Nearly flooded the house - PLEASE HELP.

[Faithbleed]

Hi Guys

I'm setting up my first marine tank and am having issues filling the tank.

It seems my return is too powerful, so the last section of my sump drains too quickly, and returns water back into the tank to a point where it nearly floods.

Details are:

- 300L tank

- 100L sump (divided into 3 sections (drain+skimmer/fuge/return))

- 2 x 32mm drains (with ball valves)

- Eheim 1260 return (25mm)

Anyone have any suggestions?

Seriously worried about trying this again as we nearly had a disaster early today (Girlfriend nearly killed me).

Images of setup: http://imgur.com/a/hF4mH

Cheers

Dave

[livingart]

slow your flow down back to the tank and try again

sounds like you don't have much room in return pump section of your pump

will need to be enough to take extra overflow if your pump shuts down

[Faithbleed]

Cheers for the reply LA.

- Any ideas on how to slow my flow down back to the tank? (can I put a ball valve on the return line or will that screw the return pump?)

- Yeah, I realized that when I went to put the sump in, it's a tight fit for everything really.

- If the pump shuts down, there will definitely be flooding... :oops: If I drain it, do you think I could take it back to Greg and get him to modify it?

[livingart]

you can either do ball valve or just divide part of flow back into sump

if you have baffles in sump just remove one to give you more room for return pump area

[Ira]

divide part of flow back into sump

Bonus of this is that you can use the bypass to feed equipment in the sump like skimmer.

[Zayne]

the way i did my sump was when all pumps were off and the tank was drained into the sump the sump would be full(not overflowing) and tank to lowest point of overflow, which means if im away and power shuts off it will only fill the sump and not the floor

[blueether]

the way i did my sump was when all pumps were off and the tank was drained into the sump the sump would be full(not overflowing) and tank to lowest point of overflow, which means if im away and power shuts off it will only fill the sump and not the floor

The easy way to do this would be to (mostly) empty the sump, then slowly fill the main tank letting it overflow to the sump, when the sump is at the max stop filling the main tank.

Is the second outflow working, looks like it could be a little high?

[Faithbleed]

Thanks for the help and suggestions so far.

I might divide the return, by putting in a T fitting and put a valve on the diverted hose and run that back into the first section of the sump.

Ill look at the stand pipes as well becauce the durso modded one is probably a little high.

Ill see how that goes before i remove a baffle as i would like to do dsb/fuge in the middle section of the sump.

How do i 'feed the protein skimmer'?

Cheers Dave

[blueether]

How do i 'feed the protein skimmer'?

Here comes the choo-choo train if it is very young, or tell it wont get dessert?

I think what was meant was 'drive'

[Faithbleed]

:slfg: Thanks for the clarification...now how do I 'drive the skimmer'?

[blueether]

:slfg: Thanks for the clarification...now how do I 'drive the skimmer'?

Take it out of the sump and place in a car?

[Faithbleed]

Take it out of the sump and place in a car?

But where do skimmers like to go? Long road trips to Bluff, lazy Sunday drives to sunny New Plymouth or maybe a blitz around Manfield?

[livingart]

:rotf:

[Ira]

How do i 'feed the protein skimmer'?

Exact method depends on your skimmer, but...

by putting in a T fitting and put a valve on the diverted hose and run that back into the skimmer

[Faithbleed]

I think the sump is too high, which is causing half my problems.

I have the space to put the T intersection in just as you can see:

http://imgur.com/a/HxpTC

But the tubing will have to run into the middle section due to height constraints (will take DSB out if that's the case).

Really not sure how to progress from here.

Any further suggestions before I modify anything?

[Faithbleed]

Exact method depends on your skimmer, but...

Cheers, my skimmer is a Reef Octopus NW150

http://www.hollywoodfishfarm.co.nz/detail/view/reef-octopus-classic-800-insump-nw150/m/1219/

If it's possible, should I feed the tube into the protein skimmer's black stand pipe?

[blueether]

so that already has it's own powerhead?

if that is the case I would just run any extra from the return pump back to the first chamber of the sump

[Sheepsnana]

Please excuse my ignorance (I use canister filters), but I thought that sumps were set up to prevent flooding?

The tank and sump on the left picture show normal operation: Out take on the right flowing into the sump, then pumped back up on the left side.

The right side of the picture shows a malfunction, where the water in the tank drops to below the outtake. The sump should have enough room in it to take the water up to this point, preventing flooding, right?

[blueether]

The sump should have enough room in it to take the water up to this point, preventing flooding, right?

as long as the system doesn't have too much water in it

[Faithbleed]

Please excuse my ignorance (I use canister filters), but I thought that sumps were set up to prevent flooding?

The tank and sump on the left picture show normal operation: Out take on the right flowing into the sump, then pumped back up on the left side.

The right side of the picture shows a malfunction, where the water in the tank drops to below the outtake. The sump should have enough room in it to take the water up to this point, preventing flooding, right?

Yeah I guess that's the idea, but mine was mainly to house the skimmer, heaters and a Deep Sand Bed/Macro Algae.

The reason the baffles are so high is because the skimmer instructions stated the ideal water level was just below the collection cup.

In retrospect I don't think it needs to be that high, and I might have to get the baffles reduced in height to give the piping more space and allow for power failure (hopefully Greg can do that).

Cheers

Dave

[Ira]

Please excuse my ignorance (I use canister filters), but I thought that sumps were set up to prevent flooding?

They SHOULD be setup to prevent flooding. Doesn't mean people don't set them up wrong.

[Faithbleed]

Turns out I can't modify the sump as it is, I'll have to get a whole new one built ( :oops: ).

If I'm building a sump 400mm high, how high should the baffles come and how do I know what the best height for for skimmer is?

Cheers

Dave

[Ira]

how do I know what the best height for for skimmer is?

The manual should tell you, or any other site with its specs.

how high should the baffles come and

To the best height of the skimmer would be a good place to start.

[Faithbleed]

The manual should tell you, or any other site with its specs.

To the best height of the skimmer would be a good place to start.

That's exactly the height baffles are now, but that doesn't allow enough room for return pump failure.

The vids I've seen of the nw150 running in other sumps is with much less water...

[Ira]

That's exactly the height baffles are now, but that doesn't allow enough room for return pump failure.

The vids I've seen of the nw150 running in other sumps is with much less water...

So you raise the overflow and spraybar in the tank so less water drains out of it into the sump.

Or make the whole sump higher with the baffles the same height.

Or you run with less water overall. That way the return pump chamber in the sump should have less water in it, but everything else would be at the same water level.