Is my return pump too small?

[jriechel]

When I turned off the juice, the water level dropped until it broke the siphon in the overflow. The sump filled up some, but didn't overflow. I have it set maybe 1/4" below the surface.

I think I'm understanding what you're all saying. If I look at the tank as another section of pipe, then I'd have a continuous loop from the pump outlet to the drain at the other end of the sump. You're saying that I can't have more flow into the sump than I can flow out of the pump.

I'm going to have to go back and look more carefully at what's going on. Maybe I panicked when I saw the sump level climbing and I prematurely reduced the overflow. I'm really thinking that my drain is fine, but the pump can't flow enough to really fill the overflow and drain pipe.

 

[hkgar]

When you turn on the return pump you should see the water level in the sump go down and the tank level go up.

Is you drain in an overflow box? Is your drain a Dursa style, i.e. a syphon type? Here is my hunch:

You don not have an overflow box. Your tank water level sets right at the to p of the drain pipe and there is no siphon. The siphon on the overflow sticks an inch or two into deeper than the tank water level when the pump is off. When you turn on the pump the water level in the tank rises until the siphon starts but then goes down a few inches until the water level stabilizes, giving the appearance of pumping more than the overflow can drain.

If your overflow is not in an overflow box it needs to be.

 

[mcgyvr]

umm.. Is this a problem when you loose power/turn everything off?
I'm going to bet that the problem is not your overflow box but instead the siphon created when the pump is off and the water is flowing back down the return plumbing (note I said return plumbing and NOT overflow plumbing) due to lack of an anti-siphon hole in the return line just below normal water level..

Is that really the problem?

as to your return pump.. Could it be bigger... yes.. Is it something you need to fix/change now.. Heck no..

if you could show us detailed pictures of exactly how everything is setup/plumbed we can help much quicker than this back and forth guessing..

 

[jriechel]

Took me awhile to get these pics taken and posted.

The ultimate problem is that the drain from the overflow is extremely noisy. The water level is too low and exposes the drain resulting in loud sucking sounds.

I did throttle down the drain flow with a ball valve, but I'm hearing that that is a bad idea. I've upgraded the pump to the Eheim 1262 specs for more flow and that helped a little.

Do I still need a higher capacity pump?

 

[jriechel]

Did those pics post? It doesn't look like it from my end?

 

[ericarenee]

Took me awhile to get these pics taken and posted.

The ultimate problem is that the drain from the overflow is extremely noisy. The water level is too low and exposes the drain resulting in loud sucking sounds.

I did throttle down the drain flow with a ball valve, but I'm hearing that that is a bad idea. I've upgraded the pump to the Eheim 1262 specs for more flow and that helped a little.

Do I still need a higher capacity pump?

i DO NOT SEE THE IMAGES BUT from the statement above i have a fix...

The cpr over flow box im assuming is like this
https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...2cf0a8c/1454650920208/CS150-2.jpg?format=500w

of so then you need to do this to it http://www.geocities.ws/bigreefproject/BRP_DURSO_Build.jpg

be sure the top of the stand pipe is higher then the top of your tank. put a piece of air line tubing inside it long enough to go either into the tank or over flow box above the water level with a air valve on it to adjust the water level.. You may also have to put a ball valve between the return pump and tank to dial back the water going into the tank some to find that sweet spot where you get no air noise.

once you get the stand pipe (dorso over flow) in place in your over flow box . to reduce the noise dial back the return pump (yes this is safe for the pump) until you get the water level just below to the middle of the top of the 90 deg turned down elbow.. you need to tinker with the air and water a bit to understand what makes it gurgle.. Also in the sump depending on the bends and horizontal drain configuration you might want it just above the water level or a few inches below.. again its trail and error .


I SO HOPE THIS CLEARS THIS MATTER UP

Erica the water Genius:fish1:

 

[jriechel]

Yup, that's exactly what my overflow looks like. So that's what a durso is for. Seen that mentioned a lot, but didn't know what they were for. Okay, I'll give it a shot.

 

[rjjr1963]

Sounds like my original suspicion was correct: I don't have a big enough pump. Dang! That was $150 I could use!

The reason I know the overflow with 1" plumbing was flowing faster, was because with it wide open and the return pump at max flow, the sump was filling up and would have overflowed if I hadn't throttled the overflow by partially closing its ball-valve.

I just bought this pump a couple weeks ago for $89.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/252462460394?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT++

1,777 gph and extremely quiet.

 

[jriechel]

I've seen that pump. It looks like quite a bargain for the performance. I hope it's reliability is good for you too. I think I'd want two of them for a spare just in case, but then the price is now about what my Ehiem cost.

The Durso did the trick! Thanks Erica! It still gurgles a bit, but nothing compared to what it was. I don't think I could sleep with it in the room, but I can certainly teach (it's in my classroom).

Jeff

 

[ericarenee]

I've seen that pump. It looks like quite a bargain for the performance. I hope it's reliability is good for you too. I think I'd want two of them for a spare just in case, but then the price is now about what my Ehiem cost.

The Durso did the trick! Thanks Erica! It still gurgles a bit, but nothing compared to what it was. I don't think I could sleep with it in the room, but I can certainly teach (it's in my classroom).

Jeff

Your very welcome we have all been there..

I agree with you on the pump.. you get what you pay for and if you buy a cheap one have a backup .. my only concern is a failure when your away.. I run a reeflo and danner mag drive pumps.. use more power but they just work