HELP! Our 125 Gallon Tank is about to overflow!

[Kimberly Churchill]

We just purchased a 2014 125 gallon tank a couple of months ago and have had fish in it for the past month. Our tank is salt water and has two overflow systems on the back (not corner ones) of the glass wall. This past week we keep having trouble with water not being pumped correctly from top to bottom. Last week we added 5 new fish and the bags of water that was released in the fish tank caused the fish tank level to rise to the top of the glass lid. We eventually took some water out of the sump tank which appeared to lower the water levels in the fish tank. Today we noticed that the sump tank water level was an inch lower than it should be so we added water to it and that caused the water in the fish tank to rise to the top of the glass lid again. We are stressed out believing that the water level in the fish tank will overflow out over the tank and on our floor as it is literally touching the glass lid on top well above where it should be. Does anyone have any suggestions on what we can do to help resolve this problem, even if its a temporary fix as it is after midnight where we live and we are afraid to go to bed with it in its current condition. If anyone out there can provide any suggestions it would be most appreciated!

 

[flower]

We just purchased a 2014 125 gallon tank a couple of months ago and have had fish in it for the past month. Our tank is salt water and has two overflow systems on the back (not corner ones) of the glass wall. This past week we keep having trouble with water not being pumped correctly from top to bottom. Last week we added 5 new fish and the bags of water that was released in the fish tank caused the fish tank level to rise to the top of the glass lid. We eventually took some water out of the sump tank which appeared to lower the water levels in the fish tank. Today we noticed that the sump tank water level was an inch lower than it should be so we added water to it and that caused the water in the fish tank to rise to the top of the glass lid again. We are stressed out believing that the water level in the fish tank will overflow out over the tank and on our floor as it is literally touching the glass lid on top well above where it should be. Does anyone have any suggestions on what we can do to help resolve this problem, even if its a temporary fix as it is after midnight where we live and we are afraid to go to bed with it in its current condition. If anyone out there can provide any suggestions it would be most appreciated!

Hi, it's possible your return pump is going faster then the return can have it flow back to the sump... it may be clogged. If the tank is drilled and you have an overflow...check to see if it is clogged by a snail or something. If you have a lifter pump, it is clogged, and needs to get running again to help the water flow back into the sump.

If you have air lines and an air pump, NO STONE... run the air lines to move the surface water and turn off all of your pumps to try and fix it in the morning. If you don't have air lines...use your power heads directed at the surface to move the surface water and keep oxygen in he tank, and then turn off the pumps...this is a temporary fix so you can get some sleep and address it in the morning. But you must have oxygen circulating, don't turn off the return and over flow pumps if you have no way to get the water moving. Saltwater has less oxygen in it then freshwater does.

If you have a spare hang on the back filter, or can get one at an all night Walmart or something...use that until you can get your system back on line.

 

[Kimberly Churchill]

Thanks for the response. The problem is that the water is being returned to the tank faster than the lines to the sump can remove it, hence the near overflow. Looking at how it was setup by the Supplier, I noticed a couple of things:

1. The return to the display tank is inside the overflow and there is no extension to direct the return water over it. I think that the Supplier forgot to install this. I am thinking that without this, much of the water from the return is going straight back down into the sump and not entering the display tank at all.
2. The two 1" lines from the dual overflows combine to a single 1" line via a tee prior to discharging into the sump. This has to be restricting the amount of water going into the sump as it is driven by gravity only.

I assume that ideally the water should be leaving the display tank faster than it is returning, but the level of the tank would never go past the top of the overflow. Even if water is leaving faster than it is returning, it can not go any lower than the top of the overflow, that coupled with the extension on the return to get the water from the return over the overflow should be the solution.

We have lost two fish in the past week but we chalked it up to underfeeding, but now are thinking that it could be an oxygen deficiency problem. The two fish were a Copperband Butterfly (which are picky eaters) and a Schooling Bannerfish, which seemed to be eating up to that point.

Make sense?

 

[flower]

Thanks for the response. The problem is that the water is being returned to the tank faster than the lines to the sump can remove it, hence the near overflow. Looking at how it was setup by the Supplier, I noticed a couple of things:

1. The return to the display tank is inside the overflow and there is no extension to direct the return water over it. I think that the Supplier forgot to install this. I am thinking that without this, much of the water from the return is going straight back down into the sump and not entering the display tank at all.
2. The two 1" lines from the dual overflows combine to a single 1" line via a tee prior to discharging into the sump. This has to be restricting the amount of water going into the sump as it is driven by gravity only.

I assume that ideally the water should be leaving the display tank faster than it is returning, but the level of the tank would never go past the top of the overflow. Even if water is leaving faster than it is returning, it can not go any lower than the top of the overflow, that coupled with the extension on the return to get the water from the return over the overflow should be the solution.

We have lost two fish in the past week but we chalked it up to underfeeding, but now are thinking that it could be an oxygen deficiency problem. The two fish were a Copperband Butterfly (which are picky eaters) and a Schooling Bannerfish, which seemed to be eating up to that point.

Make sense?

I'm not sure of what you say would fix the problem. I don't understand how extending the return past the overflow will do any good. It wouldn't matter if the water went right from the overflow back to the sump, it wouldn't cause the problem of an overflow on the display. I agree that water should not be able to go above the overflow...fed by gravity, since it's just a hole where the water flows from. Unless the overflow line is clogged by something. If the flow going out of the top tank is restricted, then it will back up.

The "fix" would then be to enlarge the line to 2" after the 1" Tee connections where they merge. However...it would have been a problem from the start, not something that would take two months to create the events you describe. I really don't think it's a design flaw, it really sounds like a snail or something is clogging the overflow pipe line.

 

[silverado61]

Some thing I don't understand that maybe Flower can explain: How can the overflow and the return be tied into each other? wouldn't that alone complicate things as far as the return and overflow working together?

 

[flower]

Some thing I don't understand that maybe Flower can explain: How can the overflow and the return be tied into each other? wouldn't that alone complicate things as far as the return and overflow working together?

If I understand it right....The return is hidden from view in the corner box, either to just to hide it, or possibly to prevent microbubbles or noise. That's what Kimberly is calling the overflow box. She has a drilled tank, so I'm thinking the overflow are two drilled holes with PVC turned upward and there is some kind of box around them. That's just a guess, folks do all kinds of fancy things to make the tank look it's best.

No matter how the design is... if it ran fine for 2 months, it isn't a design problem, something is restricting the overflows from allowing the water to get back to the sump, the high water line is what I had when my lifter pump clogged...it drained, but not fast enough, so the water got alarmingly higher...if allowed to continue, it will overflow onto the floor.

 

[2quills]

Sounds like a siphon problem to me. Either air in the siphon drains or a blockage of some sort would be my guess.

 

[flower]

Sounds like a siphon problem to me. Either air in the siphon drains or a blockage of some sort would be my guess.

LOL...Finally a sump expert...poor Kimberly has had to rely on me of all people...so stay close to this thread and help her out please. I don't understand siphon problems on a drilled tank????

 

[2quills]

LOL...Finally a sump expert...poor Kimberly has had to rely on me of all people...so stay close to this thread and help her out please. I don't understand siphon problems on a drilled tank????

Drilled tanks often use Stand Pipes inside of the overflows. Vertical tubes of pvc with an elbow or U shaped bend at the top in order to create a siphon because siphons drains are faster than open chanel drains.

If they are open channel drains (which is often the case with reef ready tanks) then I am curious if the drain lines going into the sump are actually submerged under water. And what size the pump is.