16" Shadow overflow: Lid salt creep

[rushbattle]

Yeah.

The longer I run this thing, the more I regret putting it on my tank.

I’m giving mine away for free. Considered just trashing it because that’s what it is, but someone that doesn’t care about noise, salt creep, and safety can use it for something, like an aquaculture setup.

 

[User]

Yeah. I loved the ‘silent’ overflow hype.

I guess I’m not in the demographic of people who run their tanks at 200gph...

Unfortunately, I’m stuck with it for a few more months at least

 

[TheHarold]

Yeah. I loved the ‘silent’ overflow hype.

I guess I’m not in the demographic of people who run their tanks at 200gph...

Unfortunately, I’m stuck with it for a few more months at least

I’ve read that many times unfortunately. People seem to be much happier with the Reef Savvy overflow: http://www.reefsavvy.com/product/21-ghost-overflow-2to3-week-lead-time

 

[mixer911]

You guys still sending out spline to fix this defect?

This is build up from 4 days, lid is completely closed.

Thanks

This is caused by running the water level too low in the rear box. I can see the water level in the box is VERY low. The salt creep is caused by the air and water vapor mixing in the rear box from turbulence. If you raise your water level this will not happen like this.

 

[User]

Sure, I’ll concede that point.

Any comment on the ridiculous amount of noise coming from the weir, even when the water level is 2” below the top of the box?

 

[mixer911]

I’ve read that many times unfortunately. People seem to be much happier with the Reef Savvy overflow: http://www.reefsavvy.com/product/21-ghost-overflow-2to3-week-lead-time

We built the first reef savvy Ghost overflows and I can assure you that it will happen to any external overflow if the water level is running low enough to cause vaporization in the rear box. Salt creep is a major issue with any area of a piece of equipment that has bubbles in it. By raising the water level in the rear box this will eliminate the bubbles and stop the salt creep.

 

[mixer911]

Sure, I’ll concede that point.

Any comment on the ridiculous amount of noise coming from the weir, even when the water level is 2” below the top of the box?

Yes, the weir will make noise if the rear box level is running 2" below the top of the box. Raise the rear pipes and the level and it will fix both issues.

 

[mixer911]

Yeah. I loved the ‘silent’ overflow hype.

I guess I’m not in the demographic of people who run their tanks at 200gph...

Unfortunately, I’m stuck with it for a few more months at least

When improperly setup it will never be quiet. It's not hype that people can run these quiet, it's fact when they take the time to understand how the overflow works. It's not a Magic box, it still needs to be adjusted to your setup.

 

[User]

I had it running 2” from the top of the rear box, and it was still loud enough to hear from 40’ away

The only way to stop this noise is to have the outer box higher up, to essentially eliminate water drop over the weir. There’s a company that does this, and it works to create a *truly* silent overflow.

 

[mixer911]

I had it running 2” from the top of the rear box, and it was still loud enough to hear from 40’ away

The only way to stop this noise is to have the outer box higher up, to essentially eliminate water drop over the weir. There’s a company that does this, and it works to create a *truly* silent overflow.

Correct when running it 2" below the top of the back box it will be loud. It was not designed to run like that. It will also create tons of salt creep. Raising the water level eliminated the drop noise of the water in the front box. This higher front is crucial for proper surface skimming. When I first developed this style overflow we built them with the other design that you are talking about. The issue is that there is almost NO surface skimming when done like that. It will create a straight flow from the weir thru the bulkheads with no skimming. We ran those overflows for thousands of hours and tested the flow and found the higher front box is superior in skimming. Sure you have to run the rear box level higher, but that does not hurt anything. This is the whole reason there is an emergency drain. 1/2" below the top of the rear box is the proper way to run it.

 

[WWIII]

I have 3 of these and they are all silent? I also have seen minimal salt creep. I clean them maybe twice a year and it's not near as bad as the pics shown here? I guess all of mine are setup in that sweet spot.

 

[User]

When improperly setup it will never be quiet. It's not hype that people can run these quiet, it's fact when they take the time to understand how the overflow works. It's not a Magic box, it still needs to be adjusted to your setup.

Lol, yeah- I had it tuned perfectly well with the BA I’m running, water level was 2” from the top. In that configuration, there is a 1.75” drop off the weir to the water level.

At any flow higher than 250-300 gph, this drop causes appreciable amounts of noise. Ask anyone running this style overflow at > 350gph and you’ll hear the same thing.

To combat the noise, I had the water level 0.5” below the top of the box, and suffered a small flood at startup before the siphon could start. This is because, for this box to be truly silent, the water level in the outer box needs to be at the height of the weir to eliminate the drop. Due to the lack of height of the outer box, this puts it too close to the top and risks flooding with a BA during startup before the main siphon can balance.

There are several people that have the same issue, that have come to the same realization that the particular ‘engineering’ behind this box is inadequate to run a truly silent BA safely. People have to run it noisy to keep their BAs safe.

I posted about the salt creep. Any salt creep is annoying, and I appreciate you pointing out that my excessive salt creep is due to my running the level low.

