sump pump too strong

[AdamHorton]

I have a 150G saltwater tank, and I just put together a beautiful plumbing system with my sump and refugium behind a wall in the unfinished part of the basement. It's working nicely except for one thing: my pump is too strong.

I just moved and I used to use flexible tubing, it turns out that when I switched to rigid PVC for this new plumbing project, my pump is working much better! In fact it's too good, I need to find a way to dial it down.

I've seen two ways that people use to handle this, but I don't know which one would be better:

1. install a check valve, which will restrict the flow of water coming out of the pump. Is this bad for the pump? It's effectively what my flexible tubing was doing before and the pump seemed to do fine for years with that.

2. install a T junction, where the extra line goes back to the refugium where the pump is, and that one probably has a check valve on it too. Probably better for the pump, but causes turbulence in the refugium which I don't particularly want.

I haven't really seen a consensus on which way is better, but several years ago when I frequented these forums I remember trusting this community's judgment when it comes to this kind of stuff. What do people think? Is there another idea I'm missing? Also, can I get a PVC check valve at a place like Lowe's or will I have to go somewhere else to get it? Thanks for any advice.

 

[Sniperhank]

I always recommend using a ball or gate valve being plumbed into the return line of the sump pump. You can do this after the pump itself without issue. I have read articles in the past that doing so in such a manner can actually be beneficial to the pump itself. This will also let you ensure that your return pump and overflow match each other perfectly.

 

[AdamHorton]

Yeah so when I said "check valve" it turns out what I meant to say was "ball or gate valve" and "check valve" means something completely different that I wasn't trying to say.

The return nozzle I crafted from PVC using my Dremel works great so a check valve isn't necessary.

 

[Andy Sager]

I was told by my "water pump guy" that you can restrict the outflow but not the intake without damaging the pump. To that, I've usually used a Tee and added a valve to reduce the water flow. Where that flow went is based on the amount. If the water flow from this valve was too strong, I'd just let it go back into the sump as extra aeration. if it were slow enough, I'd let it go into the refugium or another filtering section of the sump.
The nice part of having a Tee in there is that you can always bleed off that tee to something(s) else without having to turn off the tank. Just put the valve closer to the tee.

 

[AdamHorton]

Thanks for your help, last night I bought some parts and installed them, I allowed the PVC cement to cure overnight and tested it out this morning. It seems to work well. Here are a couple of pictures from the project, including one with a little helper

http://adamhorton.com/files/newplumbing01.jpg
http://adamhorton.com/files/newplumbing02.jpg
http://adamhorton.com/files/newplumbing03.jpg

 

[coralbandit]

I use a 4 way T for my 2 returns.
I ball valve each return on its own side of T.
I return top from T to sump with another ballvalve...

My pump is also speed controlled digitally now but I plumbed this all before when I was using a mag 18....