Dual Dursos just slowed to a trickle

WVNed · May 3, 2020

I you cycle the valves from fully closed to open a couple of times it may clear something stuck in them

William Norman · May 3, 2020

Water Dog said:
Never been a fan of restricting Durso drains with valves as that could lead to a potential flood, but what happens when you adjust the gate valves on your drain lines to fully open?

Nothing changes.

K7BMG · May 3, 2020

Ok if its that much of a pain.

Have a shop vac?
I have done this with great success.
Lower your water level so they are open to air, open your gate valves 100% and vacuum the lines.
You can even blow them from the sump to the overflow.
Might save you in the end.

Flippers4pups · May 3, 2020

Things that come to mind...... (I run dual durso's)

Do you run a refugium, chaetomorpa? Possible clogging from it?

The tee where you dump the excess flow back into you sump (I'm assuming that what your doing) could be clogged.

Has the flow from the return turn pump slowed any?

K7BMG · May 4, 2020

Ok Mr. Norman.

What did you find today?

William Norman · May 4, 2020

K7 = thanks for checking in.

What I found out is that work takes up too much of my time and I need to get a wrap wrench to loosen the union.

Opening and closing the gate values didnt do anything.

On the shop vac - are you suggesting getting the shop vac on the opening to the durso ? If so I cant get to them too tight of a space. I can only get a tooth brush into the space to clean the covers.... I did try to vacuum on the air whole line on the top the drain. But nothing came out.

I got to get to a hardware store tomorrow. So frustrating.

K7BMG · May 4, 2020

I was thinking you could attach the vaccum to the drain end in the sump, not the overflow box.

William Norman · May 5, 2020

K7BMG said:
I was thinking you could attach the vaccum to the drain end in the sump, not the overflow box.

Oh - Once I get to hardware store, Ill give that a try.

SMSREEF · May 5, 2020

Why not just drill that hole on top bigger? Then when you are done cut a piece of plexiglass or pvc with a small hole drilled in it, and silicon it on top. Not a lot of silicon so you can pull it off again if you need to later.

I hate climbing under my tank and working from above sound much much better.

ca1ore · May 5, 2020

If you can, I would start by removing the gate valves. Really shouldn't be using them on durso drains anyhow, and they do tend to catch debris if you don't use screens on the durso drains. I have used the blower side of a shop vac to clear drain lines before, but it can make a mess.

William Norman · May 5, 2020

So here is the update.... Got to the hardware store and was able to open the drains up. Using my shop vac i sucked and then blew the lines out. I now have some flow. It seems that i might have air trapped now because it is bubbling alot. I would have expected it to stop after a few mins. But still going. In the drains into the sump the previous owner had added air hoses from the elbow. I always assume it was for noise control. I blew these through to make sure they are clear. I cant remember if they go into the water or now. I have tried both ways without any effect. Wow the sump looks really dirty in the picture and in real life it is clean I guess the flash on the acrylic.

Valhalla Reefer · May 5, 2020

William Norman said:
Yes they are all glued in. Why ?? Why would someone glue them ???? Oh woe is me. As K7BMG suggests I am going to have to disconnect all the lines and snake them. I want to go back and hit the original plumber of this tank in the side of the head.

Just a thought..One benefit that could come from this..would be to use this time to upgrade to Herbie or ideally a Bean animal setup.

Mastiffsrule · May 5, 2020

Flippers4pups said:
Things that come to mind...... (I run dual durso's)

Do you run a refugium, chaetomorpa? Possible clogging from it?

The tee where you dump the excess flow back into you sump (I'm assuming that what your doing) could be clogged.

Has the flow from the return turn pump slowed any?

Evening. Just stopping by.

I would agree with flipper. What first drew your attention to the drain issue? If the drains stopped working did you catch the tank about to overflow, or the sump run dry since nothing was draining back. If that was the case I would agree drains. If you noticed the drains were just running slow with no water level issues in the tank I would side on the pump as being the issue.

If you are running a durso on each side as it looks, and they are independently plumbed right into the sump the chances both went at once are really small like you mentioned. I have seen crazy things happen. They have all happened to my tank

, but just a thought to run thru the return again.

Sorry if I missed anything

William Norman · May 5, 2020

Mastiffsrule said:
Evening. Just stopping by.

I would agree with flipper. What first drew your attention to the drain issue? If the drains stopped working did you catch the tank about to overflow, or the sump run dry since nothing was draining back. If that was the case I would agree drains. If you noticed the drains were just running slow with no water level issues in the tank I would side on the pump as being the issue.

If you are running a durso on each side as it looks, and they are independently plumbed right into the sump the chances both went at once are really small like you mentioned. I have seen crazy things happen. They have all happened to my tank , but just a thought to run thru the return again.

Sorry if I missed anything

Yes they are independently draining into the sump. I noticed my water level rising. I thought I hit my diverter to the manifold so I slowed the returns into the tank. Then I noticed the next day that the water was high again. That is when I noticed I wasnt getting the usual flow into my drains into the filter chamber.

Mastiffsrule · May 5, 2020

Sounds like you do have a crazy system like mine. It could be you have a venting problem,. Somewhere there is a pressure imbalance inside the pipes that could create air locks causing a vacuum that interfere with proper drain function.

You mentioned he had put in some of his own lines. Something may have happened that started a siphon or suction on both pipes causing a vacuum type deal. This is all just wild guessing.

Have you shut the pumps down and restarted everything like you would after doing maintenance to see if that may reset the flow?

William Norman · May 6, 2020

Mastiffsrule said:
Sounds like you do have a crazy system like mine. It could be you have a venting problem,. Somewhere there is a pressure imbalance inside the pipes that could create air locks causing a vacuum that interfere with proper drain function.

You mentioned he had put in some of his own lines. Something may have happened that started a siphon or suction on both pipes causing a vacuum type deal. This is all just wild guessing.

Have you shut the pumps down and restarted everything like you would after doing maintenance to see if that may reset the flow?

The plumbing was all done by the previous owner. I was limited in my knowledge in plumbing and sumps when I purchased it, otherwise I would have walked away. I had only tanks with HOBs to that point. I was just excited it was a big tank with a sump and everything ready to go.

I am thinking the same thing, because when I cleaned the lines, I didn't see anything come out but water. I was able to blow through the lines with lots of bubbles coming out the other side.

Everything time I feed, I shut everything down so my shy fish and eels get food. I had stopped and started a few times trying to adjust everything. So that didnt clear anything.

This weekend I am going to try and suck some of the water out of the chamber of the one durso that is not performing as well and see if I can rig something up so I can validate that line is completely clear.

Weird. - Household plumbing to me is as logical as can be. I never have done any planning for a new house. But I replaced and fixed so many issues in my first two homes, that I could work for a plumber as an apprentice.

Fish tank plumbing seems so simple but it has so many strange issues, between backflow, suction and the worst of all noise control.

All my tank going forward are going to be bean overflows. I can't wait.... We are moving in about 2 years, so I expect I will have just deal with these issues till then.