A Sump Question?

[jwright]

I am making a homemade sump out of a 30 gallon rubbermade tub. What I dont know is how to create a balance between my Sump intake Siphon and my return pump. I have made a 3/4" siphon out of pvc pipe and vinyl tubing and my return pump will be a quiteone 4000 which pumps 1000 GPh @ 0 HH. I tested the siphon flow with the magdrive7 on my wetdry and it wasnt even close to keeping up.

Anyways just curious if anyone had some ideas.

Thanks.

 

[fishfreek]

So you just have a pipe in your tank draning water down to your sump?

If so this is highly undesirable. You need to either drill your tank and put a strainer on the tank bulkhead at the level you want your water line to be or purchase a hang on overflow. Overflows help the balancing effort in that they will only drain the tank to the point that water stops flowing in the overflow. Then the blancing act is not trying to balance the tank drain and the pump return but to balance the pump return with the overflow capacity.

What is sounds like is that the drain is filling the sump faster than your pump can return. If you have an overflow then the reverse is your worst problem. The pump filling the tank faster than the overflow can drain.

You balance the return pump with the max flow rate of the overflow.

 

[jwright]

I have an overflow feeding my Wet/dry Filter. I just wanted an inexpensive way to get water down to my sump. When the power is off, the siphon on the pipe to the sump breaks way before the siphon on my overflow to the wet dry. My thinking on this was to avoid the sucking sounds although minimal that my current overflow produces.

I want to put my protein skimmer and heaters in this make shift sump. Get water down to it and back out of it. It is nothing fancy at all. I am new at this and if I am missing the boat I certainly want to know it. The Skimmer and the RO was a sizable hit so I guess this is where I was cutting the corners.

I would like to know why it is undesirable? Other than the flooding that would occur if for whatever reason the siphon is not broken. I dont want any adverse affects on my livestock or tank in general. Other than knowing what the actual flow rate of the overflow is there any other benefit to having one. I already have one on the tank that takes care of the water level.

Thanks for your advice

 

[fishfreek]

My impression is that you have a PVC pipe thats elbowed into the tank and water flows thru this pipe down to your sump. You say the syphon will break on this before the overflow you have stops. Then how does the syphon start back up on this PVC drain?

The only way your gonna be able to fine tune this drain is to put a ball valve on it so you can throttle the flow but note the flow out/in from the sump is going to be a constant moving point as gunk fills the ball valve or as gunk fills the pump intake or gunk collects on the impellers, etc.

If you already have a wet/dry then why dont you just run the sump in/out of the wet/dry. Im taking it your using the tub for extra water capacity and maybe a place for the skimmer?

 

[jwright]

Yes you are correct. I am using for more water capacity and to hide the skimmer heaters and such. The wet dry works great or has up till now but it doesnt have the room for the heater and the skimmer. I am using a mag7 for the return pump on it and it takes up about 1/3 of the sump space in the wet/dry now. I just wanted to throw the stuff in and let it run without plumbing it to the sump.

I definately dont want to worry about a clogged ball valve. I didnt even think about that and I guess by the time trial and error ends I will wind up getting the over flow any way.

I have searched for overflow boxes and all I can find are the cpr type that require priming. I really like the one that I have now but it is a single and I need a double or would like a double.

Again Thanks
John

 

[fishfreek]

Ebay is a great source for U tube overflows. I have a double overflow rated at 1400GPH from www.lifereef.com They arnt the cheapest and if your on the budget then they might now work for you but the quality is excellent.

If your willing to learn to work with acrylic you could even DIY one. I belive there are plans posted in our DIY forum.

 

[jwright]

Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it and I am going to take it.