Just set up my sump!! This is scary!! HELP

[lbannie]

Ok, I have a 30 gal tank, and a cpr 500 sump, the cpr cs 50 overflow, and i put a 500 gph pump in the sump. I set everything up and only had a small overflow on the floor These things are confusing!! So now it's running fine, the overflow seemed to be sucking water out too fast and i put a valve shut off on the pipe so i turned it down a little bit so now the loud gurgling noise has stopped. My main question is.....what happens if the power goes off??? When I unplugged the pump before the water ran backwards back into the sump and that's when I overflowed it!! Is there something to fix that? Or am I going to wind up with a huge flood if the power fails?? This is so scary, I almost want to go back to a canister filter?? (too bad mine died!) Any suggestions would be great Thanks!!! (sorry if this was confusing!!)

 

[melosu58]

Moving this to the General hardware and equipment discussion.

If you drill a small hole in the return line at the top of the tank it will stop the vacuum thus stopping the back flow. Make sure you drill so the water will shoot back down into the tank. Just a small hole.

 

[neilanh]

Agreed, that can help minimize the amount of backflow you get when you turn off the pump. You also have to make sure to keep it clean, as algaes and what not will eventually grow in that hole. I use a paperclip when I do my maintenance to ensure the hole is clear.

 

[David S]

as above,basically when your dt is running drill a small hole just below water level in your return pipe(the pipe which supplies water to your DT)this will also aggitate the water surface nicely aswell .also when up and running mark a line on your sump where your return pump is on the water level,this will help you with water top up levels.

 

[WhiteDevil]

your CPR overflow has a clear tube w/ o ring on it to adjust for the gurgle.
Also if you are overflowing your sump itself onto the floor you have WAY too much water in there.

We have power outages a few times a year here and neither one of my sumps back up and overflow.

 

[thincat]

One little addition, I would drill two small holes. This is just in case one hole is covered either in algae or some snail decides to cover one of the holes.

 

[lbannie]

Thanks guys, I think I'll drill 2 little holes and try shutting the pump off. I also thought of putting a check valve in the line....anybody ever try that?

 

[ryshark]

The small hole thing works, but if you want a fail-safe way of doing it where you don't have to worry about snails, algae or whatever covering the little holes then do the following.
Angle your return pipes up near the surface so when the water starts to back flow once the return pipe opening is exposed to air it will break the back flow siphon. You will have to play with it a little bit to see how high up towards the surface they need to me. If you can't get them high enough, then buy some locline and use that.