clearsky57 July 9, 2012 Share July 9, 2012 I had my first encounter with a fish who decided to go sightseein in my overflow today ........ I know this has happened to some of you suggestions??? is it safe to cover the overflow once I get him out?? thanks d Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treesprite July 9, 2012 Share July 9, 2012 Did you get the fish back out alive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind July 9, 2012 Share July 9, 2012 What size fish is it? Can you remove the stand pipe and let it go down into the sump? If it's too big you'll need to net it out. I have scrap plexi that covers my overflows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hayden July 9, 2012 Share July 9, 2012 I had a clown jump into my overflow once. After many unsucsesfull attempts to net it... i found it impossible to get the net around the pipes. I shut off the pumps and drained all but ~2 inches of water out of the overflow. A little filter floss shoved between the pipes on the two sides kept the fish in the center section of the overflow. I was then able to easily reach all the way down the almost empty overflow and grab the fish by hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmatt56 July 9, 2012 Share July 9, 2012 Dave's trick to remove the standpipe worked for my purple dartfish. The blue spotted jawfish always jumped back out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Ward July 9, 2012 Share July 9, 2012 I've always fished them back out. I wouldn't recommend covering the overflow because if the teeth get clogged, the water will go over the top of the overflow rather than overflowing the tank itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypertech July 9, 2012 Share July 9, 2012 I've always fished them back out. I wouldn't recommend covering the overflow because if the teeth get clogged, the water will go over the top of the overflow rather than overflowing the tank itself. I found that the heat from my MH, warped my covers ever so slightly. If that were to happen, there is enough space that it will still drain over the top. Another plus for MH! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami July 9, 2012 Share July 9, 2012 If worried about blockage, cut the cover out of a thin sheet of styrofoam and it'll just float out of the way if there's trouble. It may even cut down on noise under normal circumstances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Ward July 9, 2012 Share July 9, 2012 The other thing I didn't like about covering the overflows is that when your fish does jump over, he will get cooked on the cover rather than swimming around in the overflow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypertech July 9, 2012 Share July 9, 2012 The other thing I didn't like about covering the overflows is that when your fish does jump over, he will get cooked on the cover rather than swimming around in the overflow. I once worried about this, but its never happened. I figure if they do land up there, they must be flopping around until they slide back in the water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LCDRDATA July 9, 2012 Share July 9, 2012 I once worried about this, but its never happened. I figure if they do land up there, they must be flopping around until they slide back in the water. It's happened to me twice, although they ended up cooking on the glass tank top vice the overflow. One was a chalk bass, the other a scissortail goby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypertech July 9, 2012 Share July 9, 2012 Sounds like the glass tank top did it not the overflow cover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan July 9, 2012 Share July 9, 2012 This is a brilliant idea!!! If worried about blockage, cut the cover out of a thin sheet of styrofoam and it'll just float out of the way if there's trouble. It may even cut down on noise under normal circumstances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clearsky57 July 10, 2012 Author Share July 10, 2012 Thanks guys for all the insight...... by the way...... this was my newly obtained mccoskers wrasse........ bummer! couldn't believe he would do that to me.... after trying for about an hour with a net I gave up for a bit and at that point I sat down and gave it a think session.... rather than shutting down the pump and pulling tubes out of the backflow, which I really didn't want to do... knowing it's easier to catch fish in salt water with a clear cup than a net made me think about it.... I took a long piece of wire (about 12 gauge) little thinner than a coat hanger, and made a pretty small loop on one end (about 3" diameter) then I took a small plastic fish bag (think it is considered a 4" like one would use to bag up killies or small fish very small diameter and about 15" tall) cut the bag down to about 6" tall, and fed it through the wire noose, and lapped the bag over the wire, (folded the bag over) then I took a thin piece of wire and secured the bag so it wouldn't come off the wire noose when full of water.. I tested it in the sink first so I wouldn't have pieces of plastic floating around in my backflow. I shut the lights off on the tank and used a flashlight. I dipped my new contraption down into the backflow, and with a piece of rigid tubing, prodded the little bugger into the bag.... actually it went off without a hitch as he didn't seem as distressed with the clear bag. I took several of your advices and cut a piece of plexiglass to cover the top of the backflow, but not so tight as to effect any overflow issues... He is now back in the tank, happily digging into the sand bed and I feel like i reinvented the wheel!! when I can figure out how to post images, I will actually take some pics of my new net process incase someone else wants to give it a go... thanks everyone for their input, and a happy ending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hypertech July 10, 2012 Share July 10, 2012 Glad you caught it. About the top - try to get one from black acrylic if you can. This will stop algae from growing in the overflow chamber as well. Limpits Reef sells a nice one for the mega flow. There is nothing all that special about it, but the price is pretty fair. For me, ordering one was easier than constructing so that's whereI got mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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