My 4 sq feet of ocean. And all my questions that go with it....

[mony97]

Haha mine looked like that for awhile as well I killed the lights for a solid 4 days and poof no more cyano.. I would try that.. Also for the powerheads I would try angling one slightly down and toward the front of the glass as to get flow to the bottom but have the glass as a buffer. Hope that helps

 

[handbanana]

Cool beans. good to get a fresh face in this thread... just playin.
Will my corals be ok with this lighting change? If so Im all about it.
Im going to put some hours into my tank this weekend so Ill see about the powerheads. I just dont want to get all gung-ho and screw up a good thing. Stirring up the sand bed can be bad, no?
Thanks Mony

 

[mony97]

No worries I told ya forever ago I'd do my best to look for your threads and help ya out when I can so just stickin to that haha and good question for the corals, not entirely sure, they might not like it but I am almost positive that others with a good selection of corals have done this with success, but I would double check

Also what GPH flow are you at right now? and if I'm not mistaken you have a 55 or 65 right? So you should be at about 1000g p/h give or take..

 

[handbanana]

Hey Mony. I wasn't ignoring my own thread, well kinda I was but whatever.
Ive been trying to figure out my GPH. I still have to figure it out but I think its around the 900 GPH mark. Not 100% but I think thats it. My overflow is rated at 1000 GPH and I started to overtax it once about a month ago. My tank would slowly fill up higher and higher very slowly. I started going home on my lunch break to check my tank because it was freaking me out.
I put a small check on my return and throttled it back a bit. seemed to work. But I came home once and my water was level with the very rim of the tank.

I stood there dumbfounded and was actually glad for back siphon when I unplugged my return!
I'm debating on taking the sponges off the overflows to see if I can get it flowing better. I read its bad to restrict the return pump.

I'm starting to get some really bad algae growth now. Its wrapping around a few of my Zoas. I cut my lights back by 2 hours and feed half as much every other day. I don't like not feeding my fish everyday tho...

 

[mony97]

Whats up man? Sounds like the ole tank is stressful once again .. Hope I can help a bit, so for your GPH you dont need to factor your overflow into the equation for the flow in the tank just add the GPH ratings together for each of your powerheads, including your return line.. So for me I have a return rated at 350gph after the 4' climb plus a K3 and a K2 so that all together would equal about 1800GPH in my 65g.
As for the overflow I'm not exactly sure what the problem may be, what is your return pump rated at? if it matches your overflow there shoudnt be any issues.. I would maybe check what the gph of the return pump is at the 4' mark b/c I know mine is rated at 450 but drops pretty good the higher it has to pump the water, so I would maybe check that? Oh and also are you able to move your overflow up and down? I know on mine I can adjust it so the water level cant climb over a certain piont.
And what kind of algae are you getting? is it still the cyano? I know when my tank went through that stage it was hell, my sandbed was almost completely covered nothing I did worked.. But I did notice in the mornings it had faded back, so like I said killed the light for awhile and it hasnt come back since.. And I feel ya on the not feeding thing those little guys they make it seem like its life or death in there and you better feed um before the get mad at you? Crazy little fish have me wrapped around there fins..
And as a last note the whole tank was at the rim thing, that is scary stuff!! I wouldnt know what to do?

 

[handbanana]

HAHA, More later but when I saw the water at the rim I just stood there dumbfounded. Like I didnt know what to do first.
"Is the water really that high or am I having a stroke or something."
Im going to go snap some pics and do some math and Ill post up tommorow. I really apperciate your help Mony!
And Im in my clownfishes pocket. Lil buggers have nothing to complain about. I get hungry just watching THEM eat.

 

[mony97]

Sweet man I'll be watchin for ya haha.
And that exactly what I would do stare in disbelief before going into some sort of crazy panic...

 

[handbanana]

HAHA!!! IM BACK!
damn Mony, sorry to leave ya hanging man.
Heres what I got. One powerhead is 850 gph, one is 600 gph and one says its 1600 gph but that seems crazy to me. is that a little excessive or did I slip some digits somewhere?
Sooooo....3050 Gph? that cant be right.
So Im growing a nice Cynobacteria garden. Very hearty and umm... disgusting. I cut my lighting to 5 and a half hours and feed my clowns half a cube of mysis every other day. I remove as much cyno as I can when I shut my PHs off for feeding and do a ten gallon water change every weekend. I dont know what else to do. I plan on making this into a mantis tank and cannot have this Cyno in there when that happens. My only thought is my top off water. I get it from a water store that closes at about 2:15 daily so I use the machines outside the store.
From what I understand, RO water has additives to preserve taste and RO/DI water has an undesirable taste but is De-Ionized and more pure? Or something?
This is a drinking water store so maybe there are additives? Thats about all I have for ideas.
I figured out the tank filling up. For some reason a air bubble formes inside the the siphon u-tube and restricts flow. it gradually grows in size slowing down the overflow. All I have to do is jiggle the u-tube and it gets sucked thru. weird.
Heres some pics

 

[mony97]

Huh? That doesn't seem right.. I would check online for the specs of the powerheads to know for sure? and the return pump may be @ 1600gph but it may lose 600g worth of emff on the journey back into the tank lowering the total than by 600.. Which would seem more manageable.
Also bummer with the cyano man do you notice any difference or loss of cyano right before the lights come on? I would always notice in the morning that the bacteria had dissipated a bit over night with the lights off?
However, those corals are lookin good man!! Really make me want to annie up and join the fun. Someday man someday

 

[handbanana]

I had almost killed this thread....almost.

 

[handbanana]

I'll just keep puttin up pics.

 

[acrylic51]

Originally Posted by Handbanana
http:///forum/post/3265954
I figured out the tank filling up. For some reason a air bubble formes inside the the siphon u-tube and restricts flow. it gradually grows in size slowing down the overflow. All I have to do is jiggle the u-tube and it gets sucked thru. weird.
Heres some pics

Did you try increasing flow from the return pump to the tank? Sounds like not enough turn over to keep the overflow box at a full syphon. I had the same issue on a 150 I had. Also when I tried adding more U tubes the air bubbles, pockets would happen or 1 of the U tubes would shut down completely.

 

[handbanana]

Hey Acrylic!
I actully re-plumbed my entire tank starting on wednesday and finishing on monday. I ran duel 1" drain pipes and allowed for a air vent before the pipes goes into the sump. I isolated my return behind some better baffels and added a spraybar.
I also removed the sponges from the overflows.
My tank seems to be working better. I only have one u-tube in because I dont think another would make any difference. I'm pretty sure it all depends on how big the drain pipes are.
I could be wrong however.
Thanks

 

[acrylic51]

How's the overflow running?

 

[handbanana]

So far so good. I'm hoping my peppermint shrimp will get sucked in so I can catch them and put them in my Nano.
But all in all its working great. I'm still messing with it to minimize the gurgling. I have the outputs going directly into an egg crate cage full of Chaeto and LR rubble. Then to my skimmer and then back out to the tank.

 

[acrylic51]

You might want to check out the other big forum there is a good thread started by Bean to silence overflows....maybe you might be able to pick up some tips or tricks out of that thread and use to quiet things down.

 

[gill again68]

I had a lfs put me on to a solution for making mine quite down. It was in my build thread in the other Big forum. I dont go there anymore but you may find it. It sounds like you did add an air relief prior to the flow hitting the sump. That will help. If you have the room you may want to add a couple of elbows to give it some horizontal flow prior to the sump. When I did this it shut mine up. Now mine doesnt run James Bond silent but most of my noise if from my skimmer now. Let us know what you come up with.