Questions about sumps

[instantaquatics]

Hello. Never done a sump but I have some questions.

Been looking for hang on the back over flow boxes and have found some of those, but what I am curious about is pumps and gravity.
So an overflow box's purpose is to have water run down into the sump just by using gravity, but what if it's too much and the pump can't take it, or too little? Is that why you should get an adjustable pump and a valve for your plumbing?

How do you seal the PVC? Just normal PVC glue?

Should you run the pvc tubing into the sump so incase the pump stops working, the water does not overflow the sump?

 

[User1]

Hello. Never done a sump but I have some questions.

Been looking for hang on the back over flow boxes and have found some of those, but what I am curious about is pumps and gravity.
So an overflow box's purpose is to have water run down into the sump just by using gravity, but what if it's too much and the pump can't take it, or too little? Is that why you should get an adjustable pump and a valve for your plumbing?

How do you seal the PVC? Just normal PVC glue?

Should you run the pvc tubing into the sump so incase the pump stops working, the water does not overflow the sump?

If you are familiar with working on basic plumbing, sprinklers, then you should be fine. PVC glue and primer. Cut to length, sand both ends, wipe clean, primer both pieces, apply glue, turn 90 degree, apply pressure, rotate to position, apply pressure, count to 30, done. More or less it but you got the idea.

I'm going to step aside the sump question for a bit. BRS TV and a few others have good / helpful sump videos.

 

[Scotty Buttons]

The overflow box is rated for GPH so you'll want a pump that is comparable to the GPH of the over flow box. I have a overflow that is rated for 600 GPH and I use a 500 GPH return pump. You can use regular PVC glue for all the connections. I would recommend some unions so you can take apart the piping if needed. You'll also want to make sure there is enough room in the sump so in the event of a power failure your sump can handle the extra couple gallons of water that will continue to drain. Hopefully this is helpful, don't be afraid to ask more questions.

 

[WVNed]

Excuse my art. Many people have trouble understanding how overflows work.
This is a simple example of how one works.
Here we have 2 buckets. The top bucket has a pipe in it through the bottom and down to the bottom bucket.
The bottom bucket has a pump and pumps water back to the top bucket.
The water in the top bucket will only rise until it starts to go down the pipe back to the bottom.
SO the water goes in a circle from bottom to top and back down.
If the pump stops the top bucket will only drain down to the top of the pipe. The top bucket will stay mostly full.
As long as the bottom bucket has a little extra room to catch the drain down no water goes on the floor.

The top bucket here is the back box of an overflow and the bottom bucket is the sump.

You should not put a valve on an overflow that has only one drain. All the water the pump sends up has to go down the one drain. You don't want to restrict it.
To have control you want to use an overflow that has 2 drains. You put a valve on one of them and leave the other open.

You put together fish tank PVC plumbing the same way you would house plumbing and use the same glue sold with the pipe at Home Depot. There are many places on how to do PVC plumbing on the net.

Pumps have to be smaller than the amount of water that can go down the drain. This is measured in GPH or gallons per hour for both pumps and overflows. If the pump is too big it can pump the water up faster than it can drain down and oops flood.