I recently set up a 125g and it's going to be the family community cute n nice fish tank. I DIY'd the sumps and plumbing and for the life of me I cannot get the flow to stabilize. One sump runs low, tweak, again, tweak, etc etc. I've adjusted the overflows so they're the exact same height from the top to the trim. I've played with the valves on the return side of the pumps. Nothing seems to stick. It'll balance just long enough for me to trust that I can go to sleep, however I do crash on the couch just in case their is a problem and I can hear the leak alarm or I'll wake to a pump cavitating. The sumps haven't overflowed but I have woken to a pump cavitating and the opposite sump about to. I think my fix is to connect the two sumps with a balance pipe so the two sumps will always have the same water level and I won't have to mess with ball valves or return height, and it will also cover me if a pump fails or a return clogs. I will be purchasing parts to do this today and hopefully will have it dialed in by the weekend. Sorry that this is more of me venting to my second family. Anyone have a similar problem while getting a new tank set up?
Anyone..... Frustrated???
- Thread starter Red_Man
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Post pictures.
Do you have 2 sumps? 1 overflow flowing into 1 sump then 1 return pump back to the tank?
If you have two separate sumps you definitely need something connecting them to distribute the water evenly between the two sumps
Do you have 2 sumps? 1 overflow flowing into 1 sump then 1 return pump back to the tank?
If you have two separate sumps you definitely need something connecting them to distribute the water evenly between the two sumps
Yeah, you need to run a pipe between them so they will balance, you'll never get them to balance without it.
I never ran two sumps for one tank but that should be no problem. So theres 1 overflow for one sump right? Like fishguy has stated make a water bridge from PVC. Very simple follow this
Good luck just remember the sumps one will travel faster than the other the path of least resistance. This way with the water bridge it will not lower one end it will equalize both the sumps. I hope it makes sense.
Good luck just remember the sumps one will travel faster than the other the path of least resistance. This way with the water bridge it will not lower one end it will equalize both the sumps. I hope it makes sense.
Also I would make sure the heaters are fully submerged just incase you don't want to fry the heaters potentially killing your fish.
I've seen that King of DIY video and it makes perfect sense. Thought about doing that. I can do that short term and then will drill and plumb over the weekend! Heaters are not fully submerged because they are not submersible. 
New Aqueon pros on the way but I have to take it easy to avoid the wrath of the misses.
New Aqueon pros on the way but I have to take it easy to avoid the wrath of the misses.