve. ive got plenty of tubing already. i just couldnt think of what to do ya know. thanks again.

sotvotkong

well crap guys , last night with the high flow my only fish decided to swim into the overflow and i found him dead in the catch net in the sump....a day late, story of my life.

im still going to get the ball valve and another T for the return line today, but man, now i gotta dig a grave too. this little wrasse was 3 years old lost my only other fish to ich a month ago. and this one was strong and never got it.


so now im fishless with alota inverts. i think i might get an exrta micron filter and put it on the top of the overflow somehow so nothing can get in there... not even a snail.

God its soo sad. feeling a bit depressed about the tank right now. why did i ever have to mess with my setup.

sotvotkong

well i got it all back to what i wanted, have the T and ball valve running the extra flow to the sump. got my new micron bagies.

everything seems to be ok now. and since i was down at the LFS i thought i would see how much new fish would be the size that i lost... 80 bucks! for a large sailfin. and 55 for the large 6line wrasse! i got em both years ago for only 40 bucks. looks like i wont have fish for at least a few months at these prices. i really didnt wana raise super small ones again ya know.