sporeefer
Community Member
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2019
- Messages
- 96
- Reaction score
- 210
- What state or country do you live in
- Washington
Hey all, I'm still in the cycle of my 60g cube. I plumbed a herbie method overflow and I like it! I have noticed however that the return chamber of my sump drops an inch or more every day, as does the overflow compartment of the tank (from a perfect trickle down the emergency drain to an inch or two below). So, my questions:
1) Are these water levels both reflecting evaporative water loss? Seems like a lot. If I set up my ATO to pump into the return chamber, will that keep the overflow compartment of the display tank topped off too? Is the return chamber of the sump the only place I should have to worry about topping off?
2) Am I actually dealing with evaporative water loss AND an ill-calibrated siphon drain? I have a ball valve unfortunately and it's REALLY sticky and difficult to make minor changes to. I've gotten it to what I thought was close.. but... see question 3. This is going to be such a pain.. but I can't say I wasn't warned about the ball valve.
3) General question about about calibrating the main siphon drain: I can't wrap my brain around this... Let's say you find your overflow water level a couple inches too low. You ever so slightly tweak the valve and the water level creeeeeps up toward the emergency drain super SUPER slowly. Like almost imperceptible but it's creepin. Won't you have to adjust it the other way once it reaches the perfect trickle? If you leave it in 'creeping up' mode, HOWEVER slow, you'll slowly go right past slight trickle, right? Isn't the only target that's going to work: perfectly still? And how is anyone achieving that? I'm seriously concerned cause I feel like I'm going to be chasing this forever - up to the e-drain tonight, oh too much trickle in the morning, oh shoot now it's too low that night... etc etc. Any movement at all will eventually be a problem, right?
Hoping that I'm just having a dumb moment and I'm mistaken about some fundamental concept, here
I very much appreciate any thoughts on the matter!
1) Are these water levels both reflecting evaporative water loss? Seems like a lot. If I set up my ATO to pump into the return chamber, will that keep the overflow compartment of the display tank topped off too? Is the return chamber of the sump the only place I should have to worry about topping off?
2) Am I actually dealing with evaporative water loss AND an ill-calibrated siphon drain? I have a ball valve unfortunately and it's REALLY sticky and difficult to make minor changes to. I've gotten it to what I thought was close.. but... see question 3. This is going to be such a pain.. but I can't say I wasn't warned about the ball valve.
3) General question about about calibrating the main siphon drain: I can't wrap my brain around this... Let's say you find your overflow water level a couple inches too low. You ever so slightly tweak the valve and the water level creeeeeps up toward the emergency drain super SUPER slowly. Like almost imperceptible but it's creepin. Won't you have to adjust it the other way once it reaches the perfect trickle? If you leave it in 'creeping up' mode, HOWEVER slow, you'll slowly go right past slight trickle, right? Isn't the only target that's going to work: perfectly still? And how is anyone achieving that? I'm seriously concerned cause I feel like I'm going to be chasing this forever - up to the e-drain tonight, oh too much trickle in the morning, oh shoot now it's too low that night... etc etc. Any movement at all will eventually be a problem, right?
Hoping that I'm just having a dumb moment and I'm mistaken about some fundamental concept, here
I very much appreciate any thoughts on the matter!
