Woke up (at 4 AM) to water on the floor

The DT was flooding out the top. This is the second time this has happened and nearly the 3rd. Last time this happened I removed the U-tube and cleaned it of the nasty algae that I thought might have slowed down the flow.

I noticed the water level really high at about 11 PM last night, so I once again cleaned the u-tube (and overflow box this time). 5 hours later, I woke to the sound of water spilling onto the floor. The water level rises slowly.

My guess is that the stockman pipe is clogged.

Thoughts?

 

Maybe your return pump is pushing more water than the overflow can handle? Snail stuck in overflow pipe?

 

What kind of overflow is it? Perhaps you need a bigger drain pipe. From 1" to 1.5" to keep up with your return pipe or put a valve on the return pipe to throttle it back.

 

That was my other thought besides algae. It wasn't an issue from April to August. It has been the last few weeks.

 

I have a valve and I can certainly throttle it back (although it seems to catch bubbles if not fully open).

It's an Eshopps 75 gallon overflow. I didn't have a problem for months until now. That's why I was thinking clog.

 

does yours have a sponge on it? If so how often do you clean it. It's probably getting clogged reducing the flow.

 

There's your problem ... HOB overflows are just asking for trouble. Keep that thing clean as a whistle. I'd make sure you clean and inspect it when you do you water changes.

 

What type of overflow do you have?

 

I think it may be this. My DT overflowed once, and it was because a (rather big) snail had gotten in the overflow pipe. What you could do is take a nylon or small filter sock, etc., and cover the pipe so that no snails can get inside the pipe. The snail being ON the nylon may make the DT's water level rise, but it's much easier taking that snail off the nylon than taking apart the PVC

 

I think your box is undersized. I used a PF-1000 with dual drains (up to to 150 gallons) on my 55 with great success. Since one Utube handled the flow just fine, I just used a piece of 1" PVC to replace one of the drain inlets that was an inch taller than the other drain inlet as an emergency in case the main one ever plugged. I highly recommend changing out to the dual drain for this reason.