I have a problem

[justahobby]

Ah, I didn't think of power outages/ syphon breaks.

[Europhyllia]

I think I am going to try the non-drilled tank closed circuit thing. Seems the most likely to accomplsih what I want.
I wonder if I will end up with too much flow for just a little mixed reef?

I have:
2 Seio 1500 gph on a controller
1 Seio 1000 gph
return pump 550 gph
total 4550 gph
add to that the PanWorld/CL for 1200 gph
for a total of 6750 gph on a 125g tank

Does that seem like a lot? Guess I can get rid of the 1000 gph Seio. I really like the ones on controller.

Update in last reply

[Europhyllia]

okay closed loop circuit thing as described by melev is done.
I tried out the swirls and even though they didn't directly point to the floor they stirred up quite a bit of my super fine sand. Went and got some coarser sand (just to put a thin layer over the fine sand to keep it down) at AD and also a dual loc-line output to split up the output stream from one strong one into two weaker ones. That seemed to solve the sand blasting problem but I still get micro bubbles.
The only source of air in this closed loop design could be that primer pipe. Obviously I can't completely fill this with air (since it drains through the input pipe back into the tank)
Can I assume eventually all this air is used up and then it stops doing this?
How long is this going to continue?

[joelb]

the 2 J tubes should have drained a total of about 1600 gph. the J tubes go into your tank and inside of a small box with teeth at the top.
was the water rising above the top of the teeth?
did you try lowering that box with teeth deeper into your tank?

maybe the J tubes drained the water from that box faster than it could be filled, so the bottle neck is not the J tubes but the water flow going into the box with teeth. good luck.

[Europhyllia]

Joel,
yes I tried lowering the boxes so that water could get in there faster (more tooth area but they still filled quickly.
I'm back to using the Rio as the return pump with actually only one return box (more space in the tank for even more corals now! lol)
I also figured out what my air problem was - lid not cranked down enough so everything is under control. The sea swirls are swirling on a closed loop and the little rio provides a gentle flow through the sump

[TexasTodd]

It's not unusual for drains to not drain their rate numbers. Look at a couple of things:

Are your drains clear, clean and do they run straight? You MAY be able to help your drain volume by putting larger plumbing in. Any elbows will significantly slow your flow.

Are you draining efficiently? How are your drains set up? Do you have a durso on them? Do they "burp" or does air get trapped?

The Rio problem was more hype than anything. I had one melt down in a bucket - my fault, it ran dry - and the owner of TAAM, the manufacturer, assured me that they had intentionally polluted a reef tank with a pump that they had melted down. He also sent me 2 new pumps after I sent him mine back (he wanted to look at it). It's just epoxy.

Get Durosos in.

Or,

Search silencers on Premium aquatics. Very quite and even more flow than a home made Duroso. I think they're about $40 but well worth it.

Another option is to use both drilled holes in overflow as drains and route the return plumbing just up the back side of the tank hidden by overflow. Just make sure the top tip is not very deep in to your tank or it will siphon too much at power out.

Todd