How do I prevent this from happening again?

[saltyhog]

Last night I had one of the most heart breaking moments since I've been reefing. I had arrived home about 8:30, fed the fish and was enjoying some college football when I heard some gurgling coming from my sump. I immediately knew what that meant. Something was obstructing the full siphon on my Bean Animal and the extra flow and air were going down the open standpipe.

I went over to my stand and opened the full siphon's gate valve all the way to allow the suspected snail to be washed in to the sump. The gurgle stopped and I put the gate valve back to it's usual position and everything was fine. I went around to the end of the sump to retrieve the snail and found my beautiful and large Flame wrasse dead and lying on the bottom of the drain chamber!

He was present and accounted for at feeding time but I do remember hearing a splash while I was watching TV. I've had this fish for over 4 1/2 years and he was the dominant wrasse in the tank as well as one of my favorites.

My tank has always been covered with a mesh screen.

With my center overflow there is a 1/2" gap where the overflow doesn't come up all the way to the bottom of the screen. This is undoubtedly where the Flame jumped through. In 5 years with this tank I've only had one other fish make it in to the overflow and that was a small flasher wrasse which suffered no harm.

I can't figure out how to block this gap. I need to be able to have access to remove the standpipes if needed as well as to clean the overflow if needed. How can I block this gap?

 

[Diesel]

Ugh man, that really suck.
They find the tiniest holes or gapes to go through.

 

[Daltrey]

I have covers cut to fit mine. Then again I tend to go overboard. I have failsafes for every failsafe on my tank.

 

[SandJ]

So sorry you lost such a beautiful fish.

Wonder if one of the plastic pieces that slips onto the back of glass lids (that cuts to go around filters) would slide down on the overflow? Or the gutter guards that slip onto the edge of the gutter(plastic and easy to cut)?

 

[DancingShark]

This is mine.

But my over flow has a cover.

 

[MapleReef]

I am so sorry for ur loss. Overflow covers are without a doubt a good investment

 

[Daltrey]

If it was the Alabama vs MSU game I can completely understand where your fish was coming from. Go State!

 

[saltyhog]

If it was the Alabama vs MSU game I can completely understand where your fish was coming from. Go State!

It was! I was rooting for them. Woo Pig Sooie!

What did you make that cover from Daltrey?

With the gap still there is there a chance a fish could jump on top of the cover and get stuck/die?

 

[Daltrey]

I’m hoping if one did manage to jump on top he would just flop around until he went back in the aquarium. Something to think about though.

It’s a marineland cover. Just feels like hard plastic. It doesn’t look like it would be hard to make one for your overflow. Maybe cut up a cheap $5 plastic food cutting board from the store.

Something like

https://www.amazon.com/Plastic-Cutting-Board-Commercial-12-inch/dp/B071ZNKMDW/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1510531262&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=Plastic+cutting+board&th=1

My tank does have a canopy also

 

[ronl]

I cut a piece of egg crate to fit snug inside the end of each downturned elbow then cut a piece of gutter guard to fit snug on top of the egg crate. The gutter guard is rotated 45 degrees on the egg crate to minimize the size of any holes. I did this to keep any snails from going down the drain.

Unfortunately, I had a royal gramma go over the weir and get stuck on the grate on the siphon line. It couldn’t escape the suction and it died. So I cut some more gutter guard and used zip ties to make a ring to fit snug around the end of the downturned elbows and down to the bottom of the overflow box.

I don’t have a pic of the egg crate/gutter guard inside the elbows, but here is a pic of the gutter guard ring that I added later.

 

[ronl]

Here is what the egg crate and gutter guard looks like in the end of the downturned elbows.

 

[MapleReef]

Your thread convinced me to create my own overflow cover on my new build. It’s not quite finished yet. As I need to pass it over the router and coat it in marine clear epoxy. But u get the idea.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Dang, man! So sorry this happened! I concur with the others. Some kind of overflow cover is needed. My Reef Savvy came with it, but I would imagine you could make one easily just by cutting something plastic.

 

[Daltrey]

They also sell bulk head overflow strainers. They come in threaded or slip fit. I had them on my old durso stand pipes. Guess I need to add them to my new ones.



https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/bulkhead-overflow-strainers.html

 

[Newb73]

They also sell bulk head overflow strainers. They come in threaded or slip fit. I had them on my old durso stand pipes. Guess I need to add them to my new ones.



https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/bulkhead-overflow-strainers.html

That's what i have.

I also have a clown that has lived in my 10g over flow for months because i have to remove my canopy and part of the stand pipes to get him.

I feed him in there....lol.

Better than flopping around on the lid and dying....

 

[Daltrey]

Yeah, The lid is mainly for keeping algea from growing in the overflow. Also to keep my golf ball sized margarita and mexican turbo snails from getting in.

 

[roberthu526]

Some cover over the overflow would solve this issue. Newer style overflow boxes now come with covers ready

 

[LJLKRL05]

I have the strainers on the pipes and an overflow cover made out of gutter guard.