Sump water line keeps dropping

keddre · Jul 11, 2017

The water live in my tank drops daily. Every night I have to add around 2 gallons of water to the tank to keep the pump from being exposed. I was wondering if anyone has ideas on what causes this. Adding pictures of the whole setup.

jrwoltman · Jul 11, 2017

Over skimming and evaporation? How many gallons is your tank, your sump? Is your system open top?

landlubber · Jul 11, 2017

one word... evaporation.
if you feel handcuffed to your tank with constantly adding water then it is time to start saving for an ato (auto top off) which is imo a necessary piece of equipment.

Flippers4pups · Jul 11, 2017

What is your total water volume? Do you have a ATO on the system?

DancingShark · Jul 11, 2017

If there is no leaks than its possible it's just evaporating.

keddre · Jul 11, 2017

The total water volume is ~40Gallons. It is skimmer free (intentionally), "closed" top (It is pulled out a bit for the overflow), and at this time I might as well look into a top-off since that already sounds like the consensus.

TritonsGarden · Jul 11, 2017

Thirsty fish?

Seriously looks like you have a lot flow which means a lot surface agitation which means a lot evaporation. Two gallons a day on the 40G system seems excessive to me.

jrwoltman · Jul 11, 2017

That's a lot of evaporation for a closed system.

keddre · Jul 11, 2017

Better explanation: The tank itself is closed but the sump is open and lit at night. But even then I think that is a lot of evaporation

Coronus · Jul 11, 2017

Ok so by the way your explaining it, it sounds like basic evaporation that happens to every tank. 2 gallons is kinda high though for 1 day.
Or, if you return pump is too strong. It could be pushing to much water to the sump causing a surge in the sump area as well as in the overflow boxes. This will make the water fluctuate.
Look at the water line in the over flow box. Mark it with something and watch it to see if it rises a bit then falls a bit below your mark. If it does, your pump is too strong and needs to be dialed back a bit. A ball valve can do this at the pump.

Areseebee · Jul 11, 2017

Are you replenishing with salt water or fresh? It's pretty important to add that if it's evaporation make sure you are topping off with fresh RO/DI if it is evaporation (which I would assume it is). If it's leaking somewhere then you need to replenish the salt. If you've been replenishing 2g a day for 5ish days with RO/DI and your salinity hasn't changed then yes it's evaporation, if it were leaking somewhere you'd have a ~20% salinity drop at this point.

keddre · Jul 11, 2017

semi-side question: How long do you think my tank could go without flow. I've been wanting to clean up the plumbing anyway but it would involve letting the plumbing sit for about 24 hours as the stuff redries and currently the pump is my only flow as it gets the whole tank with no dead spots? Thanks

keddre · Jul 11, 2017

Areseebee said:
Are you replenishing with salt water or fresh? It's pretty important to add that if it's evaporation make sure you are topping off with fresh RO/DI if it is evaporation (which I would assume it is). If it's leaking somewhere then you need to replenish the salt. If you've been replenishing 2g a day for 5ish days with RO/DI and your salinity hasn't changed then yes it's evaporation, if it were leaking somewhere you'd have a ~20% salinity drop at this point.

I am refilling with fresh as the salinity is not changing, that was one of the things that I thought to check along with leaks

Best Fish-Jake · Jul 11, 2017

keddre said:
semi-side question: How long do you think my tank could go without flow. I've been wanting to clean up the plumbing anyway but it would involve letting the plumbing sit for about 24 hours as the stuff redries and currently the pump is my only flow as it gets the whole tank with no dead spots? Thanks

You can put a small power head in the display for a bit of flow while you redo plumbing.. I wouldn't let the tank sit still for a full day..

Vahanyos · Jul 11, 2017

I had my flow off due to an outage for almost 24 hours. Everything made it out fine.

To answer your question, you can have he flow off for a an hour or two easily

keddre · Jul 11, 2017

Thanks you two, I'll throw on my old power head and try to get it done as quickly as possible. Maybe at night when everything isn't moving and hopefully my anemone won't move

jd371 · Jul 11, 2017

If you have a pump and air stone you can use that as well to get more oxygen into the water.

Vahanyos · Jul 11, 2017

I dont know how long you plan to have it off, but I should note that every 2-3 hours or so i would agitate the surface of the water with my finger or a stick for like 30 seconds or so just to get some oxygen in there... but my fish were not stressed at all (maybe spooked) during the no flow time..

John Lohsr · Jul 11, 2017

I dont know where you live. I have had a 40 gal that used less then a gal per day. I live in the high dessert of Colorado where humidity is low. I now have a 90 that loses about 1.5 gals a day so IMO 2 gals is very high.

Mfreddy · Jul 11, 2017

My 270 total water volume system loses 2 gallons a day during the summer when I have a fan over the sump. In the winter when the fan is off it's more like 1 to 1 1/2 gallons.