Durso not restarting

[Fsp2]

Ok, this is a bit of a weird one.  I got some excellent help doing a hard plumbing job and love the underside of the tank, but I'm going a little batty over the overflow itself.  Internal Corner Overflow that comes standard with the Marineland tanks.  Was relatively quiet after properly doing the plumbing and seemingly worked perfectly.  Now, three months later, I've got two issues.

 

1) The drain doesn't start easily after restarting the return pump.  Every time I do a feed mode on the apex or turn it off to do a water change, I have to hover my finger over the off button on the return pump because the tank will fill and the sump will drain almost to (or slightly past) the point at which the return pump starts sucking in air before it will start to actually flush back down into the sump.  This isn't a question of total water volume either.  The water will literally completely cover the durso, I can turn off the return pump, wait a minute or two, and then FLUSH the overflow starts up properly and I can turn back on the pump.  This is clearly not ideal, for a variety of reasons up to and including the fact that we'll be on vacation with a 10 year old and his dad feeding the fish while we're gone....  Any idea what's happening here??!?

 

2)  The noise level (slurping) has increased exponentially.  I'm probably just going to replace the oddly designed durso that came with it (tiny plastic pipe up top instead of a proper t-fitting and cap) but thought I'd throw that out there and see if anyone had suggestions for a better design (no, I can't do a herbie or a bean animal as I only have one drain hole).  Stockman's standpipe?

Always get great help from you guys so here's hoping!

 

~Frank

 

PS  Anyone know of an aquarium servicing company that does fish sitting?  We're gone for a week and the only kid we know lives across the river in Arlington.  He's keen to do it, but the 25 min drive each way is a little ridiculous for his parents.  Will have an AFS for the DT, but two fish in quarantine aren't so lucky ...

[zygote2k]

Is there a valve on your return pump? is the hole in the top of the durso large enough to allow air inside it?

[Origami]

A well fed tank can generally go for a week without feeding. Just feed heavy for a few days before you go and again after. You can't do this with QT, though, if it doesn't have a reasonably well developed biological filter.

 

A Stockman standpipe is just a radial implementation of the Durso.

 

A Durso should not "flush" unless either the air vent is blocked or narrowed a lot (check for salt creep in the hole) or there's an obstruction in the pipe that's blocking the outflow (pull the pipe out and inspect) or you're overdriving it (too much flow from the return). If it's flushing, it's a sign that it's siphoning and not draining in the regular way.

[Fsp2]

Always the simplest things. Hole was definitely plugged with salt creep. Back to that silent tank I had two months ago. Thanks guys!

[Origami]

Always the simplest things. Hole was definitely plugged with salt creep. Back to that silent tank I had two months ago. Thanks guys!

It happened to me years and years ago. ;-)  Glad it was a simple fix.

[AlanM]

PS  Anyone know of an aquarium servicing company that does fish sitting?  We're gone for a week and the only kid we know lives across the river in Arlington.  He's keen to do it, but the 25 min drive each way is a little ridiculous for his parents.  Will have an AFS for the DT, but two fish in quarantine aren't so lucky ...

 

I've found that our cat sitter service is ok for fish sitting if all I ask of her is to dump in a labeled jar of food each day from the fridge.  Thawed LRS seems to keep in the fridge for a week or so without getting too stinky.  Asking much else won't be successful.  

 

There are some tank service companies in the area that you might be able to get someone to come visit your tank, but they're not really set up for that business.  They have a regular set of service tanks that they visit once every couple of weeks on a schedule they can lay out well in advance, and they charge much more for those visits than it's easy to justify paying for a vacation visit to the tank because they're doing water changes, cleaning algae, checking equipment underneath, etc.  For vacation tank sitting if you'd want them to come each day the cost is high because of all the time they need to spend on travel since they're often not exactly local.  

 

I've always wanted a service in the area that I could pay kind of a retainer to of $250-$300/yr or something with a business model like an HVAC service contract.  At the start of the contract they'd come out to your house, take pics and record documentation on where all of the equipment was, where the breakers are, what needs to be done to start things up, and compile it all into a folder for you.  They'd even keep a house key and your wifi/ecosmart/neptune passwords handy.  Then if there was a tank emergency they'd be on call to come deal with it on some pre-agreed hourly charge.