CAN I INCREASE GPH IN OVERFLOWS?? **PLEASE READ**

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daveydoodle

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 4, 2009
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Colorado
If I had hair, I'd be pulling it all out right now!! In previous posts I was asking for help on how to throttle back my return pump, because it was overdoing the intake into the sump from the tank. The general concensus was get another overflow box; well I installed another 600 gph overflow last night (now 3 total) and it has not increased the volume (gph) going into the sump. I still have my return pump throttled WAY back via a ball valve; my question is HOW CAN I INCREASE THE VOLUME OF WATER FROM THE OVERFLOW BOXES INTO THE SUMP??

Here are some pictures; Picture #1) I'm using 2" corrugated flexi-hose from the overflow boxes into the sump because it's the largest diameter flex-hose or tube I could find. Picture #2) You can see that there is not even enough volume of water coming down to create enough flow to open up the filter socks. Picture #3) Is there a flaw in the sump (baffle) design? The last baffle chamber (far right) you can see the water level will only stay just barely above the return pump itself. When I wake up in the morning the water level is almost below the pump and it's pumping air/water both. Picture #4) I have Durso standpipes in each box for noise. The pipe is 1 1/4" - 1 1/2" because that is the largest diameter pipe I can fit in the box and still have room for the U tube. Is this pipe restricting flow? Am I better off just dealing with the noise to get the volume I want?

C'mon, there are some guys with alot of aquarium related plumbing experience on here. I NEED HELP WITH THIS!!!

Well, for some reason I cannot post pictures. :help2:
 
throttle up your pump. you should have enough flow but it will only drop whats needed into your sump. i could run 36,000gph over flow but if i only put a small 1gph pump the overflow would only run at 1gph.
 
agreed you could add more water to the tank, get a bigger U-tube that goes from the front of the overflow to the back of the overflow. You could also get bigger pipes that lead down to the sump and make sure that there are no 90 degree turns in the plumbing
 
Need pics, to bad MFK is having problems. Sounds like if you use a image hosting site like photobucket, you can post pics in that way.

If you added the durso standpipes to the overflows yourself, I would try running without those first. They could be limiting flow becasue of their design.

What part of Colorado do you live?
 
I can't add photo's ?
picture.php

OK I just picked one.

If you can't add photos PM, I'll help.
 
Under User Profile it say I MAY NOT post attachments. I've never had a problem in the past. Sorry, I know pictures would help.

nes999 - I have a Mag Drive 1800 gph pump, running at 4' head height which per manufacturer specs says it should be about 1200+ gph.

uncwnells - I'm currently running 2" corrugated flexi-hose piping. I chose this because it had the largest internal diameter that I could find, and because it was flexi-hose which meant no 90 degree angles which I know can impeede flow. I'm running 3 overflow boxes and the largest drop is about 36" - 40" which runs at a fairly vertical angle (150-160 degrees). The rest run almost straight down (180 degrees).

bderick67 - I'm goning to work on that now. Removing the Durso pipes may be the only option and I'll just have to deal with the sound. I intentionally found the largest internal diameter PVC pipe I could possibly fit inside the overflow box to try and maximize the gph drain capacity. I live in SE Arapahoe County (Arapahoe/Centennial/Aurora area).
P.S. That thought already crossed my mind - hiring $$ YOU as consultation. I noticed several months back in a post that you lived in Avalanche Town!

I'll work on it now for a while, while the wifey sleeps! :nilly: Now that's an addiction - sneaking out of bed at night to work on aquariums!! Is there a 12 step program for me?? As soon as I can post pictures I will, and if I make any landmark progress I'll let you all know. Thanks everyone!!
 
Posting attachments on forums is usually not ideal. There are strict limits on file size, image dimensions, and other limits on file format.

You can show pictures by using their URL. Instead of uploading an image from your computer, you steal the URL of an image already on the Internet. The limits on image size and format don't apply when you do this so you're not limited to a small image with massive compression.

Here is an image I stole from the Yahoo homepage:

yahoo_logo_us_061509.png


Not an attachment at all.

As for your overflow problems, there's probably a bottleneck somewhere. It'll probably be obvious within seconds to anyone with experience standing if they could see it in person. If you really take the time to observe your system in operation and think about it, you can probably figure it out.
 
Davey, not up for $$ hire, but would be willing to give advise. Too bad your on the other side of town(I'm in Thornton). Looks like you can still upload photos into your own personal gallery album on MFK. Then just copy the BB code and paste into your post.

That's how I got this picture up,
picture.php
 
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