Sump plumbing (1 Viewer)

[dvs]

I have seen both hard plumbed (pvc) and flexible plumbed sumps before. What are the pros and cons with each? Also, what is the name of that flexible stuff so that I can find it at home depot?

 

[dvs]

Now that I think about it. I am a total noob when it comes to this plumbing stuff. Can some one point me in the right direction for a comprehensive introduction.

 

[Kyle]

Spaflex is the flexible stuff. It's reduces vibration/sound and is easier to bend/move. It is also much more forgiving during setup and if bumped won't crack fittings. You can usually get more flow from spaflex because you don't have to use as many 90s and 45s. Hard piping looks cleaner and nicer. I will be using a combination of both.

 

[Metzzen]

I second what kyle said. I like to use the hard stuff when its visible since it looked nice (when done neatly) and the flexible stuff for inside the stand and such since its so much more forgiving

 

[dvs]

Okay, thanks for the tips. I just went by home depot and picked up 3/4" pvc and a couple of 90s. Hopefully this will suffice.

 

[MarkieB]

Ricky I may be wrong but I thought the output on that overflow was an inch! If so you don't want to cut that back.

You are more than welcome to call me to discuss how you want to plumb!

 

[dvs]

Mark- it is a 1" fitting. I just put a 3/4" adapter on it because I thought 1" was too big. Of course, I really am learning this as I go.

I ran into a problem tonight while setting this up. When I unplug the pump, the sump holds all of the water from the overflow but, the pump itself is creating a siphon when it is unplugged. How can I get around this? I think what I need is a return that is positioned higher than the overflow that way it will lose suction before the overflow even drains the tank. Any suggestions?

 

[Brad]

You will generally have your return like just under the water level in the tank. If its lower than 1/2 - 1 inch you will drain a lot of water before the syphon breaks. I have mine so that the top of the return outlet is about 1/4 - 1/2 inch under the water line. Its definatly above the bottom of the overflow teeth.

If its lower than that you can always drill a small hole in the return line right below the water line. That way when the water drains lower than that hole it will act as the syphon break. You just have to be careful to check it regularly to make sure the hole does not get plugged up with algae and other "carp".

What ever method you pick you should test your sump capacity by turning off your return pump and making sure your sump does not overflow.

 

[MarkieB]

In the old tank I had the return dumping back in a tube near the bottom of the tank. As long as you have holes drilled a little below the normal water surface you will be fine. As B mentioned rreturning right below the water line will work as well.

Do drill at least 2 then drop down about 1/2" and do 2 more in oppostie sides of the return . This is just a back up in case snails happen to be covering the other 2 holes in a power outage. Unlikely, but in an emergency is when the unlikely happen.

So do you switch the drain back to 1 or you are trying 3/4"?

Also I had made a silencer and forgot about that. If the water noise bothers you, you might be looking into making one, or I might find the one I made in my fish drawer. They are cheap to make.

http://home.nc.rr.com/stockmanreef/

 

[dvs]

Yeah, this thing is pretty loud right now. I reading up before I go to home depot. I just left it as is last night, so it still has the 3/4" but I have not glued it yet.

 

[MarkieB]

Hey if you have it up and running right now and noise is the only issue then you have done a great job. Congrats.

Conquring the noise is the easy part.