Emergency Large tank Drain issue

[swiseman]

I am having some drain issues on my new tank. I have a 220 with an end overflow. There are two 1" bulkheads on the end the drain downstairs into the sump. The sump is a 6' drop through the floor followed by a horizontal run of about 30' followed by a final drop of 4' to the gravity fed Deltec Skimmers. I have an external standpipe on each bulkhead with a cap that has a 3/8" hole to accomodate a 1/4" air line. The configuration is very much like those sold by Glass-holes.com. Unfortunately, i only found their website after the project was complete or i would have just ordered theirs.

Anyway, i am getting some surges that i can not seem to silence or reduce. I have tried a few tricks like putting a ball valve on the drain lines to restrict the speed of the drain, but, i do not like to restrict the drains. On start up there is a flood potential.

Does anyone have any suggestions.

I will try to post some pictures of the entire plumbing run.

 

[AcroSteve]

Your setup is very similar to mine.

However, my bulkheads are 1", but my pipe is 1-1/4 and 1-1/2. I run just one of them as a primary drain, with the other as a backup. I do have a gate valve at my sump that causes the pipe to fill up and it doesn;t need to have any air in it. This is very quiet at my tank.

I have a tee off of this that feeds my skimmer and refuge. The 3 valves are a balancing act, but once it is set tight, you can mark your valves. And if anything happens and the drain gets restricted, the other one will take the water.

 

[swiseman]

Here is a picture of the drain lines and the external standpipe.

Here is the top down view.

Here is the lines leading down the ceiling to the skimmers.

Here is a close up of the skimmer connections. They are a Deltec APF 600 and an AP600.

I tried dialing back the low out of the bulkheads, but every time I stop and restart the pump the drains do not work properly and the tank fills to the point of overflowing unless I open up the valves all the way. Then the gurgle starts all over again.

 

[AcroSteve]

Not sure, but your pipes might be too small. And all of the hose barb fittings reduce the internal size even more.


I use gate valves for adjusting. They are much easier to fine tune, and when I say fine tune, I adjust in 1/8 of a turn each time. Not sure how well that can be accomplished with ball valves.

 

[Adamc1303]

I agree the tubing look pretty small and the barb fittings may be restricting flow. Before you make a huge change though you may want to T off the drain line and not make it all go directly into the skimmer. I am not sure how many GPH the skimmer needs to be fed and how many your are draining. Once you t it off it may release back pressure. There are allot of threads in the deltec and H & S forums that show exactly how to t off.