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Sump design help please


elusive_fish

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Well, the local tank builders are too busy and given the local earthquake im pretty sure no glazier will want to help me at this stage.

DIY it is.

The only real concern I have is the structural integrity of the tank. It's only 45cm tall, but all the glass appears to be 6mm (safety factor just over 2 on the calculator on this site). The base appears to be the same.

If I put a couple of 35mm holes in one corner of the bottom pane, is it going to have a detrimental impact on the tank strength? Underneath is the usal poly sheet, and a couple of strips of mdf to distribute the load to the outside (its sitting on a steel frame)

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Before I do anything permanent I thought it best to post my design on here for comment.

The idea is to have 1 bulkhead carrying the entire flow in syphon, under normal conditions. The other is just a reserve that only comes in to play in blockages or if the calibration of the syphon is out from the flow the pump. The key to keeping the system quiet will be adjusting the gate valve correctly so that the net flow out of the tanks is 0.

To keep things simple, the overflow will be made by one piece of glass siliconed into the tank on a 45 degree. Its length is about 35cm and about 42cm high. In the overflow area 2 x 32mm holes will be drilled for 25mm bulk heads, as seen in the plan view below:

sump1.jpg

Bulkhead/standpipe 1 (left): this is the back up pipe, height of about 40 cm (a couple cm below the main tank water level). Will only operate if bulkhead 2 is blocked, or if the valve on #2 is not open enough.

Bulkhead 2: No standpipe. Will operate as a syphon. Gate valve installed directly under bulkhead for best control on water flow. I figured i dont really need to put a standpipe on this, as the total volume of the overflow is only 13L - even if this whole area drained, it wouldnt be too hard to accomodate that extra water in the sump.

sump2.jpg

Is this looking good?

Yes, I realise I haven't depicted how i will be getting water back from the sump to the tank. I figured this part is relatively simple and will just be a pump with flexible tubing going into the top of the tank in the opposite corner to the overflow.

Having a project is such a nice distraction from waiting for aftershocks.

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