Here are some good links to read through as this will give you a better understanding of water chemistry in aquariums: http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=19425

Also, I'm not sure why you are dosing Kalk if there is nothing but cycling rock in the tank...

Kalkwasser is a very basic solution that will raise pH. The solution itself has a pH of around 12 or so. You drip it at night because the pH of the water in the aquarium drops at night due to respiration of the corals and other photosynthetic organisms in the tank. So to create a more stable pH (in the 8.0-8.2 zone) you drip a high pH solution into the lowered pH solution to bring it back up.

first of all, that is a great link... second of all, i wasnt dripping into my new tank, i was dripping into my 20 gallon. BTW your explaination about what it does was great! it really helped me out with the understanding of this additive!!! Thanks

well, its a slow process but there is now about 80G in my tank!!! i will post pics tomorow when im done!

heres a question, how often should i drip the 1/2 tablespoon of pickling lime into my 20 gallon???

anyone??? please??? lol. im at school right now but the tank is full! i will post pics tonight after work!

You normally drip depending on your evaporation rate. It varies from tank to tank. It also depends on how what your calcium levels are at and what you want them to be at and adjust accordingly to those.

ok. tonight was SUPPOSED to be a good night but when the sump was full and the tank was at the right level, we started the syphon on the drains and the return pump and it ran good for about 2 min. then we heard somthing coming from the sump, when we got there, we found this.
http://www.freewebs.com/eriksnanoree...HHHHHHHHHH.jpg
the return pump is sucking the sump dry. its like the water isnt making it around the baffles quick enough.....we had to restrict the flow on the pump to almost nill to keep it somewhat full.... what the hell did i do wrong??? here is another shot. a little closer
http://www.freewebs.com/eriksnanoree...20AHHHHHHH.jpg
PLEASE help me ASAP

Can't you just add more water? Won't that work?

did you get a pump that will somewhat match your bulkhead rating?

no, the power of the pump is well past cut in half and i want it pretty much full power. if i add more water it will just shoot it into the main tank and overflow it.

my mom actually baught the pump for me for christmas and she talked to a guy at J&L and he said that for the 2 1"(i think) overflows a mag 18 would work good. HELP

How are you drains plumbed? I only see 1 drain pipe going back into your sump?

Looking at the sump, I noticed couple of things.
1.Try having the overflow pipe come even with the water, ti minamize the bubbles in the sump.

2. I dont think you have enough water in the sump to go to the tank. What im saying is you tank will drain the waterthur the overflow. once gravity takes over.

If you have any of the piping blocked off open the lines to the sump wide open.

What are the overflows are they 1" pvc or 1.5 "

rule of thumb is 1" pvc will handle 750-1000gph
1.5 " can handle1250 to 1500.


But IME/IMO add more water to equal out the sump...

Now saying that on my tank i have a 3MD with 1.25 PVC and it works good and that is pumping around 500 gph.

IMO

What he said... :question:

Did you join the 2 1" pipes coming from the drains :question:
Did you use 1" pipe after join :question:
If so the 1" pipe won't be able to handle the flow of 2 1" pipes

If the tank overflows when you open up the flow on your return pump the drains are being overwhelmed, 2 1" drains should be able to handle that volume

What are the linear dimentions of your overflow?

From Reef Central
Mag 18 at 4' head with 2 90's = Gallons per Hour = 1115

Drain and Overflow sizes are calculated as
Recommended minimum drain pipe diameter = 1.38 inches
Recommended minimum linear overflow size = 17 inches

HTH
Dan

the drains are plumbed INDEVIDUALY with 1" pipe. the overflows are 6x6x22.... i still dont understand. i NEED the flow cranked up but if i do, it drains that side of the sump in like 3 seconds...

How are the baffles set up in your sump? How large is the pump compartment in your sump? You may have to redo your sump if that is the case.

The sump is 20 gal right. Did you add more water to the sump like I said to try. I think that is your problem.

Or you have the baffle to high in your sump. What is the height of your main baffle


If that is the problem then tee off the pump to go into the return line. basically you are having the the return line split into two lines on going still to the tank and the other to the sump again..

THis will slow the flow down for you.

my sump is 30x13x15 which makes it a 25g. the main baffle is 10" high so that makes the pump compartment 10.5x13......ask about anything else if this isnt the problem.

SO did ya add more water to you sump yet.....Honesty looking at the picture i can't see nothing else wron. Unless its me.. Sorry i cant come over to help ya out .... i can start sitting next week so i will hopfully be able to come over and take a look for ya ok....

