Earthling84

I am going to be setting up a sump/refugium for my saltwater tank. My question concerns the hose which drains from the overflow box into my sump tank.

Where should I place the end of the hose in the sump tank? By the top, middle, bottom? I wasn't sure if this should be above or below water line, and if below water line, how low.

Thanks! Any other important info for a newbie to sumps would be appreciated. So far my plan is: I have a 10 gallon tank to use as the sump, i have an 800GPH overflow box, and a 317GPH pump for returning water to main tank. I was also thinking of hooking up my canister filter(currently just set on main tank) as another 'pump' for water from sump to main tank; by putting intake for the canister filter in sump, and outtake in main tank. This should increase my GPH to about 600, still under my overflow boxes rated800gph.

Earthling84

new question. So i got my sump all setup and it is working. I currently put 2 waterpumps on (each rated at 317gph) and my overflow box is 800gph rated.

My question is...the tube on my overflow box which siphons water from the tank side to the drain side, it seems to be gathering air slowly. I am afraid over time, the air bubble in the top will grow to large and cause the siphon to fail, in which case my tank will overflow as the pumps would still be pushing water up.

The overflow box did come with 2 long pieces of filter type black pad. It is about 1'' in diameter and in cylander shape. I wasn't sure what this was supposed to be used for, and I didn't use it. Should this perhaps be in the siphon tube? Does it restrict the air bubbles from forming?

Here are some movies of my tanks and my sump setup(sump setup shown with only one pump(317gph); I added in a 2nd pump(exact same brand/model) after video.
www.youtube.com/earthling1984

Earthling84

I fixed the air in U tube problem. My box was rated at 800gph and it had a 1'' U tube, but my air pump only pumps 317GPH and it pushes upwards so it is probably more around 200 to 250GPH. So WAY under my overflow boxes rated GPH. The problem was, the water was going so slow through the U tube that any air bubbles that got in it, would stay in it, and float to the top, eventually growing in size and eventually causing the siphon to fail.

I figured higher flow would make water go through the U tube faster, and perhaps blow those bubbles out so there is no problem with bubbles. I didn't have a larger pump at home to increase water flow, so instead I used a smaller U tube. In place of the 1'' U tube I now use a 1/2'' U tube. Being a 1/2" U tube this will lower the GPH rating of my Overflow box. But like I said it was rated 800GPH with the 1'' U tube, so I would guess with a 1/2" U tube it is around 400GPh, still way above the 250GPH max I am running.

Anyways, with this smaller U tube in place, water rushes through it much faster. Now any small/micro bubbles that get into the U tube go straight through, quickly, and out the other end. In about 3 days my OLD 1" siphon would have a quarter sized air bubble at the top. In about 3 days with my NEW 1/2" siphon(U tube) I have ZERO air bubbles. This seems to have completely fixed my problem.

So if you are having bubble issues in your U tube, either increase flow, or get a smaller sized U tube, just make sure when you re-setup with the new U tube that you watch the flow and make sure the overflow box can keep up with the pump with the smaller U tube.

I have a video showing this, and other aspects of my tank/sump, if you would like to see it, along with some other videos of my fish setups, please visit www.youtube.com/earthling1984