Afraid to turn on my sump

[Spechty37]

Ok another question what can I put on my return coming into the tank so it's not blowing straight down and moving all my sand in one spot

 

[blert]

Well I did it I plugged it in with the help of my wife i just have one question why is one of my DIY overflows seem like it takes a couple seconds to build up water and then kinda releases with like a gurgling sound does that mean there air trapped in that one every thing else seem ok hope I can sleep tonight lol

Can we see a good pic, or a drawing, of the overflows please?

Ok another question what can I put on my return coming into the tank so it's not blowing straight down and moving all my sand in one spot

A 90 degree PVC elbow (or something similar).

 

[Spechty37]

First one is the over flow second one is the return into the tank

 

[blert]

A pic of the back side on the overflow please.

Just push on another 90 degree elbow to the return.

 

[Spechty37]

All yeah see I get in a hurry and can't think of easy stuff thanks that's what I'll do I love this site and the people on it

 

[Spechty37]

It's the best back shot I could get its pretty tight back there it's the design I got off of YouTube I just typed in DIY overflow and they were all basically the same design

 

[blert]

Well I did it I plugged it in with the help of my wife i just have one question why is one of my DIY overflows seem like it takes a couple seconds to build up water and then kinda releases with like a gurgling sound does that mean there air trapped in that one every thing else seem ok hope I can sleep tonight lol

Is this the one that runs as full syphon (shorter inlet) or the taller "make up" one?
Is it a constant thing or does it just purge air and go quiet after a few minutes?

 

[Dav3]

Looks like you cut the inlet of one of them really low. It should be near the surface. Just slightly lower than the other. If your pump stops for any reason(power outage while sleeping) the tank will drain down to the top of that lower inlet. Looks like 1/4 or 1/2 way down In your tank. I hope you have a lot of room in your sump for the extra water.

Also, I've made one of these before and worked well. There shouldn't be any surging in the main overflow.

 

[blert]

Yeah, that does look really low. One should only be slightly taller than the other, about a quarter to a half inch, but you may have to experiment with it a bit before you get it just right for your system.

 

[Spechty37]

Well I took your advise and made one of the overflows where I wanted the water line and the other one about an 3/4" to an 1" shorter I ran into a problem already it worked good all night and when I left for work at 6 it was working fine but when my wife got up around 8 she said the return had half the tank full of bubbles and that it was about 1/4" from over flowing so she panicked and unplugged the pump so when I got home at 3 I fired if back up now Iam afraid to let it run all night any thoughts of what could of went wrong the only time I seen it blow bubbles all over the tank like she said it was doing was before I closed the ball valve on the return shut a little to tame it down a little

 

[blert]

Hard to diagnose. If both overflows are primed properly then at the point the water level goes above the taller unit both should be running at full syphon. My first GUESS would be that your pump is still pushing too much water for the overflows. Tweak it down some more. The short unit should be running at full syphon, the taller one should be trickling in the pipe.

 

[Dav3]

Based on your description your overflows aren't keeping up with your return pump. Sump probably got low and pump was sucking air. If you have a valve on the return line then try closing it a bit and leave the overflows full open.

The return flow must be less than the max combined flow both returns can handle.

 

[Spechty37]

That's exactly how it's working lower overflow is running full siphon and the taller one is just trickling. Would if hurt to hook up one of those aqua lift pumps and let it run just for piece of mind if so could I just use one and put a tee on it so I could run it to both overflows. I can help but wonder if it was sucking air and my wife seen all those air bubbles and panicked and pulled the plug lol

 

[blert]

If the return pump was sucking air and the display tank was about to overflow then the combined flow rate of both your overflows is not capable of handling that mag24 and it is emptying the sump into the display. OR one of your overflows lost syphon. Were both of the overflows still functioning when the incident happened?

PVC overflows can work well enough but they are sketchy. A 1.5" schedule 40 PVC pipe "should" be able to do 2100gph at full syphon under gravity. But that does not take into account all the twists and turns of the overflow design. IMO, do yourself a huge favor and get a proper HOB overflow. It could very well keep a huge mess from occurring and will give you a measure of peace of mind. If you stick with the dual DIY overflows you are going to need a couple few days in close proximity of the tank so you can tweak the return just right.

Hopefully someone who has a dual DIY PVC overflow rig will show up to give you some more tweaking tips.

 

[Spechty37]

I don't know if both overflows were working or not I wasn't home if that's the case couldn't I just back the 24 off a little more

 

[Grizz]

Your return pump is out running the overflows you lose a lot of flow with all those over flows I.d switch the return pump to a mag 12 or even as little as a 9.

 

[huma-huma]

Just a thought, instead of putting a t-valve inline on the output side of your mag 24, why not put a t-split on the output, then the ball valve. This would effectively empty some flow back into thw sump. Only reason i suggest this is because it doesnt put any backpressure (unneeded) on the pump. If you restrict pumps too much it could possibly damage them down the road

 

[Spechty37]

I now have both overflows wide open and the return valve closed a little more I think you were right when you said the pump was sucking my sump dry I have the pump about 4" off of the bottom incase something happened it wouldn't drain all 30 gallons or so onto my floor I think it sucked water from my sump filled my tank and started sucking air

 

[Spechty37]

Huma huma you said to use a tee do I put it after the ball valve and if so where do I run the water back into the sump at do I just run it back in any where ? I think that might be a good idea

 

[Dav3]

Put a T between pump and valve. From the T you add some pipe back into the sump. So as you close the valve the extra water flow gets diverted back into the sump instead of adding back pressure on the pump. Also allows you to close the valve without the need to turn off the pump. You can also add a valve on the T off section to make sure all water is being sent up.

Hope that makes sense.