Alright, so I'm doing my first DIY Sump. I got everything I need pretty much except the drip plate and I have to go back to get more scrubbies, I didn't pick up enough. How do I make sure enough water is flowing in the sump for the pump to return back to the tank at the same pace? I was going to use this on my tank I was turning into salt, but that's getting delayed so I'm wanting to set it up on my 150 stock tank for the time being.
The pump does 1,017GPH. The sump is 3'x12"x14"
as long as your overflow can handle the gph your pump puts out you are set..
dont forget that your pump can only pump water so if your sump runs dry before the overflow starts to return water then you need to add more water...
if your overflow can not handle the gph you can add a T and a ball valve to redirect some of the water back into the sump.. mag drive pumps can also be choked down with a ball valve but if your going to do the work to put in a ball valve you might as well take 2 seconds and dump the water back into the sump...
this is also a good for feeding time because you can slow or stop the waterflow in the tank which will give floating food a chance to be eaten before it is sucked into the sump
heres a pic just incase you have no idea what im talking about..
water goes left to right
water comes from the tank down the overflow line (far left) into first section.. then over a wall and down a little ramp onto my drip plate (under gravel filter... it works great and it was free)... then it filters through scrubbies and a layer of filterfloss.. then under another wall (this is also where the snails stop).. up through some more scrubbies (aka established media for my Qtank).. then over a small wall to the pump and is then pumped back to the tank...
the T and ballvalve are where i set the flow rate...
the white lines are just water level markers to make topoffs dummy proof
No such thing as a dumb question...only dumb answers...well, maybe.
Anyway, the amount of water being discharged from the tank into the sump will equal the flowrate of the pump returning water to the tank, PROVIDED that the hose going from the tank to the sump has a large enough diameter to accommodate the gravity-fed flow of water downward. Also, the surface area of the overflow box must have a large enough area to assimilate the required flow. Therefore, you MUST select an overflow and hose which are large enough to accommodate the pump. I would ask the others about specific parameters, since they know more about this than I do.
