Sump water level

[Reef addict 01]

So I always see people talking about setting where their water levels going to be in the sump. How do you do that? I'm just using a 20 gallon tank with no baffling or any type of Divisions in it. It's going to be a large refugium. How is it that you set your water level?

 

[Rick.45cal]

Mine stays where I have my automatic top off sensor set at.

 

[CarolinaReefs]

Some others may chime in but, generally you will have a portion of the sump (aka your 20 Gallon) divided with a return pump in it the division. This way any water loss or evaporation causes the level to drop only in the divided section. You can use a piece of tape or a sharpie marker to mark the desired level and then your goal is to always keep the level at the mark. A large sump with no divisions in it will require a lot more make up water to be added to keep the proper level. This could cause a large swing in the salinity of your system.

 

[Bluefish9]

Install baffles. They are invaluable.

 

[Reef addict 01]

Some others may chime in but, generally you will have a portion of the sump (aka your 20 Gallon) divided with a return pump in it the division. This way any water loss or evaporation causes the level to drop only in the divided section. You can use a piece of tape or a sharpie marker to mark the desired level and then your goal is to always keep the level at the mark. A large sump with no divisions in it will require a lot more make up water to be added to keep the proper level. This could cause a large swing in the salinity of your system.

 

[Reef addict 01]

I have that sump it only has one divider in it. And you can see how it doesn't touch the bottom completely it's opened a couple of inches. Would this work better than the 20 gallon.

 

[Bluefish9]

Honestly I would DIY yourself a simple 4 baffle sump. They are very easy to construct and cheap too. I used one almost exactly like this years ago and it was perfect. The last single baffle is what determines your water level.

 

[nervousmonkey]

I had a sump like that; it was meant to be used as a wet/dry trickle sump with bioballs in the first section, the section opposite the drain. Buy filter sock holders from BRS and mount them in that section, the baffle allows water to travel underneath it, then you can add a baffle right after the built in baffle with the open bottom. You can see the tracks in the sides where the acrylic baffle is meant to slide in and down. This will create the area where you can add a skimmer since you can control the water level in that area by the size of the baffle. This particular sump was meant to use an external return pump but I just put this sump inside another container where I added other reactors etc. Hope that helps, all you need is one sheet of acrylic that fits the width and you are ready to create a sump with standard water height for your skimmer chamber.

 

[Triggreef]

Not sure why everyone makes it so difficult. Baffle is to keep air bubbles from getting to pump. You can silicone a price of acrylic to do that. Water level will be maintained by whatever ato you use. Completely fill your tank, get it running, turn off your main pump. Fill your sump to the top and then turn your pump back on. Where the level settles at now, That is the highest point your sump should ever be filled to. So it can handle the drainage without overflowing when you kill your main pump.

Here is my newest and simplest sump /refuge of late. Where i set this float valve on the right, is where the level will be, Normally.

Ignore the temporary plumbing.

 

[Triggreef]

That area from the baffle to the pump will be refuge/macro algae. A little eggcrate before the pump is all that's needed to keep algae from getting sucked up. Keeping it like that also allows a continuous supply of pods to get pumped back into the main tank to keep your fish happy.

Here's a 75g i set up similar 6 months ago. Usually keep a mechanical filtration pad in the drainage side but it's out for washing right now.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I am having a heck of a time getting my sump levels to stay constant. The best I can figure is that I'm having some sort of intermittent siphon that, when not active, leaves water levels in the display tank and sump relatively stable. When the siphon occurs, though, the display tank level is lower and that water is displaced to the sump, causing the ATO high level alarm to go off.

It's driving me nuts, and I have to go out of town in a couple of days. Any ideas for kicking the intermittent siphon to the curb would be greatly appreciated!

 

[MaiReef]

slow your return pump with a valve

 

[AlexG]

The water level in a sump needs to allow for the return pump to be shutoff without creating a flood. When the return pump is powered down determine how much the water rises in the sump. Knowing the amount of water that drains to the sump will allow you to ensure that the highest level of water can be maintained in the sump while not creating the chance of a flood. Baffles can be used to keep the water level higher in some parts of the sump as others lower for evaporation but this will limit the water height in that chamber more as the power down of the return pump will fill a smaller space quicker with water in the return lines and overflow lines.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

slow your return pump with a valve

It's a variable speed pump, so I've been playing with the speed. I've slowed it down, and the everything will be fine for 4-6 hours, then all of a sudden the level in the sump is too high. Slowing the pump down one more notch raises the water level higher, and speeding it up one more notch makes the level too low. I have a ball valve in the discharge of the pump, but ball valves are really bad choices for throttling applications.

