Sump problems... grr

[Ithaca9]

I finally set up my sump. Eshops overflow brings water down out of the 46gal main tank into a 20gal tank. Three sections in the sump: Lefthand section holds the skimmer and has the inflow to the sump. This drains into the middle section, the refugium. This drains into the right hand section where the return pump is located. On the line into and out of the sump there are ball valves which I am trying to use to make the inflow match the outflow. It's not working. There's huge fluctuations in water level in the pump section. I've been playing with this damn thing all day. Either I have it inflowing too much so the water fills the sump tank too high or I have it outflowing too fast so my return section of the sump runs the risk of running dry. What am I missing??? Gah!

Also, if I lose power, the overflow will drain a little extra water into the sump tank (I calculated volume when I designed it). What happens when the power kicks back on? the pump starts running but the siphon doesn't start back up. How do I stop that from happening so the return section doesn't run dry?

This has been one hell of a weekend trying to set this thing up. It's off right now because I no longer have time to babysit it. Any tips or tricks? Thanks in advance!

 

[SeaBee]

Sry know one has popped in to help you, I think you have a siphon going on, but wait until someone with more expereince gets here.

 

[Ithaca9]

Thanks SeaBee. I'm hoping I can get this figured out soon. I tore apart the tank so I could get the sump underneath it. I'm assuming all my messing around is going to trigger some sort of mini-cycle so I want to get my skimmer hooked up (in the sump) as soon as possible :-p

as for now, inflow still won't match outflow. I have to be missing something!

 

[ccCapt]

I'm not really understanding your plumbing with all the valves, but you do not want to restrict the pump output, assuming your overflow can handle the full output of your pump. Just let it run full bore. The overflow will not/can not drain more than what's pumped into the tank.

When power is lost, the siphon on the overflow won't break, but the water level will drop enough so no more water drains into the sump. When the pump powers back up, the overflow will start on it's own. I used a u-tube style overflow for over 15 yrs and never had a problem loosing siphon.

 

[SeaBee]

Just talking to my reef guy, he said you should NOT restrict the flow coming down to the sump, but you can control the output leaving, or going back up to the tank. Is your overflow box set up right? Also, look in the set up area on these forumos, there is a topic in there for what you are doing. Good luck.

 

[Bifferwine]

Definitely do not restrict the flow down. If you have valves restricting the flow from the tank in to the sump, open them all the way. Like Capt said, your display cannot drain water any faster than the return pump can pump it back.

If you have a valve after the return pump, you can adjust that if the pump is stronger than your overflow can handle. You can tell if your display tank water level keeps rising faster than it can drain.

If your sump is filling too quickly and is in danger of overflowing, you can avoid that not by restricting the flow using a valve (like I said, never restrict the flow from tank to sump). Instead, most overflow boxes can be raised or lowered on the edge of the tank. You can make adjustments this way instead of using the valve.

Your siphon should start again automatically when the power goes out.