Is the water falling into the sump or into the water in the sump? I mean does it enter the sump below water level? You try and put some sort of diffusion under where the water enters the pump? With my big tank i had 4 drains and stacked a bunch of base rock under them so they hit it instead of splashing. Extended the pipe below to just below the waters surface. Course i had an auto top-off, so you would need to keep levels constant from evap. I guess I should have asked is the sound coming from the overflow or the sump :)

It drains below the water level.

There is a small hole on the drain pipe in the sump, above the water level (at the exact same height as the first baffle), draining water into the sump, making a loud trickling noise (or peeing sound, as my husband says!). It's really peeing out water. When we hold our finger over this hole, a lot of the noise is gone. Can we permanently block this hole? The sound gets a lot better when we restrict the flow from the pump. When the flow from the pump is cut back by about 1/3, and we block that little hole, then the sound is OK. Is it OK to restrict the flow that much?

Another thing... when we cut the power to the pump, the overflow drains into the sump. The standpipe?.. the pipe in the overflow? fits into a larger pipe (creating a gap at the connection) about 3-4 inches above the bottom... and water seems to drain into this gap. So the overflow box becomes empty except for the bottom 3-4 inches, when the power is out. Shouldn't it stay full in case of a power failure? I've heard of people having stuff growing in there.. you wouldn't want it to drain! Can we glue/seal those pipes together so it won't drain? Is there a reason we should not do that? It could have been glued together, but it wasn't.
(I've forwared this message to Mike at HR, who responded super quickly to my post! much appreciated Mike!) I'll see what he says...

Another question! I've read that some people suggest widening the little hole (what's it called again?) right on top of the standpipe (Dur... something or other?) in the overflow box? Is that something we should try?
Thanks! :biggrin:

Well I just got the live rock today and put it in... I love the way it looks! The rock is just beautiful (from Hidden Reef) I just took some pictures and am trying to identify what looks to me like 2 of the same species of sea cucumber? Anyone ever seen these before? They're about 2 inches long. And what's the purple stuff growing out of the rock above and below the cucumber(?) Man this is so exciting, I think I'm going to be up all night with the flashlight, checking out all the stuff growing on these rocks! I'm keeping the temp at 79-80F, and my salinity is 1.026

I believe I just identified them.. they're tiger tail sea cucumbers...
Will they be OK without a substrate for a few days? There was a bit of die-off on my rocks and I wanted to syphon it out and let the rock cure completely before adding sand so I could syphon out any stuff that falls off the rock. I wasn't planning to put my sand bed in right away. Also I was not planning to make a deep sand bed, just 1-2 inches... will this be OK for the cucumbers, and will they survive the curing/cycling process? The rock was cured, but there was some die-off during shipping. Not much though.

Are these guys really toxic if they're stressed/dying, or are they safe to keep in a mixed reef? Do I have to worry about them poisoning my tank? I don't plan to have many fish, just a couple clowns at the most, if any. Will they kill my corals, if they die and release their toxins?

Reply
 

First I would have painted the back of tank [ outside ]...in order to hide view of plumbing and wiring from light fixture...Second I would put sandbed in first [ 1/2 inch ]

Make sure rock on both sides and front are away from glass for glass cleaning
Make a few caves for fish to hide [ sleep ] they will all pick there spot.:onfire:

yes, you can plug the hole above the waterline if its quieter to do so.
The hole is there to let air purge out, sometimes its the exact opposite...if the hole isnt the air pushes down through the whole pipe.

I would lift up the out put lockline nozzle, from the pics it looks as if it might back siphon too much back to the sump when powers out.

Its ok if the overflow drains, but if you dont like it draining, glue it.
The reason for this is that if a small fish goes in there or theres a need to clean it, you can pull the standpipe out.

Yes, you can restrict the pump and it is necessary to do so on most systems.


:)

Marc.

Tiger Tails
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...pcatid=712&N=0

Purple Stuff is Corraline Algae

I personally don't like the look of a painted background, but my husband suggested doing just that. We will see. I put the rock first because I read that's the best way to go if you plan on having lots of critters that dig in the sand and can disturb the rockwork ie. cause a rock slide. Yeah I'm going to arrange the rock differently so it's away from the glass in the front and on the sides.

You can always make a background out of construction paper or .. er .. shoot, I don't know what it's called, but in the lighting aisles at Home Depot or Rona or whatever, in the section with the lighting diffuser stuff, there is this stuff that looks like corrugated cardboard, but it's a lightweight plastic. I think it's in the lighting aisle anyhow, I'm not sure what it's meant for. But it comes in various colours or you could spray paint that with whatever colour you like and then tape that to the back of the tank. I've done this and several others have done this on their tanks and it works well. The best part is, if you decide you don't like it, you can take it off and replace it with something else. :)

That's a good idea. We might try that. Saw your tanks btw, they are out of this world!!! :biggrin: