I always read that the drain line into the sump should be 1” below the water level. Is that minimum or exact number? Can it be deeper into the water? Just curious, I never paid attention and thought about today as mine is 6” below water level in sump.
Sump Drain Line
- Thread starter bmbpka
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Peach02
Valuable Member
The reason for not having the line too high is.... honestly efficiency otherwise I'm not sure
The reason for not having it too low is that when your return pump turns off for water changes or a power outage the display tank will drain to the level of the drain line so for example if your drain line is at the bottom of the tank and your return turns off, your entire tank will drain into your sump and likely overflow your tank and flood your room depending on tank size
The reason for not having it too low is that when your return pump turns off for water changes or a power outage the display tank will drain to the level of the drain line so for example if your drain line is at the bottom of the tank and your return turns off, your entire tank will drain into your sump and likely overflow your tank and flood your room depending on tank size
Mine is about 3 inches into the sump. I did it that way to reduce the gurgling and splash. Any deeper, and it seemed to be more splashy, and shorter was worse too.
I arrived at my length via trial and error.
I’m not sure there is a wrong answer to this.
I arrived at my length via trial and error.
I’m not sure there is a wrong answer to this.
JoshH
Tank Status: Wet...ish, growing things....
I believe the OP is talking about the main drain line as it enters the sump water level. Not the height of the drain line in the overflow box.
Basically it comes down to two things. Noise and back pressure. Ideally you want your main siphon lower than the waterline in the sump and this is to eliminate any noise from the water entering the sump. But too low into the water line and the water can create back pressure in the main drain which prevents the air in the line from escaping. If the air can't escape the main drain ends up getting choked and the siphon will not form.
Unfortunately, literally every system is different in this case, different drain sizes, designs, pipe length, drain run and volume of flow all play a role in this equation which is why there really is no one size fits all depth for the pipe to enter the water in the sump.
So to answer your question, no, there is no set depth the pipe has to go into the sump. Ideally the lower it is the quieter it is, but it needs to be short enough to prevent the issue I described above. If your pipe is 6 inches into your sump and the siphon starts with no issues, then your good to go
Last edited:
I believe the OP is talking about the main drain line as it enters the sump water level. Not the height of the drain line in the overflow box.
Basically it comes down to two things. Noise and back pressure. Ideally you want your main siphon lower than the waterline in the sump and this is to eliminate any noise from the water entering the sump. But too low into the water line and the water can create back pressure in the main drain which prevents the air in the line from escaping. If the air can't escape the main drain ends up getting choked and the siphon will not form.
Unfortunately, literally every system is different in this case, different drain sizes, designs, pipe length, drain run and volume of flow all play a role in this equation which is why there really is no one size fits all depth for the pipe to enter the water in the sump.
So to answer your question, no, there is no set depth the pipe has to go into the sump. Ideally the lower it is the quieter it is, but it needs to be short enough to prevent the issue I described above. If your pipe is 6 inches into your sump and the siphon starts with no issues, then your good to go
This is exactly what I’m talking about! Thank you.
Only issue I’m noticing is the water enters the sump at an aggressive speed. Lots of turbulence in the sock compartment. Other than that, seems to run quite well.