 

[Rick.45cal]

What does your overflow design look like? Take a picture please. It's hard to diagnose a problem without being able to see how you have the overflow configured.

Some overflow designs are noisy, but it sounds like you have something that isn't right.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I removed the small valves I had in each drain line that were being used as siphon breakers. With the pump running slower, the drains are not noisy at all. I suspect the issue is that one drain line is significantly longer than the other, creating an imbalance in flow. So far so good...guess we'll see what happens.

 

[CarolinaReefs]

Here is a picture of my sump. The notable things are:
1. Inexpensive - Made from and old 30 gallon tank I had. I know it isn't pretty.
2. Two Acrylic baffles siliconed in place creating 3 sections.
3. There are pvc bulk heads at the bottom of each baffle. This allows me to insert different length stand pipes to change the water level in the 1st two sections.
4. I have ample room in section 2 and 3 to contain the draining water from above when the return is switched off.
5. It's hard to see but my water level in section 3 is the lowest and this is where the return pump is. If for some reason the overflow stops working, this is all of the water that can be pumped up to the tank, and I have sufficient volume left in the tank that this will not flood over the sides.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Well, I finally figured it out. The left overflow has been running very high levels compared to the right overflow, and this has been going on for some time. In fact, it was so bad that I had to reduce my pump output to 30% whereas the overflow system was capable before of handling the entire ~1250 gph from my DCT-6000. Essentially all of the flow was through the right overflow.

Last night, I unscrewed the valve on the top of the left Durso drain as I have done before. No change. Water level was still high. I have closed the valve before completely to induce a siphon in the hopes of dislodging a potential obstruction to no avail. For some reason last night, however, I decided to stick my turkey baster in the hole and give it a squirt or two. WHOOOOSH! The entire overflow flushed like a toilet and dropped 2-3 inches in level almost immediately.

I found this odd, and watched for the rebound in level. There was none. I pulled the associated filter sock to see if anything had come loose. There was a bunch of stuff, for lack of a better word, in the sock. It looked like the same kind of bacterial matting that can plug the condensate line on your air conditioner here in the south. At first, I discounted the possibility that this was the problem, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. If that bacterial buildup can plug a condensate line with 2-3 feet of hydraulic head above it, then surely it is capable of at least partially obstructing a system with only 2-3 INCHES of head to spare!

I now believe this was THE contributing factor in the overfill incident on New Year's Eve.

As of this morning, the overflow is still running normally....and all turbo snails are accounted for

 

[Salahunreal]

Here is a picture of my sump. The notable things are:
1. Inexpensive - Made from and old 30 gallon tank I had. I know it isn't pretty.
2. Two Acrylic baffles siliconed in place creating 3 sections.
3. There are pvc bulk heads at the bottom of each baffle. This allows me to insert different length stand pipes to change the water level in the 1st two sections.
4. I have ample room in section 2 and 3 to contain the draining water from above when the return is switched off.
5. It's hard to see but my water level in section 3 is the lowest and this is where the return pump is. If for some reason the overflow stops working, this is all of the water that can be pumped up to the tank, and I have sufficient volume left in the tank that this will not flood over the sides.

I am in the planning phase to add baffles to the sump and was looking to have something similar to yours but with skimmer at the last section but the skimmer pump in the 2nd section. I thought the 2nd section I can use it maybe as frag tank and so.
If you check my drawing below and the water level heights, for sure this will create waterfall noise, so I am not sure how to setup the baffles to maintain these water heights and with no noise.

How about yours, how is the noise level and can you please elaborate more about point 3
"3. There are pvc bulk heads at the bottom of each baffle. This allows me to insert different length stand pipes to change the water level in the 1st two sections."
I did not understand how you could change the water levels in section 1 and 2 through the stand pipes.

Thanks in advance.

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