fish tank water is not circulating fast

[Moe]

Hello,

I have a pump going out from my ST to FT with a 3/4 inch pipe.  i have a syphon going out from the FT to a Swirl Filter and then on to the ST with a 1 1/2 pipe.  the issue is the water does not "flow" fast enough out of the FT into the ST.  The 1 1/2 inch pipe is hardly utilized to its full size.

if I increase the flow of water into the FT by running another pump from the ST in an effort to increase the flow out of the fish tank toward the ST and increase the rate of flow, to my disappointment, instead of the rate of the water increasing in the 1 1/2 pipe out of the fish tank, the level of the water in the FT increases and it over flow, eventually running the ST dry since notheing is going back to it.  Any help on how to increase the flow out of the fish tank?

[Philippe Pauvert]

Hi Moe, look like your siphon is the bad guy. I don´t see the interest anyway to put a siphon out of a FT. Just put an overflow of 2" minimum from the FT out to the Swirl. Overflow pipes must be much wider than pump pipes.

The danger with overflows is that they might empty your FT....behaving like a siphon.

So you want to have some air introduced in the overflow pipe. Just drill a hole on top or put a "T"

Finally your overflow should go down to the bottom of the FT to suck the solids to make your  swirl happy.

You may want to put some net on the pipe to stop the fishes getting out.

[Moe]

the setup you suggested is what I have, I just used incorrect way to descripe what I have, I have a 1 1/2 inche over flow pipe with a "T" to allow air in so it would not drain the FT.  I have tried to attache two pictures, not sure if you can see them.  one is a picture of the inside of the swirl tank as the water is coming in from the FT.  The opening is 1 1/2 inch.  the water is just coming in, very low rate. the pipe from the FT to the ST is at a 65 degree angle down, not really sure why the water is not gushing out!!!

when I added a second pump to the Sump tanks and sent water to the FT, basically doubling up the water going in the fish tank, The fish tanks simply fills up and the water comes out on the ground!!! for the life of me.  Any idea?

Thanks

 

[Moe]

the setup you suggested is what I have, I just used incorrect way to descripe what I have, I have a 1 1/2 inche over flow pipe with a "T" to allow air in so it would not drain the FT.  I have tried to attache two pictures, not sure if you can see them.  one is a picture of the inside of the swirl tank as the water is coming in from the FT.  The opening is 1 1/2 inch.  the water is just coming in, very low rate. the pipe from the FT to the ST is at a 65 degree angle down, not really sure why the water is not gushing out!!!

when I added a second pump to the Sump tanks and sent water to the FT, basically doubling up the water going in the fish tank, The fish tanks simply fills up and the water comes out on the ground!!! for the life of me.  Any idea?

Thanks

Philippe Pauvert said:

Hi Moe, look like your siphon is the bad guy. I don´t see the interest anyway to put a siphon out of a FT. Just put an overflow of 2" minimum from the FT out to the Swirl. Overflow pipes must be much wider than pump pipes.

The danger with overflows is that they might empty your FT....behaving like a siphon.

So you want to have some air introduced in the overflow pipe. Just drill a hole on top or put a "T"

Finally your overflow should go down to the bottom of the FT to suck the solids to make your  swirl happy.

You may want to put some net on the pipe to stop the fishes getting out.

[Pieter Swanevelder]

Hi Moe - sorry - no drawings/photo's to be seen.

Did you check the FT-Swirlfilter pipe for blockage - especially the bends?

If you use your FT/Swirl-filter-pipe as solid-lift-pipe - check that you've got enough space at the bottom between pipe and floor of tank and restrict it from sucking to the bottom. Is the entry point buried in muck?

Regards,

[Jeff Fultz]

Hey Moe,

What about at the top of your over flow do you have a pipe on the outside of the tank going up higher than the top of the overflow? If so if it is capped that needs to either be drilled out or remove the cap it is a breather tube for your overflow and how you prime it. by filling it with water  then the gravity does the rest... try to post a pic of mine...

Moe said:

the setup you suggested is what I have, I just used incorrect way to descripe what I have, I have a 1 1/2 inche over flow pipe with a "T" to allow air in so it would not drain the FT.  I have tried to attache two pictures, not sure if you can see them.  one is a picture of the inside of the swirl tank as the water is coming in from the FT.  The opening is 1 1/2 inch.  the water is just coming in, very low rate. the pipe from the FT to the ST is at a 65 degree angle down, not really sure why the water is not gushing out!!!

when I added a second pump to the Sump tanks and sent water to the FT, basically doubling up the water going in the fish tank, The fish tanks simply fills up and the water comes out on the ground!!! for the life of me.  Any idea?

Thanks

Philippe Pauvert said:

Hi Moe, look like your siphon is the bad guy. I don´t see the interest anyway to put a siphon out of a FT. Just put an overflow of 2" minimum from the FT out to the Swirl. Overflow pipes must be much wider than pump pipes.

The danger with overflows is that they might empty your FT....behaving like a siphon.

So you want to have some air introduced in the overflow pipe. Just drill a hole on top or put a "T"

Finally your overflow should go down to the bottom of the FT to suck the solids to make your  swirl happy.

You may want to put some net on the pipe to stop the fishes getting out.

[Moe]

I think the problem was that the bottom of the over flow was flush with the bottom of the fish tank. I cut about an inch. The over flow has a T letting air in. Things have improved. My tank is 250g and it is cycled every three hours. Is that good? 8 times a day?

[Jeff Fultz]

Ideally you want your tank to turn over 3 - 5 times per hour. For example on my 55g breeder tank I use a sump filter and an overflow. With lift height and all things considered I use a 350 GPH pump I get about a 3 times per hour push only cuz of the 4 ft lift but that's still 72 times a day. Read this... http://gmacreef.com/turnover-flow-rate-through-sump-reef-tank/

[Moe]

3- 5 times per hour.  I do not think I can do that with an outflow that is working as a syphon. the outflow (dark pipe( takes the water to my Sump tank.  I would have to use a pump to take the water out of the FT to the Swirl filter.

[MikeH]

I have a 250g FT and I cycle the FT 2x p hr. I push 500 G through it." Each hr.
I have 2" outlet which feeds directly into 5 GB.

[Moe]

How is the outlet is set? Is it an over flow with a T?
If you go directly from the Ft to the GB, what happens to the fish poop?

[Philippe Pauvert]

So say you have a high stocking of 8 kg in your FT your feeding by 2% will be 160 grams delivering some 48 gr of settable solids....per day

I´m not sure you need a swirl filter with all the pros and cons it brings. Put some mesh in a basket at the exit of the over flow without slowing the said flow. And use your swirl for more fishes

In small system an old sock is useful. There is no real benefit to let the solids go into the GBs, even if you have red Californians.

About the turnover frequency. I personally have 2 per hour just during the cycling with fishes. After that 1 per hour is enough for the filtrations. You may consider an air pump for the aeration to cut down all this expensive pumping.

When you come back from the sump to the FT put some spray bars or any aerating device to keep aerating and degasing.

[MikeH]

Yes it has a "T" on the SLO, I don't use "90's" I double up "45's" because a hard turn causes slow down of your flow unless it drops a lot. From my tank to my GB the distance is about 5', so I get a little back pressure because it drops about 6".
It goes directly Into my GB's. I have about 300 red worms in each GB to help eat the poo. I also have crawfish in the Sump tanks to eat the excess food that the fish don't eat. I had a swirl that I added to the system, everything seemed to slow so I removed it and am running it with out a swirl.

Moe said:

How is the outlet is set? Is it an over flow with a T?
If you go directly from the Ft to the GB, what happens to the fish poop?