Stop Sump Overflowing during electrical outage

[FooshieGuy88]

Hi, I have a 75gal reef tank with overflow design....with the weather as it has been lately I'm worried that if I were to lose power then my sump would overflow and well...the neighbors downstairs would not be too happy. I was wondering if there was a way to safe-guard my sump from overflowing w/o having to use an APC backup for electricity to keep the pump going? Thanks so much!

[gmneil]

how is ur return set up. if it comes up over the tank, then drill a hole just below the surface of the water in your return lin.. this way if the pump shuts off when the hole gets exposed to the air it will break the syphon and no more water will drain into your sump

[PRDubois]

Make sure you have a syphon break.
Make sure you know where the MAX water level is for your sump and do not go above it.

Turn off the power and test it. ( more then once)

You can get some type of pan for under the sump just incase the above fails.

[FooshieGuy88]

On the return line...at the elbow where the water goes from out of the overflow in the corner, I discovered a hole that was drilled there (which was also a source of a bunch of noise) and I'm not really sure what that is there for. Also, on the intake pipe there are two prolly 3/8" holes on each side...but by the time the water would reach those holes on the intake the water from the tank itself would have already made it's way through to the sump.....I'm not sure if that makes much sense or not! I just found these holes tonight, haha.

[Saltwaternoob]

Pull the plug and watch to see what happens. +1 on the pan underneath, had to much water in one time and it saved my butt. Only good for a few gallons, but worth it if you don't pay attention to your sumps max level

[PRDubois]

The two holes should be below the normal water level.
When the water level drops. Air goes into the holes and breakes any syphon that is going on.

So When Tank has no power and the sump is FULL like 1" from the top.
Turn on the power. Water refill the display will balance off.
MARK the section of your sump where the return pump is. This is your MAX water level.
When the tank is running, the water should NEVER be above that line.

You also want another line for the minimum water level. This is where there is above your pump intake. Water should always be between these two lines.

Once you have this setup. Tank is running and the water in the sump is at the MAX line.
Turn off your power and the water should fill the sump. (If everything is right, water should stay 1" below the rim of the sump)

[PRDubois]

And the hole on top of the elbow is to help reduce or eliminate the micro bubbles in the sump by giving air a place to escape.

[shaginwagon13]

Buy and install these for your return pipe. They are called 'Clear Union Ckeck Valves'

http://savko.com/partlist.asp?pgid=1

[Toddrtrex]

Originally Posted by shaginwagon13

Buy and install these for your return pipe. They are called 'Clear Union Ckeck Valves'

http://savko.com/partlist.asp?pgid=1

I personally wouldn't trust any check valve. It isn't a matter of if they will fail, but when.

And I actually don't trust those little siphon holes, can get clogged with algae, I just make sure that my return line is high enough in the tank to siphon break on its own and have enough extra room in my sumps.

[Swoop]

Originally Posted by toddrtrex

i personally wouldn't trust any check valve. It isn't a matter of if they will fail, but when.

And i actually don't trust those little siphon holes, can get clogged with algae, i just make sure that my return line is high enough in the tank to siphon break on its own and have enough extra room in my sumps.

+1

[rroselavy]

Originally Posted by Toddrtrex

I personally wouldn't trust any check valve. It isn't a matter of if they will fail, but when.

And I actually don't trust those little siphon holes, can get clogged with algae, I just make sure that my return line is high enough in the tank to siphon break on its own and have enough extra room in my sumps.

+1. I do not trust check valves for this application.

The amount of water going to my sump is easily calculated as 28.5" (tank length) x 21.5" (tank depth) x 1.5" (I.D. Pipe diameter) = 919.125 (cubic inches) / 231 (cubic inches per gallon) = 3.98 gallons.

My very small sump is only 13.6g, and I have the water roughly half way up. This leaves almost 7g of sump volume to accommodate the 4g of overflow. I wouldn't go any smaller than that.

[Toddrtrex]

In addition, I put a "tape box" on the return section of my sumps, this shows me where the water level should be -- if I get above the tape the sump won't be able to handle the extra water. It comes in really handy when I have someone else watching my tanks and doing top offs.

[Chiefsurfer]

I think he has a syphon type. He says he is worried about the intake side, not so much the out-flow side. If that's the case, you have to drill holes to break the syphon. If that's not the case, if it is an overflow design, the intake side of your sump will never cause it to flood. If you have the same holes on the outflow side, you should not have a syphon problem.

[bsharding1982]

The guy that built the stand i bought caulked the base so it would retain water incase of flooding. Works real well, I've accidentally tested it. Water then just stays in the base and can be soaked up with a towel etc... rather than running onto the floor.

[rroselavy]

Accidental testing, I like that.

[squidy3]

+1 on not using check valves.
You may want to try inserting airline tubing in the holes in the drains. you can play around with the length of tubing pushed into the drain. Using the tubing has made my 2 1" drains silent.

[jarrod13]

+1000 on no check valves, I've been working on the plumbing on my 220 to get it set up and going, so when I finally got everything how i wanted it, water level right etc., i turned everything off because i didn't want it running overnight without me watching it. So my sunday morning sleep was interupted by my my girlfriend yelling "the tank is overflowing!!!". Not a good way to wake up. Anyways what happened was something got stuck in the valve and broke the seal just enough for it to dribble back into the sump.

Take my advice, its not fun moving a 220 gallon, 3/4" glass, tank just to pull up your carpet and dry it out.

I am def drilling a hole on the return

[Indymann99]

I used Pond liner under my sump and up about about 3 inches. Just an extra safety measure for spills... tested when I overflowed my ATO container... lack of attention when refilling.

I have my sump marked with PUMP OFF line (blue tape at high water mark) and the normal operating level (blue tape in the lower position on the return chamber).

+1 Toddrtrex on having the return high in the DT.
I do have a checkvalve but my returns are at a level about 1 inch under the surface of the DT so if the checkvalve fails the sump can handle the extra capacity till the siphon breaks.

http://s300.photobucket.com/albums/n...t=DSC_0092.jpg