Plumbing / Draining question

[bean3178]

I just plummed a refuge and propagation tank into my system. My sump sits on the floor. The refuge and prop tank sit on a stand about 1.5' off the floor. Each has a hold drilled about 1/2 way up on the side of the tank with a bulkhead inserted. On the inside of the tank, there is an elbow pointing upward with a grill on it to prevent debris from clogging the line. Each tank has a hose run into the bottom of the sump.

I noticed that in some cases, the entire elbow and grill are underwater in the refuge and prop tank. I figured it would act like a drain so that the water level wouldn't be much higher than the lowest drainage holes.

Is something plummed incorrectly with this or is this normal? I just want to make sure I don't flood my floor. I was going to take a pic but can't find my camera.

 

[Bri Guy]

Sounds like there not draining fast enough! Your drains/overflows must be able to handle much more flow OUT than what your pump/drain is pushing IN it.

Whats the GPH of your 1262 return after head loss? If your tanks levels are not rising above there overflow like in the sump, this # will be your sump turn over rate.

What size are the bulkheads in the sump system? they must be able to handle more than your sump turn over rate.

Good luck!

 

[bean3178]

Hey, thanks for the reply.

I decided to spend some time on this issue last night and I cut off the drain lines above the sump water level. That fixed the problem. I think that there must have been air getting clogged in the line that was preventing it from draining properly.

 

[asm481]

On the outside of the drain bulkhead use a TEE instead of a 90 and run an uncapped pipe up above high water line. It sounds to me they aren't draining but siphoning.

 

[bean3178]

Here we are with it working. The drains are the 2 blue tubes in the sump.