Siphon overflow Help Please

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T

TerryM

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 17, 2011
6
0
0
Oregon Coast
Ok so the problem I am having is..... Trying to plumb my sump.....
First off drilling is not an option.......
Second off buying a overflow box right now is not an option.....
Third I am trying to siphon off the top and bottom of the tank at the same time......(from only one tube going over the top of the tank)
Fourth, failsafe, need the siphon to stop when the power goes out and automatically start again when the pump comes back on and the water level raises.....

Biggest problem seems to be combining designs that take all of my needs into account and work together. Any Ideas or designs that cover these issues?
 
I don't think there's a way to siphon out of the bottom and have it do what you need it to do, but you can for sure make a cheap pvc overflow that will drain off the top, stop when the power goes out, and start again when it comes back on. Just google "pvc overflow" until you find a design that you like the look of. They mostly all work the same.
 
TerryM said:
Ok so the problem I am having is..... Trying to plumb my sump.....
First off drilling is not an option.......
Second off buying a overflow box right now is not an option.....
Third I am trying to siphon off the top and bottom of the tank at the same time......(from only one tube going over the top of the tank)
Fourth, failsafe, need the siphon to stop when the power goes out and automatically start again when the pump comes back on and the water level raises.....

Biggest problem seems to be combining designs that take all of my needs into account and work together. Any Ideas or designs that cover these issues?
Click to expand...

Welcome to MFK Terry! Honesty there is no need to pull in water from the bottom if you have a higher flow rate that will keep the surface clean. What size tank and pump (gallons per hour as well as head height) do you have? There are lots of cheap options out there for overfows. Let us know what we are working with and I'm sure we can find you a solution.
 
Thanks JK

Tank is a 55, pump is rated at 250 gh @ 3' of head height and made to be plumbed 5/8". So I came off the pump with 1/2" tubing into 3/4" pvc. So no pressure but plenty of flow. Sump is an old 10 gallon partitioned off into 3 sections w/ multiple baffles for micro bubbles. I have had it running for about 2 weeks with 1/2" pvc directly siphoning from the tank (top and bottom) and was getting too much flow. So I put a ball valve in place to turn the incoming flow down. Worked great but no failsafe's. So this morning I decided to try and replumb with loops in to keep the siphon incase of power outage. And for the life of me just cant get the thing to even hold a siphon. Even put an air check valve in the first loop to start the system.
 
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