Calfo Overflow Problems......still?

[craigybaby37]

still having problems with my calfo overflow......this time its with the siphon standpipe.

When i do a water change and turn the return pump back on the siphon pipe should resume its siphon if ime correct with no having to alter the ball valve...is this correct if so mine doesnt do that so does anyone know why this may be???

and secondly on the siphon standpipe there is lots of bubbles comming from the pipe in the sump all day long??? i fort there was only ment to be bubbles for a few mins until the siphon has purged them from the pipe???

 

[SkiFletch]

The siphon pipe will not restart in a power outage. You'd need an intermediate box on the back side of the tank to achieve that. How many bubbles are coming out, a lot, or a little? And are they big or small?

 

[craigybaby37]

This many bubbles......quick video for ya.


another weird thing ive knowtised tonight is that if i turn the ball valve completely off and then leave it say 10 seconds for the water below the ball valve to clear into the sump. The pipework above the ballvalve does not fill with water even though the water is well over the elbow tank connector, but then when i remove the service cap it fills with water.....does this sound right to you???

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah that makes sense, physics makes it that way

About your drain line bubbles, are there any bubbles created in the internal wier/box? Failing that, you could have a tiny leak in plumbing somewhere drawing in just a little bit of air... Also POSSIBLE, not likely, that you have created enough negative pressure near the edges of your elbow fittings to cavitate water and pull tiny air bubbles out of solution.

 

[craigybaby37]

Well ive checked all the plumbing and nothing is wet...and ime guessing that if no water is comming through then no air will be able to get through aswell.

Ive put the same post of UR forum and someone said they think my ballvalve is to high and that there is to bigger drop from after the water passes through the ballvalve......so that then made me think that if that drop is to big prehaps the water is hitting the bend in the pipe before it goes into the sump with enough force that its seperating the air/oxygen from the water???

 

[SkiFletch]

Well ive checked all the plumbing and nothing is wet...and ime guessing that if no water is comming through then no air will be able to get through aswell.

Ive put the same post of UR forum and someone said they think my ballvalve is to high and that there is to bigger drop from after the water passes through the ballvalve......so that then made me think that if that drop is to big prehaps the water is hitting the bend in the pipe before it goes into the sump with enough force that its seperating the air/oxygen from the water???

Not so, you could have a negative leak, which means air gets sucked into the pipe. Negative leaks are much more nefarious and difficult to find, however in this application, I can't see it being much of a problem... Just a few bubbles.

 

[craigybaby37]

been having a long winded chat with my step dad and he has come up with some very interesting points......

1: with my ball valve for the siphon pie being as close to the bottom as i can get it i can now adjust it so that all the pipework above it fills with water and no air gets sucked in....but the flow is not controlled from the exit of the ball valve to the sump is it?? so if i do something to the pipe where it goes into the sump to restrict the flow this should help fill the rest of the pipework up with water???

so if i restrict the flow in the last bit of pipework and then get the system running so its just relying on the siphon pipe and then close it off just a little so then it should start to fill the overflow box up and the little increase in flow will then be handled by the open standpipe???

now saying that if i can get the system running silent on just the siphon pipe do i actually need the have any water running down the open standpipe??

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, if you can get say 95+% of the flow through the siphon standpipe, it should be silent. It'll be impossible to get 100% in practice as there will always be some fluctuation from the return pump which will need to be dealt with by the open pipe, but yeah if most of it is through the siphon it should be darn near silent.

 

[craigybaby37]

well ime going to re-do the pipework for the siphon pipe as its got 2 many bends in it and coupling where ive messed around with it and ime sure that doesnt help.

Ime going to have the pipe come straight down from the tank into the ballvalve which ill get as low down as possible then put a 45 degree elbow and straight into the sump about 1" below the water level and fingers crossed will work for me.