How much to fill the sump?

[Sarah1990]

Sonive just filled the tank finally, would you say this is as full as the sump should be with the pump off or should I fill higher? It's just up to the top of the baffle in the centre

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

Sonive just filled the tank finally, would you say this is as full as the sump should be with the pump off or should I fill higher? It's just up to the top of the baffle in the centre

Create a power outage and see how much water drains from display into the sump. That'll tell you how much water to keep in there.

 

[Sarah1990]

Create a power outage and see how much water drains from display into the sump. That'll tell you how much water to keep in there.

The pump is switched off so this is how it would go if there was a power cut but I assume the sump shouldnt be full to the top?

 

[Greybeard]

Nope. No need to fill the sump to the rim... leave yourself some safety room.

I run my sump at a level that (A) suits the equipment running in the sump, skimmer, reactors, etc... and (B) insures that no air is sucked in at the return pump. Any higher than that is unnecessary.

When the power is off, and all water that is going to drain into the sump has done so, I still have several inches of sump capacity left. That's just as it should be.

Oh... if you're relying on anti backflow valves to keep water from draining into the sump... don't. Force them to fail, because they're almost guaranteed to do so at some point, and you _really_ don't want to flood your sump.