sump/tank plumbing

[redemer123]

ok guys im having some trouble understanding how you get water into your sump and how you get it back into the tank.....i've seen the fixtures of overflow boxes connected to pipes that go into the sump and then a pump shoots the water from the sump back into the tank....but some of the setups i have seen are a little confusing to a nooby such as myself mabey all you experienced reefers could shed some light on the subject for me on how this works.....oh im also concerned about some hole drilling i might have to do to my tank and that worries me...thanks guys and gals!

[jolson10450]

if you get an overflow all you have to do is create a suction which mine is done by an aqualifter pump, when the water starts to flow in the chamber inside the tank the aqualifter sucks it up a tube then ones it reaches the peak gravity feeds it and it starts to flow over the wall and into the chamber in the back of the overflow, it goes from there down the tube that is in that chamber to the sump underneith.

it will then flow through a series of baffles which keep the water at certain heights because of skimmer requirements mainly and then it either passes through a fuge area or other area, then it gets over a piece of glass to the return pump area. the return pump area is where the water level will always vary depending on how much water your tank evaporates because the glass keeps the rest at the same height and this is the last stage that pumps it back to the tank.

the return pump then pumps it up a tube and back into the tank. usually there is a flow preventor put in line in case a power outage happens the water doesn't back feed down the line.

the overflows have ratings they can handle. say you have a 600 gallon per hour (GPH) rated overflow, you calculate what your return pump pushes, say you have a 1000gph overflow but it can only push 400gph at 5 feet which is the height from where the pump sits to the top of the tank, then since the pump pushes less than the max on the overflow then everything should flow just perfect. you should never push the limits close to the overflow ratings. if your pump is to big for the overflow it will push the water back into the main tank so fast that the tank will flood over the walls.

hopefully this helps.

[cg5071]

Sounds like you have the idea. The box usually has teeth to just take in the surface of the water and keep critters out. The surface is where the oils and proteins collect, so that water is drained to the sump to be ran through your skimmer and maybe some rock/algae ect. to clean it further. The clean water is then pumped back into your main tank and this overflows the box, making more water run back to your sump to be cleaned.

[shovelhead91701]

I second what jolson said with one exception..... I always drill a relief hole in all the plumbing just below the water line in the display tank to ensure if a check valve fails during a power outage the syphon of the water back into the sump will break. You may need to try it a few times and keep drilling the holes a little larger each time until you get them sized just right.

[redemer123]

drilling holes is what im afraid of lol i dont want break something and screw myself

[adalius]

Shovelhead is suggesting that you just have to drill the plumbing, not the tank itself. Here's an example.

You can just make out the little hole above the elbow, when the water gets below that, it sucks air instead of water and breaks the siphon. It's super easy and pretty hard to mess up as long as you make sure you put it at the right height, which is below your operating water level, but above the waterline that would cause a flooded sump.

[redemer123]

ooooooh lol yes i understand now

[AZDesertRat]

Marc has one of the easiest to understand explainations of sumps on his site here:
http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html