arawareruyagi
New Member
Hey guys, is there anyway to do a water change without breaking the siphon in my HOB overflow? I don't have an aqua lifter or anything so if it breaks I'll have to restart the siphon manually which is a pain.
Water Changes with HOB Overflow
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Peace River
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I understand and I've been there. There are multiple approaches. One is to do a water exchange instead of a traditional water changes. What I mean is that you add water as you remove it in order to keep the water level the same as opposed to partially draining and then refilling the tank.
Colton Yuchnewicz
Community Member
i had a HOB for years, depending on the HOB you shouldn't have to worry about it and it should keep its syphon. pic of the HOB?
PotatoPig
Valuable Member
What HOB do you have? Most have the siphon tube in a compartment at each side that should keep both sides submerged (and siphon preserved) even if you empty the tank. Is the tube inside the tank not in a container that holds water?
Colton Yuchnewicz
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2 ways I know of to break siphon .
Run too little flow for tube and box and you'll start sucking airbubbles into the tube slowly which can fill the tube with air and break the siphon or slowly overflow the box and drain sump filling up the tank.
Or pull the tube out.
I've run 3 different eshopps boxes and never had one lose siphon.
Just turn your pump off and do your water change. Just leave the tube there.
It can be a scary question when using a box for the first time.
Old school u tubes are the best. Your aqua lifter pump can and will go out.
Then you have a mess.
Run too little flow for tube and box and you'll start sucking airbubbles into the tube slowly which can fill the tube with air and break the siphon or slowly overflow the box and drain sump filling up the tank.
Or pull the tube out.
I've run 3 different eshopps boxes and never had one lose siphon.
Just turn your pump off and do your water change. Just leave the tube there.
It can be a scary question when using a box for the first time.
Old school u tubes are the best. Your aqua lifter pump can and will go out.
Then you have a mess.
arawareruyagi
New Member
Don't have a pic right now, but its an ESHOPPS PF 300
PotatoPig
Valuable Member
Is this siphon break something that has happened, or a concern you have that it will happen?
Both ends of the tube are in a compartment that retains water and keeps the ends submerged so the siphon won’t break in the event of a power outage/tank water change.
If your siphon is breaking when you remove water from the tank it sounds like there’s a leak in one of those compartments, which you need to fix as it’ll also compromise the reliability of the device.
Colton Yuchnewicz
Community Member
as long as you have a good siphon to start with, and don't remove water from the HOB overflow on both sides, it shouldn't break siphon.
Already answered but IMO all the talk about hobs loosing syphon was started by people that didn't use them or people that used them incorrectly, which is hard to do as long as you don't lift the U tube or drain water from the overflow. Then it got parroted all over the web and now people that don't know better think they are a flood waiting to happen. Total BS. I've been running 2 hobs on my 180g for years and have never lost a syphon.
