I'm thinking about building a sump to my 75g - tank is glass, not drilled, bottom is tempered.
I'm not really up to the task of draining the tank to drill the sides. Has anyone ever drilled a tank for a side bulkhead, with the tank half-full?
Otherwise, I'm looking at an overflow box.
With a big enough sump (20-30g), I'm not sure how flooding can really happen, if everything is done right.
If there's an overflow box, setting for example 1" below the water's surface - that's abouty 3.75G of water (1/20th of the tank) available to drain out, should the pump fail.
Then, in the sump, if I have the return pump, say, 2" below the surface, in a 20G sump, there'd be around 2G of water available to pump back, then should the siphon fail.
If I give myself an inch of "overhead" above the overflow box's (meaning there's an unused inch or so in the tank), how could the system overflow?
Okay - powerloss could cause the water to drain down to the pump - but again, if the pump return is, say, a little higher than the overflow box, there wouldn't be enough water to flood the sump. Also, a checkvalve would prevent draining to the sump via the return pump anyway (assuming its 100% reliable).
Just seems with a big enough sump, there'd never be any worry of flooding either the tank or the sump - and can't you always set the sump inside a bigger container to catch any spill-over?
I'm trying NOT to rely on the siphon, and not to rely on float valves/checkvalves, for a 100% reliable, flood-proof system.
Does this make sense?
I'm not really up to the task of draining the tank to drill the sides. Has anyone ever drilled a tank for a side bulkhead, with the tank half-full?
Otherwise, I'm looking at an overflow box.
With a big enough sump (20-30g), I'm not sure how flooding can really happen, if everything is done right.
If there's an overflow box, setting for example 1" below the water's surface - that's abouty 3.75G of water (1/20th of the tank) available to drain out, should the pump fail.
Then, in the sump, if I have the return pump, say, 2" below the surface, in a 20G sump, there'd be around 2G of water available to pump back, then should the siphon fail.
If I give myself an inch of "overhead" above the overflow box's (meaning there's an unused inch or so in the tank), how could the system overflow?
Okay - powerloss could cause the water to drain down to the pump - but again, if the pump return is, say, a little higher than the overflow box, there wouldn't be enough water to flood the sump. Also, a checkvalve would prevent draining to the sump via the return pump anyway (assuming its 100% reliable).
Just seems with a big enough sump, there'd never be any worry of flooding either the tank or the sump - and can't you always set the sump inside a bigger container to catch any spill-over?
I'm trying NOT to rely on the siphon, and not to rely on float valves/checkvalves, for a 100% reliable, flood-proof system.
Does this make sense?