overflow box siphon

[tamra&steven]

i am going to be adding a sump to my tank with an overflow box that hangs on the back and uses a siphon to pull the water out of the tank into the sump.if the power goes out it will break the siphon, when the power goes back on the main pump will pump the water out of the sump into my tank then over. i have heard you can drill a hole in the "U" tube and insert an airline and run the airline to the port on a power head and when the power goes back on the siphon will be restarted, is this right? does this work?

[Skyrmir]

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~idproduct~OE1137.html

That's the pump I use myself, works pretty good and they're cheap. No idea about the retailer in the link though, I bought mine locally. It's a little noisy during restart when it's sucking air, but it's always restarted with no problem.

[tamra&steven]

ok cool thanks i have that pump on my CA reactor it works good i can get those for like 7 bucks. thanks im glad someone wrote back. you have tested it though right thanks

[tamra&steven]

anymore info or problem i might run into would be helpfull thanks

[tamra&steven]

any other info about this anyone???

[ccCapt]

Originally Posted by tamra&steven

if the power goes out it will break the siphon, when the power goes back on the main pump will pump the water out of the sump into my tank then over.

Why do you think it will break the siphon? I used a U-tube type overflow box for close to 20 years and it never lost siphon when I shut down the pump. There is no reason a properly setup overflow would loose siphon.

[cmor1701d]

I'm with cccapt. Is this a home made overflow? Is so check out Melev's DIY Overflow. If not check out the Continuous Overflow Siphons at ThatPetPlace.

[melosu58]

Moved to General Hardware and equipment discussion.

[tamra&steven]

i have a overflow box with two U tubes but wont it lose the siphon if the power goes out and the tanks water drops lower then the overflow box then the pump comes on and fills the tank up. when the water drops wont it loss siphon?

[ccCapt]

I'm not sure I understand. (Better grammer and punctuation would help.)

when the water drops wont it loss siphon?

No

[cmor1701d]

Perhaps this diagram will explain it better. The intake grate is above the level of diviider between the tank and hob section. The overflow to the sump is below the level of bottom of the U-tube, but the divider to that section is above teh bottom of the U-tube. The U-tubes are in a middle section that has a contsant water volume. When water stops flowing into the overflow it also stops flowing into drain area and both sides of the U-tube remain under water.

[cmor1701d]

Here's the diagram of the flow meter...

[melosu58]

I had for 7 yrs and the guys are right it will not lose the siphon. Now if you pull the J tube out then it will lose it and then you`ll need to but as long as that J tube stays in it will not lose it. When the pump starts back up so will the water flow through the J tube.

[tamra&steven]

great thank you very much!!!!!!! i have it all up and running right now. thanks

[Ziggy953]

As long as both ends of the U-tube are below water level in each side of the overflow box it will not break siphon and when the power comes back on it will start flowing as the water level rises in the tank-side of the overflow box.