Dude that rocks!
I think I'd want the pipes coming into the tote/refugium a bit higher than what it looks like you have... This The lower they are the less water the sump will be able to hold when you turn the power off on the pump. As you know, the water level in the sump will be higher when it's turned off than when it's functioning...
You have two things to consider here... it looks like the blue plastic baffles you added are pretty thin plastic, thus they are likely to bow... silicone doesn't adhere to plastic all that well so the pressure from the bowing plastic may be to much for even fully cured silicone to handle...
When you are putting the sump in use for the very first time ever, you will be filling (with water) an empty sump. Thus water will need to fill up behind the blue baffle when there is no water on the other side of it... thus bowing/breaking that baffle...
But, when filling the sump of for the first time, if you were to add water manually to each side of the blue baffles at the same time, you could reduce/remove the unequal pressures and possibly prevent the baffle from pulling loose...
IF, the holes in the side wall of the sump leading to the tote/refugium are at about the same height as the top of the blue baffles... then when you turn the pump off the water level on both sides of the blue baffles will remain about the same, thus preventing unequal pressure on opposing sides preventing the blue baffles from pulling loose...
Using a thicker plastic that doesn't bow would make this whole detail a lot easier to deal with...
That doesn't surprise me... these holes are not siphons at max gph as they do not have sufficient vertical drop to acheive such a flow...
How high off the bottom of the acrylic tank did you drill for the bulk heads? The higher these pipes are the higher the possible water level in both the acrylic sump and the tote/refugium will be.
If you later realize you cut them to low, that's not the end of the world. You could just put a 90* fitting going up an inch or two folowered by a 90* fitting straightening it back out and into the refugium at a higher point. Although this will slow the flow through the bulkhead fittings and may require you to add a third. If you do add a third I would add it higher than the first two...
Man this would be so much easier to explain sitting on that quad sipping a beer as you tinker with it... we need to put this together
I think I'd want the pipes coming into the tote/refugium a bit higher than what it looks like you have... This The lower they are the less water the sump will be able to hold when you turn the power off on the pump. As you know, the water level in the sump will be higher when it's turned off than when it's functioning...
You have two things to consider here... it looks like the blue plastic baffles you added are pretty thin plastic, thus they are likely to bow... silicone doesn't adhere to plastic all that well so the pressure from the bowing plastic may be to much for even fully cured silicone to handle...
When you are putting the sump in use for the very first time ever, you will be filling (with water) an empty sump. Thus water will need to fill up behind the blue baffle when there is no water on the other side of it... thus bowing/breaking that baffle...
But, when filling the sump of for the first time, if you were to add water manually to each side of the blue baffles at the same time, you could reduce/remove the unequal pressures and possibly prevent the baffle from pulling loose...
IF, the holes in the side wall of the sump leading to the tote/refugium are at about the same height as the top of the blue baffles... then when you turn the pump off the water level on both sides of the blue baffles will remain about the same, thus preventing unequal pressure on opposing sides preventing the blue baffles from pulling loose...
Using a thicker plastic that doesn't bow would make this whole detail a lot easier to deal with...
That doesn't surprise me... these holes are not siphons at max gph as they do not have sufficient vertical drop to acheive such a flow...
How high off the bottom of the acrylic tank did you drill for the bulk heads? The higher these pipes are the higher the possible water level in both the acrylic sump and the tote/refugium will be.
If you later realize you cut them to low, that's not the end of the world. You could just put a 90* fitting going up an inch or two folowered by a 90* fitting straightening it back out and into the refugium at a higher point. Although this will slow the flow through the bulkhead fittings and may require you to add a third. If you do add a third I would add it higher than the first two...
Man this would be so much easier to explain sitting on that quad sipping a beer as you tinker with it... we need to put this together
I drilled the bulkheads at 9 and a quarter putting the top of the opening at about 10 inch.The baffle top is at 11 and the 1 inch above the top of the bulkhead holes.Putting the water line 4 inches from the top.I did not want to go higher you know the comfort level!!Of course with a couple beers not much would get done!!!!
