[gramma royale]

Hey all,

I've committed my second newbie mistake in my 3 month reefing experience . I got my marineland tidepool SOS overflow today. The overflow would feed an 18 gallon refugium sitting under my 29 gallon main tank. It said the overflow was capable of a 400 - 600 GPH turnover rate, so I thought, OK, a RIO 800 can handle the return! I don't know why I thought that, considering that a RIO 800 can only pump 211 GPH. So I hook everything up, siphon start the overflow, and plug in my RIO, and guess what? I left for 5 minutes and there was at least 3 gallons of water covering the floor!!!! Well, I've managed to clean and hook everything back up after 4 hours. The flowrate has struck a delicate equilibrium at this point, but the water level in the main tank is still aboutn 2 inches below the tank's lip. I'll be monitoring the tank very closely today and tomorrw to see how it does, but I desperately need to get a new pump! Anyone know what kind? My LFS sells RIOs only and I'm still a bit skeptical about their pump power. What do you guys think? Thanks!

[GreenLincoln]

GR, I am a little confused.

If your overflow is a hang-on type, it will only "overflow" what the return pump sends back to the tank. In your case, it will be the gph of the Rio, less head pressure.

However, you state it is "reverse siphon" which means your return pump (the Rio) shut off for some reason, and the siphon reversed and flowed back to the sump via your pump's plumbing. If this is what happened, just drill a small hole just below the water line in your return fixture or place the fixture itself just below the water line.

However, if you are saying that the Rio is too weak a pump to push water up to the tank from you sump and reversed and stalled on you, then YOU NEED TO GET A STRONGER PUMP. he he Most hang-on overflows are rated at approx. 600 gph, so you need a pump that, with head pressure figured in, will match the overflow.

HTH

[gramma royale]

The latter event is what happened. The poor Rio 800 was only pushing 50 GPH at 4 ft, which is about the height of the top of my main tank. It actually succeeded for a couple minutes, but I guess it just burned out and all the water was siphoned down to the refugium, where it went into overflow mode . Anyhow, I got a Rio 2100 which pushes 600 GPH at 4 ft, so it's acting a little better. My only problem now is getting my HOB Ecosystem 40 to work! I may have to return my new Rio for a Mag or something a bit stronger to maintain the main tank at full capacity, since there's still about a 1 inch gap between the water lvl and the top lip. This gap is causing the Ecosystem 40's siphon to lose power and eventually fail, thus leaving the return pump to burn out.

BTW, I think I know why Rio's are bad pumps. In all Rios, the suction pumps are placed in such a way that pressure is put on the top of the motor casing. If any of you guys owneda Rio, you'll know that this top part can come full off, exposing parts of the motor. As the casing comes off, it can also put stress on the electrical wiring, thus causing the pump to fail, burn out, or electrocute the tank . Anyhow, that's my 2 cents on why Rio's aren't good. I'll be getting rid of them as soon as I find out where to buy the Mag drives at. Thanks again!

[gramma royale]

Well, I've added a Rio 2100 to my refugium as a return pump. Everything is working well now except for bubbles in the refugium. I don't know if this is just with Tidepool SOS overflow units, but I'm getting LOTS of bubbles, not just microbubbles like from a skimmer, but pretty decent size bubbles! Why is this? I've read through all the instructions and did whatever it told me to do. There weren't any air pockets in the siphon tube, the tube leading to the refugium is clear (it's a new unit), but I'm still getting bubbles . Is this normal? If it is, how do I get rid of it? I'm so dissappointed in this thing that I may go return it tomorrow. Also, will these bubbles hurt the macroalgae and pods? Thanks again guys.

[reefhead]

Maxi Jet,Maxi Jet, Maxi Jet



A MJ1200 should do you good, Just remember to make that hole in your return line should below the water level just in case the pump becomes cloged from calcium after its years of faithful service to you!

[GreenLincoln]

RH I'll have to disagree with you there. A Maxijet 1200 would never be able to push water up from a sump (probably about 4'), much less match his 600 gph overflow box. MJ1200 are rated at 290 gph without any head pressure. They're great inside your tank, but not as a return pump from a sump.

Gramma, the bubbles are being caused by the water from your overflow hitting the surface of the water sitting in the sump...I have several sponges underneath the bulkheads on my sump, and I also placed a piece of acrylic (not even glued in) before the refugium. The bubbles won't hurt your pods or caulerpa, but the bubbles drift over to your return pump, the Rio may chop up those bubbles and return them to your tank as microbubbles, which is not good for corals (trapped bubbles under corals can lead to bacterial infection), plus you will get tired of looking at bubbles in your reef.

Just try putting either a few pieces of live rock under the bulkheads where the water drops down to the sump or a few large pieces of sponge (the sponges that are refills for the Aquaclear 500 work great).

[gramma royale]

Thanks for the advice. Actually, I don't have any bulkheads at all in either tank. The Tidepool SOS actually comes with two 2" tubes that are supposed to attach to a Marineland sump. But I just let the tubes sit in my refugium, without any attachments. Would using sponges still work? I'm kinda having trouble picturing where and how your placed the sponges in the refugium? Thanks again.