piping for a sump.

[Strawman]

I am pretty sure I know the answer but before I tear my piping apart I shouldnt have any metal in the piping for a sw sump should I? And secondly should I put a valve on my piping into the sump for ease of cleaning?

 

[ezy33]

No to both! Avoid any metal in your system. Maybe stainless screws on your pumps are OK but that's it. The only valve I would recommend is if your return pump is more than your overflow can handle. Then throttle down the return to match your overflow.

 

[AquaRick]

You mentioned "valve on my piping into the sump for east of cleaning". Do you mean a union, or a valve? I don't see how a ball/gate valve will make it easier to clean the piping. If you mean a union, then I would definitely say yes. Makes taking the pvc pipes out for easy maintenance without having to take out all your pipes at once.

 

[Strawman]

I meant a ball valve so i dont have to break my siphon when tank cleaning.

 

[David S]

the syphon shouldn't break when cleaning the pipework,its no different then a power cut.

 

[Strawman]

So how do I do water changes? I can not wrap my head around this whole self sustaining syphon.

 

[needmorecowbell]

I have some pics of sumps in my photo album, they might help.

 

[David S]

what overflow box are you using?

 

[Strawman]

Eshopps 300

 

[David S]

you have a box inside the tank and a box on the outside of the tank and a u tube joining the two together.If you set it up over a bucket fill both boxes,put some air hose into the u tube then whilst sucking the air out of the tube keep filling the boxes,once all of the air has been removed from the tube and you stop filling the boxes the water will stay in the tube because of the construction of the seperator in the external box and the grooves in the internal box and the tube opening is below both water levels, the height of the water is exactly the same in both boxes,when water then flows through the grooves and into the internal box(as if you've just turned your pump on)the water level rises and this in turn rises the water in the external box causing the flow through the tube.try this out to help show you the syphon.

 

[AquaRick]

You can put ball valves on the pipes to get your overflow to be super silent. This is only recommended if you have two overflow pipes so that one can act as an emergency/backup overflow in case the first fails.

 

[Strawman]

Woot. Its all coming together. Dry fitted two nights ago and everything fits perfectly.

I am Assuming you folks rinsed ur pipes out. Before getting the entire system up and running, what did u rinse with? Tap or water change water

 

[AquaRick]

I didn't bother rinsing. I just had the system going during my cycle. Would be smart to rinse it. Tap water should be fine to rinse with.

 

[Strawman]

How long should I let my PVC cement dry before running water through my pipes. The bottle says cured in two hours but what ur opnion

 

[needmorecowbell]

Ehh I waited like 2 days

 

[Strawman]

Finally up and running. Assuming g your pump is over rated for your return how did u dial it back just right. I woke up this morning and the return chamber was running a little low.

 

[AquaRick]

You can put a ball valve on the pump line to dial it back.

 

[Strawman]

Oh I got that done already. My question is are there any tricks to dialing it back to just the right rate so it matches The overflow. Or is it just fiddling with it till its set

 

[needmorecowbell]

Just fiddling lol. It took me forever to get my old one right. One negative about a ball valve is that it can get clogged with algae and macroalgae/ plants. Make sure it isn't closed too much or the chance of a clog will increase.

 

[David S]

Just fiddling lol. It took me forever to get my old one right. One negative about a ball valve is that it can get clogged with algae and macroalgae/ plants. Make sure it isn't closed too much or the chance of a clog will increase.

Correct,there are some other type of valve which have been posted here somewhere,I'll try to find them but they are very good for aquarium use.