Palani Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 I'm trying to help my friend here and nothing seems to work. We tried primitivly closing up the two down pipes, filling ithe outside box up with water and releasing it to suck out the air. We also tried just shooting water into there with a tube and a powerhead. All the time the water line in the tank was above the height of the inside box. We even tried both at the same time. We need help. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drock59 Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 I can only help you if you have video of your escapades trying to prime it as you described. No its really easy. Stick a long peice of airline tubing up and into the top of the "U" in the U tube. Then suck the air out, which should create a vacuum and make the water on both sides rise up until it begins to flow. It can be a little tricky to get all the air out. Call me if you need more help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESBlofeld Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 Just make sure the water is above the opening of the U tube on both sides when you suck the air out. The air tubing always works great for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ringwurm Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 Go to one of the LFS and pick up an aqualifter pump. Its worth its weight in gold if you have an external overflow box. http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=OE1137 The pump is designed to suck air/water from one side and pump it out the other hose. Attach a few feet of airline tubing to each side of the pump and put the "sucking" tube in the U-tube. Just make sure the end of the airline tubing is at the top of the u-tube. Place the output airline tubing over your tank as it will start to spit out water once the siphon starts. Turn on the pump and it will suck out the air in the u-tube. After a little practice you can change out u-tubes on the fly in about 20-30 seconds. You will need to make sure that both sides of the overflow have water. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefboy Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 as drock59 and ESBlofeld said that will get u going but the aqua lifter pump will only work with cpr style overflows not on u tube style as long as u have water in skim box and overflow box run airline tube to top of u as mention suck air out should start if not then we will need pics to help futher. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drock59 Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 you could mod the U tubes with a little 1/4" "nipple" and attach the aqualifter. Then, you would have no worries durring a poweroutage or if you do not have enough flow going through them and air gets trapped, stopping the overflow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefboy Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 yes thats a good idea why didnt i think of that lol so it can be done my bad:0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowman Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 Dude, you the box with water, insert the u tube, then stick a piece of airline through the tube and suck on the end to siphon the water up, should work like a charm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ringwurm Posted July 17, 2006 Share Posted July 17, 2006 The aqualifter works fine on the U-tube. It just keeps you from having to suck saltwater in your mouth. Unless you like that sort of thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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