New sump: Did I screw up?

[tacoshooter]

I just set up my first sump (20H on a 37G) system yesterday, and have been tweaking on and off today. Still have some questions I'm hoping someone can answer.

First off, the sump setup is pretty standard -- return area, baffles, pump, with a small refugium in that area. Skimmer is in the return. There are two 1" bulkheads in the tank, each roughly 2" from the top and 2" from the side and on opposite corners of the tank. The input to the sump is plumbed with a durso to flexible tubing and the return from the sump is 1" flexible tubing.

Return pump is a Quiet One 3000.

There are no problems when the power is turned off since the sump can handle the volume that drains into the tank until it is below the bulkheads. However, my question is this; the only way I can keep the pump from running the area it has access to in the sump dry is by restricting the flow with a ball valve. Right now I have it "balanced" in the sump with a ball valve about 1/2 closed.

Is this an OK way to have this set up? If not, what should I be doing? The thing that scares me is that it seems there is potential for a flood in overflowing the tank -- if the ball valve was opened all the way for a period of time, it seems like the tank could overflow.

Any information is appreciated.

 

[BLockamon]

A 1" bulkhead can typically handle 600 gph of flow unless there is some kind of restriction. So...your two return lines should be able to handle anything your pump puts out.

Check the drains to make sure that they are not blocked by something. Do you have pictures? That may help us understand the setup.

 

[Blown 346]

The one thing I would change if possible is to put the skimmer on the drain side of the sump. Since you have afuge going you dont want to skim out all the life the fuge will provide for the tank.