Can't keep salinity stable with HOB overflow box

[Marc2952]

Now i know saltwater tanks are a bit challenging and through the course of a year of being in this hobby i have probably gone through some of the worst things, from dinos, Bryopsis, velvet in DT etc. But throught the course of the tanks life i have never been able to keep salinity stable even with my tunze 3155 ATO. I believe the issue is the eshopps pf-1000 overflow box since the tubes seems to slowly clog with either algae which in return lowers the amount of water that goes down to the sump. I have to be ontop of it weekly or my salinity constantly fluctuates from 1.026 to 1.024. Its gettign to the point where i dont even want to use filter socks since that also seem to cause fluctuations. I did the herbie method with a bit of water trickling down the emergency drain. Is there any way to stop that algae/bacteria from collecting inside the tubes? I even put a towel on top of it to stop it from growing and it helped a bit but its looks unpleasant to have a towel ontop of the overflow box.

 

[dbowman5]

the only way to stop the growth is to block the light. you could black out the tubes, either paint or wrap them. Could you make something more aesthetically pleasing than just draping a towel over the overflow?.
The next option would be to manage the growth: put them on your maintenance schedule and either have spares that you clean and switch out or clean them as part of your WC activity.
How much water are you adding? when my skimmer is producing wet skimmate the RO water usage goes up and my salinity goes down. I then add some new saltwater to the tank when the ATO would normally add RO.
Looking at your post of challenges I see that it has been, well, challenging. lol
persevere, my friend!

 

[Mike Kearns]

I have the same issues with my overflow box, maybe even worse because I have the 300 which only has 1 drain. I have pulled my filter sock, I only use it when doing a water change to catch debris stirred up. The algae growing in the tube and overflow box is a pain. I find it difficult to remove the airline when restarting the siphon. I pulled a baseball size chunk of algae out of the box yesterday. I am contemplating building some sort of lid with a shield to help block the light that the tube gets. I also only keep about 1/2 gallon of water in my ato box to avoid overfilling and salinity swings. Means I have to fill it every day.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Your return pump supplies a constant stream of water to your tank at the exact same speed, 24/7. If your overflow was clogging to the point where it was restricting flow, your display would overflow. If that hasn't happened yet, your overflow is not the problem.

There's a very easy way to test if there's not enough flow and if freshwater is accumulating in your sump. First, measure salinity in the sump. Next, measure salinity in your display. If they're the same or close, that's not the problem.

I suspect there's something wrong with your salinity measurement device.

 

[Marc2952]

the only way to stop the growth is to block the light. you could black out the tubes, either paint or wrap them. Could you make something more aesthetically pleasing than just draping a towel over the overflow?.
The next option would be to manage the growth: put them on your maintenance schedule and either have spares that you clean and switch out or clean them as part of your WC activity.
How much water are you adding? when my skimmer is producing wet skimmate the RO water usage goes up and my salinity goes down. I then add some new saltwater to the tank when the ATO would normally add RO.
Looking at your post of challenges I see that it has been, well, challenging. lol
persevere, my friend!

I run it very dry ( wont even fill a cup in a week) due to my phosphates constantly dropping to 0 where i have started dosing it. I will start to clean the tubes bi weekly on every WC

 

[Marc2952]

I have the same issues with my overflow box, maybe even worse because I have the 300 which only has 1 drain. I have pulled my filter sock, I only use it when doing a water change to catch debris stirred up. The algae growing in the tube and overflow box is a pain. I find it difficult to remove the airline when restarting the siphon. I pulled a baseball size chunk of algae out of the box yesterday. I am contemplating building some sort of lid with a shield to help block the light that the tube gets. I also only keep about 1/2 gallon of water in my ato box to avoid overfilling and salinity swings. Means I have to fill it every day.

Yea its so annoying, listen if you start selling covers for those types of overflow boxes i will be your first customer lol

 

[Marc2952]

Your return pump supplies a constant stream of water to your tank at the exact same speed, 24/7. If your overflow was clogging to the point where it was restricting flow, your display would overflow. If that hasn't happened yet, your overflow is not the problem.

There's a very easy way to test if there's not enough flow and if freshwater is accumulating in your sump. First, measure salinity in the sump. Next, measure salinity in your display. If they're the same or close, that's not the problem.

I suspect there's something wrong with your salinity measurement device.

Yea my DT water level starts to slowly increase above the teeth of the overflowbox. And ive tested with a BRS and Milwaukee refractometer they both show the same results, its gotten to the point where i test salinity daily. Also whenever i clean those tubes and turn everything on my ATO alarm goes off since the water level in the sump increases alot.