How do I regulate my flow...

[Scottkelly911]

How do I regulate my flow in and out of my Sump? I can't seem to get them to be at the same rate. I'm just using gravity/suction from my display to my sump with a ball valve so I can make the flow stronger or weaker. I'm using a maxijet 1200 for my return pump and a ball valve so I can make the flow into the display stronger or weaker. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get them even. I either get too much flow to the sump or too much from the sump back into the display. Should I use another maxijet 1200 instead of gravity going into the sump? I have been tinkering with it all of last night and tonight to no satisfaction. The closest I've gotten to even flow is about 10-12 minutes before I have to adjust it one way or the other to keep from either overflowing my display or losing suction on the sump intake. Since I can't do this, it's keeping me from running it when I'm not home and my skimmer is in my sump, so it's keeping me from skimming also. Please people, help me with this, all I want is a sump that i can go to work and feel confident in knowing I'm not going to come home to my floor doing a poor impression of a carpet anemone.

 

[JR719]

Open your drain all the way. The flow depends on your pump. Either open up your pump for more flow into the sump, or close it off to reduce into your sump.

Why are you loosing siphon on your overflow? Are you using a u tube or hang on?

 

[jdieck]

As JR mentions your drain line shall work fully open and the overflow set not to loos syphon otherwise the overflow might not be installed properly.
The drain will drain as much water as the pump will put up or up to the capacity of the overflow.

In other words, fully open the drain valve and adjust the valve in the pumps discharge to the maximum flow your oveflow can handle. If the overflow looses priming (when using a U tube) then it is not installed properly. If you are using an oveflow box succion shall not be an issue.

If you are using a U tube overflow this diagram might help:

 

[Scottkelly911]

Thanks guys, you helped me figure out the problem. I guess I need to use an overflow box. Luckily, I have one, but I was trying to avoid using it. I've got PVC directly from my display to my sump. I guess there's really no way of going around the use of the overflow box if I could to keep my display a little less cluttered. The reason I did it the way I did, I figured if my return pump failed, the water would drop to the level where the pvc loses siphon so I don't end up with an overflowing sump. Also, if my siphon stopped for some odd reason, but the return pump kept going, I'd just burn the motor on it rather than flood the tank. But if I understand you correctly Jdieck. The over will do the exact same thing while not breaking siphon aslong as there's water in the overflow box?