Glass-Holes Maintenance

[redfishbluefish]

I’ve been playing with my Glass-Holes overflow for the past month or so, because it’s been gurgling. I’ve moved the hoses in the elbows up and down, cleaned out the box, inside and out, changed the way it enters my sump, and I still get the gurgle.

Tonight, a little light bulb went off in my head, and I decided to pull out one of the tubes on the elbows coming out of the back of the overflow.

You could actually see the blockage in the end of the tube. I tried breathing through the tube, and air hardly made it through.

So I now have a new tool hanging in my fish closet It’s a vinyl coated metal rod commonly used for supporting plants in the garden. I’m using it as a ramrod to clean the tubes on the back-side of my Glass-Holes overflow. The solid mass that came out of the tube looked to be salt creep or calcium deposit. But now it’s gone, and the overflow is once again quiet.

FYI, that overflow is about 3 ½ years old, and this is the first time I’ve cleaned the tubes.

 

[Fish Brain]

I'll have to keep this in mind and run a pipe cleaner down the tube every once in a while.

 

[Nickjr000]

last year i pulled a tube out of mine to check it cause there was a mountain of salt creep plied around the outside of it. There was a little build up of salt in it. that was around 2 yrs of use.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Unless you are doing this frequently, I’m not sure a pipe cleaner would do the trick. I had to give this ramrod a pretty strong plunge to knock out the blockages.

I would think a metal coat hanger that was cut and straighten would also do the trick.

 

[downbeach]

I have a lawn service that treats and fertilizes the lawn. Whenever they do any kind of treatment, they put a small plastic "warning/information" flag that's attached to a white piece of plastic rod. The rod is some kind of plastic or PVC, but bends/shapes like it were metal. I save some of them and use them for various projects. I have one I use to set snails upright after my Regal tangs picks them up and drops them.

 

[howze01]

What kind of tubing did you use for that Paul? I was going to drill a hole in my elbow this weekend but wasn't sure which tubing to use.

 

[TanksNStuff]

Rube Goldberg strikes again! Great idea Paul.

 

[redfishbluefish]

What kind of tubing did you use for that Paul? I was going to drill a hole in my elbow this weekend but wasn't sure which tubing to use.

That tubing is part of the Glass-Holes overflow. It came with the kit. It’s ¼ inch ID, 3/8 OD tubing that is about eleven or so inches long, with one end cut at an angle. That angle cut makes it easy to install the tube in the hole in the elbow.

I’d check the tubing section of HD or Lowes to see if they have ¼ ID, 3/8 OD tubing. It also looks like a black polyethylene tube….it’s pretty rigid.

 

[Tazmaniancowboy]

Paul, did these tubes require tweaking to get that "sweet spot" to stop the gurgling? How much of the tubing is in the elbow?

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk

 

[redfishbluefish]

Don, up until the gurgling started, the tubes where never touched. They were just jammed into their holes from day one, and that was it. One was more than halfway into the hole, the other was maybe only ¼ into the hole. That’s just the way they were first installed.....no thought given to them. When the tank was started, it was quiet (other than the becketted skimmer), so these were never touched.

About a month ago, when the gurgling started, I played with them, and found no change. However, once I cleaned out the tubes, again, they were just jammed into their holes, and all was again quiet (except for that dam skimmer ).

Now there might be other factors that keep me quiet. The pipes draining down to my sump are at an angle (one more than the other). I don’t know if this helps with noise, but that’s just the way it is.

The other thing I did, and I do believe this makes a difference, is that I have a hole just below the last elbow, in each of my drain lines, (where they enter the sump.) My drain lines are below the waterline in my sump. If these holes weren’t there, a slight back pressure would be created in the drain lines. The holes allow entrapped air to escape, creating no back pressure. (If the pipes coming into your sump are above the sump waterline, this wouldn’t matter.)