Plumbing

[Cabin3tGuy]

I just added a new sump to my system and I'm still really shaky on some of the aspects of hard plumbing ..... I used 3/4" schd 40 pvc for the return from my sump to tank ..... Here's the question though ... I used purple primer and pvc cement to glue the joints and some of the primer ran down inside the pipes .... once its dry are there any issues with that harming anything?? Im sure they use it for water lines but how safe is that kinda stuff in aquariums??... Any length of time I should wait b4 connecting it?? its been set up for over 24 hours and Ive run water from the garden hose through it for awhile .....

any comments would be great :idea:

 

[joeycadre]

you'll be fine

 

[Cabin3tGuy]

Ok now i got two new problems .....

1st - My pump is too strong I guess because it drained my entire sump and almost overflowed my tank b4 i cut it off

2nd - When i cut the pump off for the return so that i wouldnt overflow the tank ..... Id say 14gallons or so of the aquarium water overflowed the sump onto the floor and it would have continued to drain if I hadnt pulled it all up out of the water once I noticed that it was overflowing inside my cabinet


Any ideas how i can fix this problem ???..... I have a 1" skimmer/overflow i got from Kermits and one of the long flexible hoses they had for sale hooked to it ...... the 25$ ish one ..... i didnt cut it so it runs down to the floor b4 goign back to the sump ..... . Im starting to wonder if all the slack on my overflow hose is the issue on how fast the overflow drains ...... My pump is teh Gx4100 it was supposed to be 1000g@hour @ 10' ... the return line coming out of it has a tee spilting the return to both sides of a 4' tank i'd say it has somewhere close to 12' of pvp line total ....

Should I drill holes somewhere in the return line to let in air so it wont drain my tank ???.... and if so how would i go bout doing that???

Also if I put a valve directly on the return line to cut the flow down some more will that hurt the pump at all?

 

[milkshake]

I would take the slack of your hose off the floor. Possibly even shorten it. As for the pump, you can put a ball valve in-line between your pump and where it t's off to both corners of the tank. That's the way i had mine setup. I had ball valves for each corner return. That way I could control how much flow went to one side of the tank. I never had any problems with the pump after the addition of the ball valves. If it is still too powerful, you could run a section of pvc off of the return (with a ball valve) back to the sump. That would take some of the pressure off of the return line. I would start out with lower water level in your sump to start off with, start pump, and add water as needed till you catch up with the pump. Does it make sense?

 

[milkshake]

Due you have one or two "U" tubes in the overflow box?

 

[Cabin3tGuy]

yeah I have a u-tube in it

 

[just dave]

Most single u-tube single drain siphon boxes handle about 500-700 gph.
Make sure the u-tube outlet is not in the drain line but beside it.
Having the drain line as direct and unobstructed as possible is desirable.
Put a valve on the pump outlet so you can throttle it back. You can feed the excess back to the sump but in many cases pumps running wide open consume the max. amount of energy.
You need to configure your return lines so they will not allow an excess of water to back siphon into the sump in case of a power outage /power shut down. A siphon break can be used by drilling a small hole in the return just below the water line but this method is not as desirable because it will require frequent attention on your part to keep it free and unobstructed.
Once you have the system running correctly you need to balance it and since you have a siphon style overflow you have an additional concern that gravity overflows don't.
The first thing is you must have the water level set in your sump so that if you have the siphon fail the pump will run out of water before it can flood your tank. The second is that the returns must break siphon in a power outage / system shut down before they can back siphon enough water to flood your sump. Because you are using a siphon overflow it is risky employing an auto top off ,if you should decide to do so. Because if you have the siphon fail and the pump starves before it can overfill the aquarium all is well but an auto top off would start feeding the sump top off water until the reservoir was empty which allows the pump to still pump water to the aquarium and cause a flood. An ATO could be used but would require a particular type of float switch set up to minimize the potential for failure.
On last note on u-tube siphons. While they have a max capacity ( as all overflows do) there is also some risk with flowing water too slowly through them. If the flow of water is too slow through the u-tube there is a greater risk of it becoming air locked and failing. This is because air bubbles that are sucked into it will collect at the highest point of the tube if the flow is too slow and when enough collect a large air pocket will form and cause the siphon to break.

 

[milkshake]

Now that's what I call an educated answer.

 

[just dave]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9808684#post9808684 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by milkshake
Now that's what I call an educated answer.

It was cut-n-paste from a transcription of a lecture given by Dr Peaches on household plumbing in antebellum society.

I substituted the words "aquarium" and "tank" for other words like toilet bowl.

 

[milkshake]

was that in included in the book "19th century aquariums"?

 

[just dave]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9808765#post9808765 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by milkshake
was that in included in the book "19th century aquariums"?

"Post American Civil War Potties"
by Dr. Steve Palmer.

Based on that title I guess the whole "publish or perish" thing really has some teeth.

 

[DrPeaches]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9808796#post9808796 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by just dave
"Post American Civil War Potties"
by Dr. Steve Palmer.

Based on that title I guess the whole "publish or perish" thing really has some teeth.

Publish, perish, potties, purgatory....ahh the joys and fame of academia.

 

[Cabin3tGuy]

Thx for the help dave and shake ..... added teh ball valve and throttled the pump down and all is well

 

[milkshake]

http://www.rotorooter.com/john/index.php

 

[just dave]

supposed to be 1000g@hour @ 10'

I meant to tell you that the above is incorrect. The pump is a bit over 1000 gph at zero head and shuts off at about ten feet.