Waterbox water level too high?

[dvlpr]

Hi all,

I looked at a WB at my LFS and the owner there pointed out that the water level in the display tank is very high (probably just 2-3 cms below the glass level), which doesn't leave much room for splashing around. Would that be just an imbalanced tank or is that typical for a WB? Purely based on that, I crossed WB off my list for a new tank, leaving RS and EA as runners-up, but maybe I'm too quick to disregard it?

 

[dvlpr]

Just to add on to that... Watching videos to see how things are laid out and for general knowledge - I noticed it here as well, see:

Waterbox (water level about 2-3 cms from the top)


Red Sea (water level at least 5 cms?)


Is it a problem? If you stick your hand in there, won't the WB overflow? Maybe I'm missing something very obvious?

 

[JoshH]

The only issue you may have is if your wave makes (power heads) are turned up soo high it creates a lot of splashing. Usually this isn't a huge issue as you can just adjust your flow accordingly.

When you put your arm in the tank the displaced water will flow down into your sump and raise the water level in there. When you pull your arm back out the displaced water will be then pumped back up into the tank eventually balancing back out.

As mentioned below higher return flow rates can certainly increase the water height in the DT as the weir is only designed for x amount of flow to keep it at x height. Any more flow on top of that will raise the water level in the DT. However the same effects I mentioned above will remain the same.

 

[Lizbeli]

I believe this can depend on how much flow you are pushing with your return pump. Im pushing a decent amount of flow through my sump. Probably too much to be honest, and I think my water level is higher than both pictured above. But the overflow weir is much lower and I bet lowering the flow would drop the level.

I prefer a higher water level for viewing. But yes, it does cause some drips when I have me whole arm in the tank (only if I move my arm too fast to make a wave). But to be honest, I try to keep my hands out of the tank unless it is water change time.

Heres a pic. Don’t mind the aquascape. I had just thrown in live rock from KPaquatics.

 

[dvlpr]

Thanks for the replies! Yes, being a newbie, I completely forgot about the weir, which should regulate the water level together with the sump. My current tank obviously doesn't have that

Ok, Waterbox back on my comparison list then.

 

[Chrisv.]

I wish this issue was more discussed. I recently got a wb mini peninsula 15 and the overflow is completely inadequate. I've only had the tank up for a week, and I already completely hate it.

 

[Ghost25]

I keep it so the water level is slightly below the top of the return. This is important because it helps remove surface scum. I get the return pump as high as it will go without sucking in air while still keeping the water level a little below the top of the return.

I would like the return to be bigger/deeper so I could get more flow via the return pump, but it is what it is.