Moved Sump To Basement, Having Water Level Issues

[mbarber87]

Long story short, I moved my 425xl sump to the basement to clean things up a bit and make more room for future upgrades. Everything is going well, other than the fact that I can't seem to dial in a consistent water level.

I feel as though my water level fluctuates pretty regularly, making my ATO go off every 20-30 mins is the water "rebalances" out. So the ATO triggers when the water is low (even tho its not low), and within 24-36 hours, my display tank is 2-3cm from overflowing. So I lower the power of the pump to drop the levels, which works great as a temp fix. However, once the water starts fluctuating again, I have the same issue.

Am I missing something here? Maybe with the extra distance there's more involved than when the sump was under the tank? Anything would be helpful! thanks

 

[Vette67]

Sounds to me like your pump is pushing more water than your overflow can handle. I have my sump in my basement, and in almost 20 years, I have never had my tank level change. The sump, on the other hand, has had issues with leaks and such and has had some disastrous level changes.

How are your overflows set up? My 180 has 2 corner overflows, with 1 inch vinyl hoses that dump into a single 1.5 inch rigid PVC. With the overflows, you want the flow to be as straight as possible, so water moves freely. Without seeing how your overflows are plumbed, it’s difficult to know if flow there is an issue.

The easiest thing to try is to reduce flow from your recirculation pump so that your overflows can handle the flow. You would be fine with 3 or 4 times flow turnover. What size pump are you using, and how high up is it from your sump to your tank?

 

[Shirak]

Long story short, I moved my 425xl sump to the basement to clean things up a bit and make more room for future upgrades. Everything is going well, other than the fact that I can't seem to dial in a consistent water level.

I feel as though my water level fluctuates pretty regularly, making my ATO go off every 20-30 mins is the water "rebalances" out. So the ATO triggers when the water is low (even tho its not low), and within 24-36 hours, my display tank is 2-3cm from overflowing. So I lower the power of the pump to drop the levels, which works great as a temp fix. However, once the water starts fluctuating again, I have the same issue.

Am I missing something here? Maybe with the extra distance there's more involved than when the sump was under the tank? Anything would be helpful! thanks

Sounds like it’s not draining properly to the sump. Maybe your line is getting air in it that’s not going through and is causing the fluctuations in amount draining

 

[mrk1720]

Are you using the same return pump? The backpressure and distance has changed and probably not enough to keep up.

 

[mbarber87]

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Sounds like it’s not draining properly to the sump. Maybe your line is getting air in it that’s not going through and is causing the fluctuations in amount draining

any ideas how to make sure it’s not air?

 

[Shirak]

What kind of overflow are you running? How long is the drain? How many drain lines are you using and what size? If you have two lines do you have a gate valve on the main drain? Are they going directly or mostly straight down into the sump?

 

[Shirak]

If the end of your drains are below the water line in the sump you could try raising them up above. That would allow air in the lines to exit easier

 

[Flippers4pups]

@mbarber87, can you snap some pictures of your setup? DT overflows and plumbing down to the sump?