Evaporation or is Pump Too Strong?

[rcherry]

Hey,

I've got a 75 gallon with a 20 gallon sump. The tank was just started on a fishless cycle yesterday, and I don't have any cover for the tank or sump yet. I have a 1" PVC overflow that is teed and then ball valved. The tee splits the pvc into my wet/dry filter and my refugium. Water moves much more vigorously through the wet/dry system, while it flows more slowly through the refugium and eventually trickles over into the wet/dry system. I then have a Deep Blue Triton 3 pump as my return pump. It is mostly 3/4" vinyl hose/pvc, but there is a small section where the diameter drops down to 1/2". I calculate the pump as pumping ~460gph.

Here's my problem: Water is slowly disappearing from the return pump section of my sump only. The return pump section holds about 3 gallons of water. Every centimeter of water height is equivalent to about .2 gallons of water.

In the past 13 hours I have lost .6 gallons of water. Does this seem correct to anybody? It doesn't seem like a crazy amount, I guess my return section is just so small that it's quickly noticeable. I can't find any leaks and with such a small amount of water missing it's hard to tell if the pump is pumping too quickly and sending it into the display tank or if it's just normal evaporation.

Thanks for the help

 

[David S]

Nope that seems to be about right,just evaporation,the return pump section could have done with being slightly larger.

 

[kurtyboh]

from what ive been told on my build plan the return section is the only place that evap will show. if your drains are not big enough the water will show in you dt, but that would be noticeable as well...

 

[Smitty]

I have been reading more and more about evap and I am seeing where people are loosing around 1 gallon/day on average so it does look like you are on target for that. May be time to invest in an auto top-off system. I am going to try and incorporate one in my new build because of this...

 

[jcarlilesiu]

During the winter when the air is dryer I lose about 2 gallons a day on my 150 cube. During the summer, about half as much a gallon or so.

 

[Dary421]

I think it's time to look into a ATO system ( automatic top off )...as your water evaporates it's replenished automatically and you can move on to your next project,....

 

[WhiteDevil]

ATO's are nice but can and do fail often.


I would say half a gallon a day of evap is awesome, I lost a full gallon per day in my 52g and my pop's 210g before we put covers on it lost around 3gpd.

 

[Dary421]

ATO's are nice but can and do fail often.

I would say half a gallon a day of evap is awesome, I lost a full gallon per day in my 52g and my pop's 210g before we put covers on it lost around 3gpd.

Of course anything could fail,...pumps,filters,hoses,pipes,lights,glass,skimmers etc,...but depending on how it's set up and maintained the benefits far outweigh the risks.

 

[WhiteDevil]

One small particle and the float can stick up or down......... Im not against them there are just tons of variables to take into consideration when using one.

 

[Dary421]

One small particle and the float can stick up or down......... Im not against them there are just tons of variables to take into consideration when using one.

I'm using the Tunze electronic one and IMHO that eliminates a lot of those variables,...,but,the worst case would be just adding a little water every couple of days to compensate for the evaporation and that shouldn't kill ya either., I just think that the ATO saves a lot of work and maintains the water level,salinity at a more precise level.,....just my two cents.

 

[WhiteDevil]

They do, you are right.

 

[hackteck]

i lose about half Gallon a day in evap from my 55G with 10G sump