Ok i have to edit here i just saw something..:lol:

Ok you have 2 or 1 overflows in the tank. If you have 2 overflow why do you have it only going to one drain if that is the case. And its been mentioned before. You should have a bigger pipe drain from the 2 split lines to help with the flow.

Now if you have 1 line then i think the proble is that you have to maybe lower the 2nd baffle..other then that i'm Stumped :question:

ok.... how bout the space between baffles...

there is something wrong with the drains if your tank overflows
can you take pics of the overflow then follow the plumbing down to the sump... more pics are needed to see what your system looks like
Dan

How highare your stacks in your overflow, DUH i didnt even think of that they should be atleast 2-3" below the overflow line try that....

o my god i feel like such an idiot!!! they are almost at the top!! Mike, there are 2 overflows and each are plumbed sepretley. there is only one that you can see in that picture.....would that be my problem?? the stacks are too high??

What are "stacks" in your overflow? Are you talking about the standpipe? If so, that isn't your problem. Mine is level with the top of my overflow.

yes Harvey if his stand pipes or stacks are at the top of his tank well "Yes" it will be a big problem its going to keep filling up from the sump until the water starts going thur the pipes. ANd if that means sucking all the water out of his sump to fill the tank. Well that would be the problem.
Harvey how big is your Sump compared to Nanoreefs...


Now Nanoreef is the pipes close to the top of the glass or are they close to the overflow.

how down are the pipes from the top of the tank?

Heya Mike,

IIRC, my sump is 30x24 and has about ~10" of water in it (so 30-ish gallons).

If that is the case, he should be able to add more water to the sump and that should solve his problem. I think he said that wasn't the problem though which leads me to believe that either

a) his drain plumbing has too many restriction in it slowing down the flow
b) his drains aren't 1"
c) I'm totally out in left field and don't know what's going on :lol:

This would be my guess.:razz: :biggrin:

I don't know i have exhausted all my avenue's on what can be done. With out seeing it in person..

:question:

Are your two overflows draining individually into your sump or are they connected together into a single 1" pipe that dumps into your sump? I don't recall whether or not you've answered that question before. Sorry if you have, I must have missed it...

yes harvey that is the question I'm waiting for. If you have 2 liens going into one tee and they have the same diameter well you will have a build up you might say. it will slow down instead of speeding up..

I think this means there are two pipes all the way to the sump... I think only pics can help now

The height of the standpipe shouldn't matter unless its higher than the tank
I remember you said the tank overflows when you turn on the pump if this is the case then you have a problem with the overflow/ bulkheads... when you turn the pump off after an overflow, does the water level in the tank drop? quickly? slowly? not at all?
this is puzzling!

as i said before...
and
which means there is 2 1" pipes draining into my overflow.... and Mike, there is about 2" from the egg crating to were the water goes IN for the drain..... please let me know if you need me to be more thorough.

also, there is a lot of 90 deg. angles in the drain that my dad swaped out for 45s last night which gave it more of a slope

well how does the water travel now.. any headway

i dunno, we didnt fill it since we did that. that was yesterday....now i think we are going to fill it tomorow and see what happens..... any other suggestions\?

Why are you waiting til tomorrow, looking for any butterfly's or a koran

nope sorry Mike! i have a question. if i take 2" off the main baffle (which makes it 8") would that help to get more water to the pump side??

why not add more water to the sump. the easy way to do it is
turn on the pump until it sucks almost dry.
then turn off the pump let it go until the siphon breaks.
then see how much water you have left in the sump.
then add so more water to the sum to make it higher or keep it at asafe level.

Now that you have made changes to the drains... try filling up the sump to the height of the baffles and let her fly hopefuly the drain problem is fixed.... but the problem is definately in the drains and nowhere else!

ok, so it WAS the drains... i took the upsidedown J out of the overflows and just left it as a straight stick like this.
http://www.freewebs.com/eriksnanoreef/DRAIN.jpg
and YAY! it keeps up with the pump!!! the pump is wide open and it works great BUT it is VERY noisy.... how can i stop this without effecting flow?

told ya it was the homemade overflow.... congrats:mrgreen:

i have a scopas and a yellow for sale

A Durso or Stockman standpipe will help you in this situation.

http://www.dursostandpipes.com/

OR

http://www.rl180reef.com/pages/stand...n_stockman.htm