Ended up getting the Danner 02665 Proline HY Drive 2100GPH Waterfall Pump. It is super quiet. Not a peep until the level gets low.
I'll look into the ball valve idea more. Thanks guys.
Sump level keeps going lower than Pump Intake?
- Thread starter Madding
- Start date
I'll look into the ball valve idea more. Thanks guys.
if your sump level is dropping and you dont think it's evaporation shouldn't your display tank be flooding?
I had the same issue when I upgraded my pump. Turned out that my new pump gph was barely beating my drainage gph. So after I turned the pump off and on again, everything was okay for a day or two, but then I would see micro bubbles and the pump would suck in air. To check for this I put a piece of tape at the water level of the tank when I first turned on the tank. Sure enough after the two days the water level was up about a 1/2" or so and my sump was sucking air. Since the footpint of my tank was 16 square feet, and my sump footprint was 3 square feet; then for every inch my sump lowered it added less than 1/5 of an inch to my tank which was not very noticeable. You may want to try it to see. I fixed it by enlarging my durso pipe drain.
Typically there is a bit a play with the display level in a sump setup, or at least mine has some. I'm only pushing water up abut 1/3 the way up my overflow teeth. If I were to upgrade my pumps, the display level would probably rise to maybe halfway up the teeth, but Ii built my tank to have room for future upgrades. I could probably double my pump output and still not flood my display.......I'm way overbuilt, but this tank will either end up being a large pleco breeding project or a salt system further down the road.
When you have a pump that is too fast for the sump size, you will have to tee it off with a ball valve and let the water back into the sump or use that water in the ammonia tower. If you just add water to make up the water needed to circulate, you will over flow your sump if the power goes out. You should always do a shut down test to your system to make sure your sump do not overflow if the power goes off. The water will evaporate if you have it dripping into bio balls. The faster you have it flowing the faster it will evaporate. To minimize evaporation, you will have to put a cover on everything.
I'd say the water level in your big tank is going up a small amount. I have a hammerhead gold on my 500g n wide open it keeps water very very high, but I like all the flow. On a big tank ud b surprised how much a half inch of water is.
Got to love MFK... you guys are hitting the nail on the head here.
Looks like the consensus is to try a ball valve and try slowing down the flow a little or to try a bigger sized drain pipe. Thanks all. Any other ideas please keep posting!
My sump is a little smaller than I'd like, like you guessed. Also I have the drain dripping onto bioballs, also like you guessed. What do you mean by a cover for everything?
Looks like the consensus is to try a ball valve and try slowing down the flow a little or to try a bigger sized drain pipe. Thanks all. Any other ideas please keep posting!
