sump plumbing

[Salt Freak]

I was wondering if you had any ideas on the way to plumb a sump. I have a coupl ideas one was to put the pump near the surface of the sumps water line so if the siphon were to stop it wouldn't overflow the tank. I just want to be safe on this my parents angry if they found fifty gallons of saltwater on the floor. also i want to use miracle mud would this work. I plan keeping algeas and plan on buying a cheap fluorescent light for it and leave it on 24/7.

http/www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...9&N=2004+113554

 

[amstar15]

for my sump return line I drilled two small holes in the return line just below the water line. this way when my power shuts off the siphon continues to go but when the water level gets to low it stops. however if you do not add to these small holes for the return (fromt the sump) to suck air it will continue to suck water down the return line an wha la you have a flood. just make sure you sump level isnt to high or it will not be able to take on to much additional water.

as far as mineral mudd, thats good stuff. I am however using

http/www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...8&N=2004+113553

and my macro algaes love it. just my two cents.

 

[Salt Freak]

will that stop the siphon though.

 

[amstar15]

no. i am unawareof a way to stop it. however i am sure there is a way for the siphon to be stopped. however for me, I just have it so my water level is low enough in my sump that if a power failure happens then my siphon drains into my sump. once enough water is siphone the water level drops in the main tank. in doing so the main siphon has nothing else to siphon.

now where does the drilling of the holes come in. for me my return line is alot lower then my siphon is. so if you drill two small holes barely below the water level, then when the main siphon cant get water (due to the main tank water lowering and going into your sump) the return will not start to siphon. it will but it will siphoning air instead of water due to the two small holes you drilled in the return just below the surface.

hope this makes sense. if not let me know and i can try to take some pics.

 

[Salt Freak]

I sordove get what what you meean but I don't. pics would help.

 

[amstar15]

if you can give me a couple of days. its tuesday, give me till about saturday. its finals week for spring quarter. then i will send you some pics

 

[Paul_MTS]

on my return pipes from my sump they are half in water half out and are of a goose neck design.

have a look about half way down the page-

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=66277&st=48

i never get back siphone when i stop the pumps for water change and not only does it stop syphoning but it gives great surface movement.

 

[Salt Freak]

That helps me a little bit but not really since my tank isn't drilled and it is tempered glass. I have to bring the water down via siphon.

 

[Paul_MTS]

Oh right I get ya your worried about the tank outlet I thought you meant the inlets.

The only way I can see it working is you have the syphon ipes close to the surface so it stops the syphon before the sump fills up, or have a large hole drilled just below the water line.

 

[Salt Freak]

know how do i keep the sumps water level were i want it and keep the main tank water level wear i want i plan using a ball valve some were but no matter what they are not going to come in get pumped out at the exact same flow.

 

[Paul_MTS]

your going to have to put some valves on the pump plumbing to keep the levels how you like.

 

[andywg]

You only need one valve per pump to control the levels. essentially you should fill up the main tank until it overflows into the sump to a safe level with the pumps off (this way you know if there's a power cut the sump can handle any back flow).

Then you have the valve just after the pump. Whatever flow rate of water is pumped into the tank from the sump is the flow rate of water that will over flow into the weir or overflow box (depending on how you do it) and that is the flowrate that will flow back down to the sump.

Incidentally, you mention that the tank has a tempered glass tank. Is this the bottom alone or the whole tank? If it's just the bottom you can always drill the back of the tank and use a mini weir type arrangement (I believe Navarre has something like this on his current 120 gallon reef tank and has some great pictures that illustrate it). Even if it is the whole tank, it is still possible to drill, just a whole lot more risky So I certainly wouldn't blame you for using an overflow.

HIH

Andy

 

[Salt Freak]

its all tempered the thing with the valves is that they wouldn't be flowing at the same rate. How do i keep this in check.

 

[andywg]

I'm not sure what you mean by they wouldn't be flowing at the same rate, would that be two return pumps? From the sump?

If so, so long as the drainage can handle the combined return, it won't matter.

If you're talking about having one pump to pump water out of the tank and another to pump it back in...don't. That's a hiding to a flood with little in between.

 

[Salt Freak]

like the siphon can not drw the exact same amount of water as the pump can pumpare vise versa even if there is a ball valve one is going to slowly overflow and another ones going to empty are the siphon will just stop because there wont be enough water in the main tank the thing I'm trying to point out is how do i keep the main tank from overflowing are the sump from over flowing how do i keep the water levels the same.