Loaches Online Forum

One thing that I forgot to mention is that I hooked the sump back up a few days ago. This is why I'm getting very concerned with the overflow losing it's prime.
Another problem with the overflow is that snails are congregating in the clear pipe and going near the airline tubing that is pulling the air out and keeping it primed. If snails get stuck and clog the airline tubing, I might end up with a little bit of a mess on the floor if the prime is lost. I need to figure out a solution soon.
I didn't have this problem before because the old overflow had a strainer that prevented most snails from getting into the overflow and if they did get in the overflow they didn't congregate at this one clear spot. With this tank filled to the top that strainer is no longer a good option because it clogs easily and it needed about 3" of play above the water's surface. I'm not about to rebuild the stand and make it higher so that that I can have that 3" of play again.
I'll have to think about this for a few days. If anyone has some suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

No ideas here, except that you should first seal the leak so that you are not dependent on the air pump primer. Then the snails temporarily blocking the primer will not be an issue. Long term, I would consider getting rid of the snails (I know that this is easier said than done).

I worked on the sump Today. I drilled the sump and installed a 1" bulkhead. The bulkhead is for an overflow going to a floor drain so that I can do continuous water changes throughout the system. I couldn't believe how easy it was to drill acrylic with a hole saw. I guess I learn something everyday.

I wonder how difficult it would be to drill my glass 190g tank? This is so that I don't have to deal with that overflow anymore. It's staying primed, but that darn thing is a time bomb. I think drilling the tank is by far the best solution.

To be continued.

I thought of another solution. I could drill the acrylic river tank instead of the glass 190g, and then reverse the water flow through the water-bridges. I'd have to re-plumb everything though. This ain't a bad idea either.

I think that drilling the acrylic tank and reversing the flow is a better idea. Drilling the glass tank might be quite a project.

I got the new bulkheads. I'll be putting 2 - 1" bulkheads in the river tank. I went with 1" since I already have the 1 3/4" hole saw that is needed to drill the holes. The return pump in the sump is only 400-500 gph, so the bulkheads should be able to handle twice that amount of flow, if not I can always add a few more bulkheads.

Where to drill the holes is the only question. I'll have a pvc overflow on the outside of the tank so that I can drill the holes below the water line. The bulkheads also came with strainers. I can keep the strainers connected to the bulkhead or connect them to a 1" pvc coupler. Here's a pic of them-

I got everything dry fitted and working and got that problem overflow out of the way. Got the return pumps in the sump rerouted also so that the flow thru the water-bridges is reversed.

Here's the holes I drilled. The pangio was cursing me out because of the noise I caused.


I over-tightened one of the bulkheads and broke the nut. Meanwhile I have a clamp around the nut to hold it together.


Done!