600 gallon tank build
- Thread starter Tj203
- Start date
In that case one of your drains is set low and under full siphon? If that’s the case then it won’t matter how high the secondary drain is. When the power goes out the overflow box will drain down to the full siphon. Or is the main drain the one with the hole drilled in the top. Hard to tell what’s going on from the pictures
I have included a better pic they both have holes in them The one on the right side I plug the hole on the top because I was sucking in air so I put it on the side of the elbow as close to the top as I can get it. I am using that one as my main drain. The one on the left has a hole in the top. I can't set them any lower because if I do it will drain more water out of the overflow Box and overfill the sump when the power gets cut. I only have 26" of height underneath the stand which limits me to what I can use for a sump unless it is custom made. I am going to call around and see how much a 48x42x17 sump would be well I will just buy the box and add the baffle myself. Is that's too expensive I might just try and Put bulkhead in the side of the sump I have now And attach another fish tank or something to it.
I'm debating on drilling a hole in the floor and just putting my sump in the basement with a big tank it is the pump cost that I am scared of lol
Honestly, that’s the way to go with these tanks. I moved recently and just finished rebuilding my system and I went with a 400 gallon sump in the basement. It allows for about 80 gallons to drain down when the power is turned off. I’m in ct as well elec rate .2 per kilowatt so I feel your pain. My pump is pulling about 350 watts but it’s heated by natural gas.
Your cheapest option is probably to find a used tank and attach it to your sump via bulkheads as others have said
Nice job on the rock landscape.
Another factor to the tank water level is the weir/teethe and the rate it allows the water to flow to your ghost overflow box. You dont have control of that so much at this point but you can adjust drains and sump level as your doing.
In my experience BA is great but the durso can be a pain. To prove to myself recently I tried with both durso and and just straight like Herbie. If you now have a larger sump, I would consider just adding a strainer to the bulkhead or as low as you can for the full siphon. I would then add the trickle pipe and dry e-drain as straight pipe. It's much easier to see how much water that is trickling in and you can adjust the main siphon. Not required, but a gate valve for the main siphon allows for better fine tuning than ball valves so may want to do that while you can.
Another factor to the tank water level is the weir/teethe and the rate it allows the water to flow to your ghost overflow box. You dont have control of that so much at this point but you can adjust drains and sump level as your doing.
In my experience BA is great but the durso can be a pain. To prove to myself recently I tried with both durso and and just straight like Herbie. If you now have a larger sump, I would consider just adding a strainer to the bulkhead or as low as you can for the full siphon. I would then add the trickle pipe and dry e-drain as straight pipe. It's much easier to see how much water that is trickling in and you can adjust the main siphon. Not required, but a gate valve for the main siphon allows for better fine tuning than ball valves so may want to do that while you can.
We here is some more progress, just added two 20 amp circuits. Need one of them just for heaters lol. Just waiting for everyone in my house to go to bed so I can make the connections in the panel, I dont work on live circuits unless I have to.
