# New to salt water - pics/vid



## fishrule (May 16, 2010)

Picked up a good amount of stuff from a local guy. He was really nice and gave me a great deal I think.

Salt water is crazy hard to do. I can't get my overflow tank to siphon.. Im using the aqualifter to keep it going but it just stops at about 80% I cant find where air is entering from! 

I'm afraid to leave the house because if the overflow stops working.. im going to have the entire sump dumped onto the living room floor  

Also, I dont know if anyone here can tell but, the tank is really bubbly. Lots of little bubbles throughout. I dont have any live rock in my sump yet so that may break up some of it? Shoudl I put some sort of filter on the pickup for the external pump?

I am drawing air in from the overflow where it sits at the top of the tank water. There are ridges cut into it so that water can flow in. Im watching air be sucked in from there and its fighting my aqualifter. Is my sump to high? It doesnt sit very low into the water maybe I can elongate the ridges so that it bring sin more water?


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## fishrule (May 16, 2010)

cant post my stuff until i get 5 posts.


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## fishrule (May 16, 2010)

3 more


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## fishrule (May 16, 2010)

2 more


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## fishrule (May 16, 2010)

1


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

Sounds like you have an overflow that goes up and over the tank glass. In order for those to work both sides of the actual tube must be under water at all times. Therefore the system must "trap" water at both ends should power go out. And stop draining to the sump/refugium as well. Then when power comes back the siphon is all set up and ready to go.

The aqua lifter is an extra safety precaution to help prevent air from building up in the overflow.

Can you give us some pictures for reference?

Also there is a few adjustments.


1) kill power and insure the display water level goes down then stops and the sump does not flood.

2) restart power and insure normal operation returns


3) fail the overflow (block or break siphon) and insure the sump runs out of water before the display floods.

the get everything running normally and mark the water level on the sump. Then never add water to the system so the sump is above that level.



For you consideration (or at least attempting to figure out how it works) here is a diy pvc overflow:










my .02


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## fishrule (May 16, 2010)

tank3.flv video by slow5000 - Photobucket


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## fishrule (May 16, 2010)

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u62/slow5000/tank2.jpg

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u62/slow5000/tank1-1.jpg


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