I didn’t want to post about the noise issue, and the poor engineering- that was mentioned because of the poor tone taken when saying I “should have taken the time to properly adjust” and my belief that “it’s a magic box”

And FYI- there is a magic overflow box out there with zero of these issues- and I’ll be converting to it as soon as I have the spare coin

 

[User]

Water level at 1/2 inch from the top is insufficient for the emergency siphon to purge and causes a flood risk. I’ve seen it. Heard from 3 others that had the same issue. Our BAs are tuned to spec otherwise

 

[mixer911]

Lol, yeah- I had it tuned perfectly well with the BA I’m running, water level was 2” from the top. In that configuration, there is a 1.75” drop off the weir to the water level.

At any flow higher than 250-300 gph, this drop causes appreciable amounts of noise. Ask anyone running this style overflow at > 350gph and you’ll hear the same thing.

To combat the noise, I had the water level 0.5” below the top of the box, and suffered a small flood at startup before the siphon could start. This is because, for this box to be truly silent, the water level in the outer box needs to be at the height of the weir to eliminate the drop. Due to the lack of height of the outer box, this puts it too close to the top and risks flooding with a BA during startup before the main siphon can balance.

There are several people that have the same issue, that have come to the same realization that the particular ‘engineering’ behind this box is inadequate to run a truly silent BA safely. People have to run it noisy to keep their BAs safe.

I posted about the salt creep. Any salt creep is annoying, and I appreciate you pointing out that my excessive salt creep is due to my running the level low.

I didn’t want to post about the noise issue, and the poor engineering- that was mentioned because of the poor tone taken when saying I “should have taken the time to properly adjust” and my belief that “it’s a magic box”

And FYI- there is a magic overflow box out there with zero of these issues- and I’ll be converting to it as soon as I have the spare coin

I tried to assist you with your issue and you are basically telling me that I do not know my product or how it works. There is no poor engineering with these overflows, they work perfectly fine when our instructions are followed. FYI there is no perfect overflow out there. There are way too many configurations to say that one is perfect. Send me a link to one and I will personally test it and show you many flaws.

 

[User]

Dude- your own installation videos have the water level like 1.5” below the top.

Running at 0.5” below the top is literally too high for the emergency to perform as required.

Show me otherwise! Show me a video running at 0.5” below the top (how you keep the secondary as a trickle at 0.5” and still have space for an emergency is beyond my understanding, but ok) then block your main siphon. Then partially block the trickle . Then measure how much water gets in your bench top demo before you turn off the cam and edit it out.

And when was the last time you Demod at anything more than 300gph?

 

[mixer911]

Water level at 1/2 inch from the top is insufficient for the emergency siphon to purge and causes a flood risk. I’ve seen it. Heard from 3 others that had the same issue. Our BAs are tuned to spec otherwise

Incorrect, we run them all the time like this and the purge surges with no issues. When the emergency drain is plumbed properly the 1.5" drain and the 2 drains will easily drain the box. The only time I have seen it not work was when there were multiple 90s or very long runs (to basements or other rooms) or with the plumbing not dropping at the proper drain angles. Every setup if different and every setup requires different plumbing.

 

[justingraham]

I tried to assist you with your issue and you are basically telling me that I do not know my product or how it works. There is no poor engineering with these overflows, they work perfectly fine when our instructions are followed. FYI there is no perfect overflow out there. There are way too many configurations to say that one is perfect. Send me a link to one and I will personally test it and show you many flaws.

Funny stuff right here

 

[User]

Funny stuff right here

How so?

 

[justingraham]

Dude- your own installation videos have the water level like 1.5” below the top.

Running at 0.5” below the top is literally too high for the emergency to perform as required.

Show me otherwise! Show me a video running at 0.5” below the top (how you keep the secondary as a trickle at 0.5” and still have space for an emergency is beyond my understanding, but ok) then block your main siphon. Then partially block the trickle . Then measure how much water gets in your bench top demo before you turn off the cam and edit it out.

And when was the last time you Demod at anything more than 300gph?

He won’t post any videos up unless it proves his point

I have been waiting almost two years to get this infamous video of how his box can silently Handle 2000 gph of flow and that my neptune flow monitors are trash and I am dumb because I don’t know how to set up an overflow box and salt creep is normal and more crazy insults here

Funny story tho I switched out my back box to a better design and used the same interior plumbing I had in the original back box and all my problems went away

My inability to set up an overflow box gone

Salt creep where it looked like I was losing salinity by the second gone

The loudness of the godforsaken thing gone

The ability to actually run over 1000 gph silently came true

Mixer is right tho the perfect overflow box does have a major problem and one small problem
Small problem the lid does not seal perfectly anymore honestly it rocks a little but no salt creep
Major problem I had to waste 150 dollars First to find out the overflow box I should have gone with from the start that’s prolly the flaw mixer is going to find with all the other overflow boxes

So to anyone looking at this the fix to a poor design isn’t a magic O-ring or filter-floss or make sure your powerheads are not pointed at the overflow box it’s to spend the money to get a proper overflow that or turn your return pump down to 200 gph those are your options I spent more time and money trying to fix the original backbox then I would care to disclose when I should have just spent the money on the other overflow and cut my losses my wife is much happier and so am I plus I can hear my tv it’s the little things that make me happy now like being able to hear people talk when I am 100 feet from my fish tank

 

[justingraham]

How so?

There is no poor engineering with these overflows, they work perfectly fine when our instructions are followed. FYI there is no perfect overflow out there. There are way too many configurations to say that one is perfect. Send me a link to one and I will personally test it and show you many flaws.