Regulating water flow from a pump?

[ChrisAre]

I have a wet/dry filter setup that's been pieced together from different sellers on craigslist. The pump I purchased (about 700 gph I believe) is pumping too much water for the overflow box to keep up. I was told I could get a gang valve for the pump, but the guy at Home Depot didn't know what I was talking about. I've looked up gang valves but I can only find ones for air lines and I really don't know what I'm looking for. Help? Thanks!

Chris

 

[jsoong]

What you want is to put a T in your return line. Have on arm go up to your display, and the other arm back to your sump to divert excess flow. You put a valve on the diverter arm to control how much water goes up to the display.

This is a page on sumps:
Melevsreef.com - What is a Sump?

Half way down there is a pic of his sump plumbing. He has a line going straight up to his tank, & 2 arms, one going to the fuge, and the other going right back to the sump. This 2nd arm is what I am talking about. The valve is that thing with the red handle. Should be able to find that in HD in various diameters.

 

[ChrisAre]

Ok, so I'm really dumb. For some reason I was thinking the pump was the problem, but it's actually the overflow box that's working too efficiently. So, given that I'd like to keep all this equipment, is there a plumbing attachment that I could use to regulate the water flow from the overflow box? In that picture he has a couple regulators- could I just use one of those and nix the t-line? Thanks!

 

[jsoong]

I am not sure what you mean by the overflow working too efficiently. Properly set up, the overflow should drain only the amount of water the pump is pumping. Normally, you want the overflow to have a capacity higher than the pump for safety reasons. You don't want to choke that down or you will risk floods.

What is the problem you are trying to solve? There may be better solutions than restricting the flow.

 

[ChrisAre]

The water level in my tank goes down too quickly and breaks the siphon. Even with the pump on for a good 30 seconds before the siphon starts the water level goes down below the ridges on the overflow. I was just assuming it was because the hole on the overflow was too wide, thus the pump can't keep up. So what would you suggest?

 

[cagey]

is there a stand pipe in the outside box that retains several inches of water to stop the boxes from emptying?

 

[ChrisAre]

Ok, I'm not quite sure what you're asking me, but I do know this: i currently have it set up to siphon the water out, using the utube straight to the hole in the box outside of the tank. when I purchased it the outside box had a bunch of calcium build up but as I just described, water doesn't actually build up in the outside box- it fills up the box inside the tank, goes through the utube directly to the hose that goes to the fuge. I hope that makes sense. So yeah water doesn't flood the outside box at all, but I'm not sure how i'd do that, since the water goes from the inside box directly to the hole in the box on the outside. /confusing!

This is a small picture, but I'm pretty sure this is the same product.

ADHI Over Flow Box- Single Drain

 

[ezy33]

You need a stand pipe inside the outside box. It will keep the siphon from breaking when the pump is off.

 

[ChrisAre]

Thanks for the advice guys! I'll check out the stand pipe thing. I got a hold of the guy I bought it from and he solved the overflow problem so (hopefully) I'm set.

 

[cagey]

the standpipe should go up about 3 inches or so and have a piece of foam around it to filter out solids from going to the refuge/sump. the tank height (display tank) should maintain a constant level set by the inside box height. The discharge into the tank needs that hole drilled in the side of the pipe to break siphon in case of power failure/maintenance to stop display draining by siphon back to sump. also turn off power to chk no overflow takes place w/ power failure.

 

[cagey]

BTW I just looked @ the link for the picture and in the description the foam I write about is mentioned in their parts list as the "pre-filter foam".