overflow box problem

[dperna]

I was going to top off my sump today beacuse it was really low and i added alot of water and i noticed it still wasnt filling up. Being really confused I looked around and saw that the overflow box was filled up all the way to to top, the same level as the rest of the tank. I took alot of water of it, restarted my wavemaster and the same thing happend again, instead of the sump filling, the overflow does! why is this happening? what do i need to do to get things back to normal

 

[scotts]

When was the last time you gave it a good cleaning. I mean the U-tube whatever plumbing that you have between your overflow box and your sump. There may be a coating of gunk in your plumbing or you may have blockage of some sort in there.

 

[sign guy]

when you add alot of water your siphone dose not catch up. youll have to suck all the air out of the u tube

 

[dperna]

sorry im new to this tank, and to sumps in general, which is the "u-tube"?

 

[sign guy]

it is the part of the onerflow box that carries water over the side of the tank and into the back of the box

 

[dperna]

i think a snail got sucked in, and is now loged into the durso standpipe. has this ever happend to anyone else before? I know it might sound stupid but i'm pretty sure this is the case

 

[acrylic51]

I've seen it happen to a friends system and those little buggers can wedge themselves in pretty tight....Luckily you caught it in time....Actually I got pretty lazy on my old system and have had the U tubes almost close up with coraline before...actually a couple times....I can usually tell by the sound of the sump when this happening..but no issues like that with the new setup.

 

[dperna]

The way I was going to try to check/clear my durso standpipe was by turning off my pump, letting the water in the overflow box go back to normal, then syphon all the remaining water out of the overflow box, and once there is no water remaining in the overflow box then unscrew(hopefully i can get it off i have no clue how it was put on)the durso standpipe and pray that my problem was a little snail that was sucked up and causing all this problem! WOOH, wish me luck

 

[dperna]

ok, i took out the durso standpipe along with everything that was in the overflow box and cleaned everything out really good and put it back in and i wasnt having the problem with the sump anymore. BUT now i have a new problem

since there is hardly any room in the overflow box it was really hard to make sure the standpipe was in completley so i turned off the pump again and looked underneath the drain and it did seem to be leaking very little so i tried to tighten the drain(clockwise) from underneath, while my brother held the standpipe in place hoping that this would finish the job tightening the standpipe all the way. After a while of tightening the drain still leaked, this time a little more. it is also a little looser. Right now im really confused as to what i did wrong?

can anybody help me please

 

[scotts]

So me assuming that it was a threaded connection. Did you put teflon tape on the threads? Was it a reagular threaded piece or is it a bulkhead?
If you don't know the difference a picture would speak volumes.

 

[dperna]

bulkhead

 

[scotts]

So there are many types of bulkheads and different place they could leak. However my guess is that it is leaking between the outer ring and the pipe. So bascially (and unfortunatley) I think you would need to take it apart. I know I know

Take the rubber gasket and make sure that it is clean, you know no major things on it. Then put it back together and make sure that you tighten it by the outside nut. Also make sure that none of the threads on any of the parts get cross threaded. Also is it possible to install your durso into your overflow while it is not on your tank, this might make it easier to put everything back in.

 

[acrylic51]

Good questions asked by Scotts, but again where exactly is the bulkhead leaking from??? The way it's sounding is your trying to tighten the nut on the bulkhead and it leaks worse??? Sounds like the rubber gasket is possibly cut, or just bad.....They are known to leak over time, and that might just be the case.....I do have to inject that putting teflon tape on the threads won't do a hill of beans for anything.....if the nut seems like it's slipping or what not, then it's a good sign that the bulkhead threads are either cross threaded or just shot.....Your best bet if the bulkhead is leaking to just bite the bullet and replace the entire assembly.....they aren't that expensive and worth the piece of mind.....