damn jaws I'm sorry man I never saw this reply!! I ended up shortening the stand pipe a bit, and just throttled back an old pond pump I had, the water sits roughly 1/2" over the stand pipe, full syphon now. I didn't want to drill, and I wanted to utilize the already there bulkhead so I just played around with the return pump until I got the flow I wanted. had to use a freakin' FERNCO rubber gasket on the other side of the bulkhead...for whatever reason the 1 1/4" bulkhead would not thread with other 1 1/4" plumbing...biggest PITA I've ever dealt with. BUT she runs like a top now, goes right back to perfect syphon even after the drain and pump are off for water changes.
