how do you figure out how much water will be in your sump. or better yet how do you control the water level in a sump.im trying to to figure out how to do a system with multi containters and wondering how i control the water level.
sump water level question
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
neilanh
Sliced Bread
Controlling it is pretty easy - you set the water level you want when you initially set up the sump, and then you maintain that same level when you do water changes and top-off.
To figure out how much water in your sump has a couple of factors. the most important one is to make sure you leave enough empty room in your sump so that when you turn off your return pump, there's plenty of room for some drainback from your display tank to be held in the sump. For instance, if your sump is below your display tank, when you turn off the pump, all of the water that's in the lines between the return pump and the outlet, as well as some of the display tank water, is going to drain back down into your sump. Make sure you have enough empty room in the sump to hold all of this.
Another factor is if you're running an in-sump skimmer. Most skimmers have a nominal operating depth, so you'll want to make sure you've set it up so that your skimmer operates properly.
To figure out how much water in your sump has a couple of factors. the most important one is to make sure you leave enough empty room in your sump so that when you turn off your return pump, there's plenty of room for some drainback from your display tank to be held in the sump. For instance, if your sump is below your display tank, when you turn off the pump, all of the water that's in the lines between the return pump and the outlet, as well as some of the display tank water, is going to drain back down into your sump. Make sure you have enough empty room in the sump to hold all of this.
Another factor is if you're running an in-sump skimmer. Most skimmers have a nominal operating depth, so you'll want to make sure you've set it up so that your skimmer operates properly.
mfdrookie516
Aquarium Free - 2+ Years
wouldnt you also want to consider the possibility of the overflow getting stopped up? i know its a very rare incident, but if the sump holds more than the tank is capable of handling, if the return pump isnt set up high enough, it can overflow the display tank... right?
neilanh
Sliced Bread
unless you're willing to keep the water level in your display tank very low, this is just one of those risks you have to take. If you limit the amount of water in your sump during operation very low in order to allow the DT to accommodate a plugged overflow, then you don't really anymore have enough water volume in the sump for it to be beneficial. This is why so many use dual overflows or have multiple drain pipes at varying water levels in a single overflow.
