Plumbing Questions......

[jallard]

My new tank has a mega-flow kit. The drain is a sorta durso stand pipe clone and it's 1.25" to the bulk head, then from the bulk head it goes to 1". I have a Mag7 for the return and it too is 1". I do have a ball valve on both the drain side and the return side.

My 2 questions are....
1- The water entering the sump is coming in pretty fast and also producing big bubbles. Should I have a smaller 1" stand pipe which would basically match the rest of the plumbing. Would that even make a difference.

2- The mag7 is restricted via the ball valve cause it pumps more water than the overflow seems to be able to supply the sump. I thought that the pump dictates the speed and amount of the water in coming into the sump. If that's the case why should the pump be pumping faster that the water can drain?

Just a bit confused :lol:

 

[Ken668]

Joe,

1) You shouldn't reduce the size of the durso. The larger diameter reduced to smaller diameter is part of the durso design. It won't work well by making it the same size.

2) I'm not sure what you're really getting at with this one. But, the pump will determine your overall flow, with the exception of the overflow. If you're pumping more water than it can handle, then it will obviously "overflow". So with the ball valve on the pump, you need to dial back the flow to what the overflow can handle. I'm not sure why you think the pump needs to push more than what the drain can handle. Not sure if that helps??


Sounds like you have everything plumbed properly. But I think the issue is.....too many air bubbles in the sump? It's most likely an issue of tweaking the flow and/or drain rate. Let me know if that's not the info you're looking for.

 

[jallard]

actually the bubble entering the sump dont bother me cause they don't make it back into the tank However chamber where the water enters the sump is pretty volital (sp)

The mag7 seems to pump water out of the return chamber faster that it is filled by the drain....I dunno if that makes sense. But what I have just read is that the 1" bulkhead is rated for 600gph and the mag7 is rated for 700gph so that may be why I need to dial back the pump.

 

[Ken668]

Ok, that sounds like the pump is pushing more than what the drain can handle. I would dial it back a little until the overflow keeps pace with the pump. And while the pump is rated for 700, I would guestimate you're probably getting a little over 600gph of actual flow. Have you used the RC head loss calculator?

To reduce the turbulence in the sump, you can branch off the single 1" drain to maybe two or three. Or you could use a PVC size converter to open up the outlet a bit (1" to 1.5"). Both will provide more surface area for the water to spread out through, therefore reducing the velocity.

 

[jallard]

ahhhh ok.....

so then everything is about as good as it's gonna get I suppose

Thanks!

 

[WinkeyWoneye]

I had some problems with my overflow being noisy down below from air bubbles. I put a 45 on the end of the drain pipe than a 90 into the 45 to turn the water flow back toward the surface. It shut up the bubbles by about 90%. Can still hear them slightly but not at all once the cabinet door is shut. Just play with diffrent fittings on the drain(dont glue) and see what works best for you in shutting the bubbles up. My first chamber looks like a protien skimmer there are so many bubbles exiting the drain pipe, and alike there is a nasty protien skimmer type slime coating on the glass in that chamber also.
It really surprises me that your Mag7 is too much for the overflow. My tank has the same overflow you do and I also run a Mag7. I actually had to very very slightly turn the drain's ball valve closed to stop the overflow chamber (in display) from surging, just enough to create a small amount of back-pressure in the drain pipe. I hard piped my drain and made it too straight, it doesnt have any back-pressure w/out the ball valve being slightly closed. The 45 & 90 at the end of my drain (similiar to half of a sink trap) also created a little bit of back pressure to help stop the overflow surge, but not enough as I still haveta run the ball valve closed just a touch. I wouldnt modify the durso pipe to be 1 inch either. They are designed to be 1.25" to the bulkhead, than 1" from there to the sump. Read this it may help some....http://www.dursostandpipes.com/ Read the build your own durso section.
I have the first generation AGA durso in my overflow. It is not adjustable. The newer style overflow pipes from AGA and the Megaflow kits have a adjustable (height) durso pipe for the overflow. I'm not sure what that adjustment does as I dont have it, but I have a feeling if mine was adjustable I could have stopped the surging by rising the durso pipe up some. If yours is adjustable, try putting it down some to see if that helps your drain flow problems.
I will be around all day if you want to stop over to check out my setup or I could make a Swamp Bottom run today and stop over your place to see if I could help shed any light on your problem. Let me know if you wanna do either of the above.
Dan

 

[iamfor3]

Hi
I have a 1" to sump mag-7 with 1/2" return works great.
On the end of my 1" to sump I have a ball valve my tubing is clear so i can adjust the flo so it backs up just before the ballvalve and I get no bubbles in sump.