Had small emergency with tank, need help figuring it out!!

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#1
So i have had a 50 g that I have been just running without doing much with it. When i woke up this morning the pump was almost running dry and the tank was almost overflowing. The over flow was just as full as the tank, my drain type is a durso it was completely submerged. It does return water to the sump at a good pace, but I'm guessing its not going as fast as usual but I can't figure out what else could be causing the problem. The main pump seems to be working as it returning water at the regular pace. I stuck a hanger down the durso air hole in the overflow to see if I had any blockage but that seemed fine. Anyone have any ideas that maybe I'm missing here.......
 

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#2
So i have had a 50 g that I have been just running without doing much with it. When i woke up this morning the pump was almost running dry and the tank was almost overflowing. The over flow was just as full as the tank, my drain type is a durso it was completely submerged. It does return water to the sump at a good pace, but I'm guessing its not going as fast as usual but I can't figure out what else could be causing the problem. The main pump seems to be working as it returning water at the regular pace. I stuck a hanger down the durso air hole in the overflow to see if I had any blockage but that seemed fine. Anyone have any ideas that maybe I'm missing here.......
Might be blockage the hanger might not be going all the way down. Check drain and how much water is coming down

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#3
Might be blockage the hanger might not be going all the way down. Check drain and how much water is coming down

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Problem is everything is plumbed and its hard for me to get all the way through, do people snake this kind of stuff lol? Water seems to be returning to the sump at a decent speed but if the durso is completely submerged than the only thing i can think of is a blockage.
 

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#5
Does your exit submerged in water or is it above the water line?
 

sandman

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#6
If you have gate valve exiting sump to return pump, turnoff and immediately turnoff return pump to stop back flow to sump. Watch overflow box for quick drain, else a blockage?


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#9
Another thing to look into is the pump might be too big ie too strong for the system. That just happened to me with my fish qt when I set it up a couple months ago. I ran it out of the box and the water was returning faster than it could drain. Luckily its a tunze adjustable flow so I dialed it back and that did the trick. What kind of pump are you running and how big is the drain?
 
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Another thing to look into is the pump might be too big ie too strong for the system. That just happened to me with my fish qt when I set it up a couple months ago. I ran it out of the box and the water was returning faster than it could drain. Luckily its a tunze adjustable flow so I dialed it back and that did the trick. What kind of pump are you running and how big is the drain?
Honestly not sure, came with the setup. But it
 
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#12
Tank was fine yesterday? This morning looks more full than usual. Overflow isn't keeping up with return. Something is definitely in standpipe. Turn off return. Pull the standpipe out of bulkhead and see whats in it. Snail or missing fish. Always design system to be isolated and taken apart for this reason.
 
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#13
Maybe the air hole/breather on top is somewhat clogged or to small. I had that problem when I first set up my durso. I drilled a small hole and observed and had to drill a few times bigger till I got it right.
 
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#15
I can do that but you think that could be a problem out of nowhere, say about 6 months in?
Maybe the air hole/breather on top is somewhat clogged or to small. I had that problem when I first set up my durso. I drilled a small hole and observed and had to drill a few times bigger till I got it right.
 
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#17
I agree, I'm going tom give it a shot today.
Tank was fine yesterday? This morning looks more full than usual. Overflow isn't keeping up with return. Something is definitely in standpipe. Turn off return. Pull the standpipe out of bulkhead and see whats in it. Snail or missing fish. Always design system to be isolated and taken apart for this reason.
 
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#20
I wish I could tell you. I took everything apart and cleaned it all. When I put everything back together it worked. SOOOOOO maybe just an air pocket somehow? Nothing stood out to me as an actual problem.
So what was it?

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