Is a siphon returning water to the sump inherently bad?

[DasCamel]

I run be an animal drains and I can not lie..
You other drain systems can't deny
When a snail climbs in with its shell on its back
And a clump of bubble algae following that
You are done....
Time to clean the floor

:lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao:

Genius.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Oh. My. God, Becky, look at her overflow! That weir is soo wide!

She must be one of those reef keeper's girlfriends!

 

[mcgyvr]

Oh. My. God, Becky, look at her overflow! That weir is soo wide!

She must be one of those reef keeper's girlfriends!

:thumbsup:

 

[minitank]

Some confusion in this post. The OP is talking about an intermittent siphon on the drain pipes, not a siphon in the return line, a check valve is irrelevant to this conversation, that advice is only good on the return line (albeit still a bad idea waiting to fail)

The other confusion is the misapplication of a Herbie or Bean Animal Setup. MiniTank I highly encourage you to look at those two types of specific drain systems, both will eliminate all bubbles into your sump far more than either a durso or your intermittent siphon ever will be able to do. Your current setup won't eliminate the inherent bubbles during start up or breaking the siphon it also has the downside of fluxuating the water level in your sump, that will give you issues with top off levels and general stabilization assuming your protein skimmer is outside the final sump section.

The herbie and Bean Animal setups use a valve to restrict the siphon flow so it matches exactly the return rate of your main pump, the problem with it is snails tend to enter the pipe and get stuck at the valve, which is why you need a secondary drain, Bean Animal's setup uses three drains but is difficult to implement into an established tank.

I'd recommend the Herbie setup as it only requires two drain pipes, you won't be disappointed, another benefit is that both these systems are absolutely silent, you won't hear a thing from the pipes.

Best of luck and most important, enjoy!

thanks, there is alot to think over in there!

 

[minitank]

puddles everywhere
i should have gone with herbie
nothing but regret

 

[Lsufan]

U really don't have a choice but to use a durso with only one drain line. Der willie explained it well why a syphon is more susceptible to clog. If u put 400 gph through a durso then u put that same 400 gph through a syphon, the syphons valve would be about 1/2 way closed & maybe even more. The partially closed valve becomes a blockage point that would not take much at all to clog enough to overflow the display.

Der willie is also correct when he said that if u do actually have a syphon with no valve & it is staying somewhat consistent, then u are on the edge of having a flood. I suspect they u still have air in the line & it isn't a syphon because it would be almost impossible to have a syphon with no valve on the line. When the syphon would kick in it would drain the overflow until the syphon sucked air, then the overflow would fill back up & cover the drain & a syphon would start again. It would constantly go back & forth like that & it wouldn't be quiet when it does.

I may have missed where u said but do u have a drain & return drilled in the tank. If u do then I would go with what SG York suggested & use both as drains & setup a herbie & just run the return over the back. Also, I have always ran syphon drains so I won't be much help but they do have ways to limit the bubbles & noice on a durso. It won't be as quiet or have no bubbles like a syphon but it shouldn't be bad enough to where u have microbubbles in the system if u have a bubble trap in the sump