Pump water between sump chambers?

[CMO]

I will have a separate pump running an algae reactor in the 1st chamber of my 3 chamber sump. Can I pull water from the 1st chamber and have it output to the return chamber in section 3 at the far right, or does the water need to be returned to the 1st chamber where it was pulled from? And similarly, how about with a manifold on the return - can the water be output back in one of the previous chambers or does it need to be output back to the return chamber?

Thanks

 

[hijinks7]

I like to output to the same chamber but you could try to output to a different one

 

[Mandelstam]

I will have a separate pump running an algae reactor in the 1st chamber of my 3 chamber sump. Can I pull water from the 1st chamber and have it output to the return chamber in section 3 at the far right, or does the water need to be returned to the 1st chamber where it was pulled from? And similarly, how about with a manifold on the return - can the water be output back in one of the previous chambers or does it need to be output back to the return chamber?

Thanks

You don't HAVE to do it in any particular way so it's up to what you feel works the best for your setup.

 

[Swampfoxforeman]

I wouldn’t have the return go into the same chamber. Here is the reason I say that; if you have it come back into the same chamber the feed pump with pick up some of the returned water. I feel if you eliminate this from happening your algae will grow better because it will be getting water that the algae in the reactor has not stripped the nutrients out of.

 

[CMO]

Thanks all. Let me clarify my concern though - will pumping water forward to the return chamber change the water level in the return chamber when the algea reactor pump is on, off or flow rate changed? I'm thinking of returning it to the 2nd chamber which has a constant water level as the first to avoid this if so.

I wouldn’t have the return go into the same chamber. Here is the reason I say that; if you have it come back into the same chamber the feed pump with pick up some of the returned water. I feel if you eliminate this from happening your algae will grow better because it will be getting water that the algae in the reactor has not stripped the nutrients out of.

Yeah, that was my thought with having the intake in the 1st chamber and return in the last.

 

[Sleepydoc]

From a fluid flow perspective, either will work. I don't know exactly how you have your sump configured. I'm assuming it's like mine - chamber one on one end gets the overflow from the DT and has the skimmer. Water flows over baffles to chamber 2 then over another baffle to chamber 3.

If instead of reactor you just took the output of your reactor pump and put it up to the DT what would happen? the extra water would flow down to chamber 1 and it would be the same net effect as turning up the return pump to a slightly higher setting.

 

[CMO]

From a fluid flow perspective, either will work. I don't know exactly how you have your sump configured. I'm assuming it's like mine - chamber one on one end gets the overflow from the DT and has the skimmer. Water flows over baffles to chamber 2 then over another baffle to chamber 3.

If instead of reactor you just took the output of your reactor pump and put it up to the DT what would happen? the extra water would flow down to chamber 1 and it would be the same net effect as turning up the return pump to a slightly higher setting.

Yes that's how my sump is set up. I can under stand how pumping water back to the previous chambers or to DT would not change anything but pumping forward to the pump chamber which fluctuates with evaporation has me confused. So pumping water forward to the pump chamber will not change the water height in the pump chamber?

Thanks

 

[Sleepydoc]

Yes that's how my sump is set up. I can under stand how pumping water back to the previous chambers or to DT would not change anything but pumping forward to the pump chamber which fluctuates with evaporation has me confused. So pumping water forward to the pump chamber will not change the water height in the pump chamber?

Thanks

It shouldn’t. The baffles determine the water level in the first two chambers. Unless the reactor pump is larger than your return pump, it simply takes water that would have flown over the baffles and gets it to the return chamber by an alternate route.

Think of it this way - your return pump is putting out 500 gph, which means 500 gph is flowing over the overflows. If the reactor pump takes 100 gph and puts it into the return chamber, that just means that only 400 gph is flowing over the baffles. It does take a bit of time for the levels to equilabrate between the chambers, but not that long (on the order of seconds,) and any variation in the return chamber should be trivial.

 

[Victoria M]

The other problem of running the outlet to a different section is when things go wonky while you're working in the sump. Such as "why is the skimmer sucking air but the last chamber is full?" scratching your head...while doing a water change...and now need 50 gallons of water instead of 25 gallons.
Ta Da! "So there's the problem of putting the GFO reactor outlet in the last chamber"