Failsafe Syphon

Copperband

Copperband

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Guys as you know i converted a discus (aka canister filter) tank to my marine setup. After the skimmer oops a few days ago i installed a sump but nobody really wanted to drill holes in a tank full of fish and water.

So here's the solution:

This is a permanent syphon, add water to the main tank to the precalculated level and the syphon flows, if there is a power failure the syphon stops. When pumping starts again the syphon does its work. I got this idea from Derek Low who got it from ................ ad infinitem.

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Copper, I had exactly the same contraption in my FW setup. They don't work. Do yourself a favour and toss it. You will end up spending more money on replacing carpets than anything else.
 
I know where the idea comes from. To a newby it seems like a clever solution. But in fact it's not well thought through at all.
 
Gil, it works i've tested it over and over again...pump off syphon stops...so it works..i'm not going to use it on my new tank
 
But soes it start again when the return pump starts up.
 
They work fine, they will remove as much or as little as you throw at them, within there size limits. But they can fill with bubbles, becoming less and less effective, and potentially failing.

Water on carpet can be inevitable if not fine tuned and monitored regularly.
 
My bad, then I apologise. Mine never worked (starting up again after power out), not even a bit.
 
Bob the (reef)builder said:
They work fine, they will remove as much or as little as you throw at them, within there size limits. But they can fill with bubbles, becoming less and less effective, and potentially failing.

Water on carpet can be inevitable if not fine tuned and monitored regularly.
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Bob i test mine weekly and also block to outlet for a few seconds to get any air out. Yet still to have any issues, but i'm sure i will.
 
The secret to this system is the T piece on the left - water flows in trough the top and also side - when the return from the sump stops - it will drain to the level of the vertical part of the T - suck air and break the syphon.

The rest of the assy stays full of water to below the horizontal part of the T.

When the return pump starts up again the level rises within the U section until a syphon starts again. Actually works very well have used it to connect 2 sumps together when I ran my surge tank - this was to accommodate possible overflow and it ended up saving a flood a few times. View attachment 60818

The balance does take a bit of fiddeling to get right but can be done.

Quote from next door.
 
Galibore said:
Copper, I had exactly the same contraption in my FW setup. They don't work. Do yourself a favour and toss it. You will end up spending more money on replacing carpets than anything else.
Click to expand...

They work vey well. Perhaps a little tweeking? They need to be primed.
 
Rod,

I did prime mine. Not sure what you mean by tweaking. Whenever my return pump came back on, the tank overflowed and I was in shit by my wife.

But it was back in my noob days of overflows so it was probably just my dumbassness...:lol:
 
ok I'm the last one EVER to admit failure but I just couldn't get the failsafe working properly, so this morning I got a Octo syphon overflox box. What a relief!! The thing works properly it feeds water to the sump at about 2000L per hour. I'm really happy with this product!!

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At least you tried, nice piece of equipment that, looks fairly well built.
 
Sims it was about R800 and a couple of loose ones..

Dean its really nifty and easy to prime and hell it works, I've been trying for 2 weeks to get the sump working properly and the live stock were taking strain, no lets suck it and see..
 
CB once it's primed can you set and forget ? Will it start the siphon everytime ?
 
Yes it auto starts after power failures, i was really impressed by the flow this little thing had.
 
DR, I can jump in here. Yes it does. I had a video of a similar one (by Melev) but can't find it now. Works like a bomb.
 
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