What kind of drains are you guys running?

[Jay Fortay]

This question is for those of you with remote fish rooms that have a lot of plumbing between your display and your sump. I have 3-1.5" drains. Each line has several 90s that take the water from the display, down through a wall into my crawlspace then back up into a closet under the stairs where my fish room is located. I have tried to do a tuned siphon main drain on one of the lines,but it is way too hard to get the siphon started again after a power failure. It's looking like my best option is to run gravity drains with vented tees behind the tank in the wall. My overflow is a coast to coast style with the bulkheads coming out of the back side of the tank. Just wondering if any of you were in similar situations? And if so what type of drains you run?

 

[ca1ore]

I run a herbie siphon from one of my drains, with a few PVC turns (though I use those long sweep elbows rather than the sharp turn ones), and it starts up every time. Maybe you had the output to far under the sump water level; although problem may be the fact that part of your plumbing runs below the level of the sump. Can you eliminate that?

 

[Jay Fortay]

I think that the short jog back up from the crawl space then back into the sump forms a trap for air. Think upside down "U" going into the sump. I thought of making an aqua lifter of sorts by having a small diameter tube vent from the top of the "U" and pull through the return line. Has anyone ever done this? When I can get the siphon started the thing runs like a champ!

 

[jformani]

340g

dual hofer gurgle busters and emergency drain.