[pyromaniac398]

so i added a small sump to my 20g mixed reef. The sump is just an acrylic box that fits behind the tank. I opted to not go with an overflow box. THe siphon tube was just to likley to loose siphon especially if the power went out. I made an overflow out of pvc and it works great. I used 3/4 in pvc it would give me the gph i needed. I faked multiple two hour power outages and the overflow never lost its siphon here are pictures:

This is the overflow:


Water goes in through the strainer at the top. then up over the side of the tank and out into the sump. The open ended pipe is an air release and the primer. I put a check valve in the top to suck out any air bubbles that get caught that way I have a perfect siphon, or close to it

Here it is in the tank:

[e_baer]

wow, that is neat, im not sure if i understand exactly how it owrks, but that looks neat!

does everything in the first pic go into the tank?

[pyromaniac398]

Here is a layout

The blue parts are in the tank the red are outside of the tank. The blue arrows indicate where the water flows

[pyromaniac398]

I hope that is easier to understand

[e_baer]

ooooo, i see, i didnt relize that there were notches cut on the top.

[Cern]

That is awesome, going to try building this today.

[Lowej82]

Nice Job, that even looks a little better than a hob overflow,I hate the way mine looks at back of tank. Cant wait to get my 55 drilled.

[Cern]

Well mine "works" even tho I seem to have built it a bit different. How many gph would you estimate it moves?

[pyromaniac398]

3/4 in pvc moves anywhere from 300-600 gph. I dont have that big of an inlet or overflow so mine is more leaning toward the 300 gph direction

[WhiteNgold]

pyro is helping w/ mine, his seems to work flawlessly. better than my "whisperer"(lol).

[megahaus]

I don't understand why mine is not siphoning at all. I am getting a very small trickle. I have it coming out of the rear corner of my 29g into the rear corner of my 10g sitting right next to it... if you know what could be going on please help.
andrew

[Cern]

well i have the same problem but i screwed up. My elbow goes into the T fitting and then the actual T part goes to the sump and straight up is the open pipe. I ended up having to put an endcap on that to keep siphon.


OK the red section is whats wrong with mine. It allows the siphon to break without the end cap on it so to start the siphon I have a ball valve that has to be turned off. Fill up the siphon, put the end cap on, start the sump and open the valve. Also to feed the sump fast enough I have the slotted intake pipe upside down almost defeating the purpose, however I drilled a few holes above/at the water line and those skim the top. Meanwhile the underside with the slots allows for serious drainage into the sump without the terrible siphon/sucking noise. Basically when I built it I ended up putting the T junction on backwards which caused all my problems. I am going to rebuild it but as of right now it's siphoning just fine and with the float switch for my pump it's impossible for it to flood. What happens if the power goes out on mine the return line will siphon a bit (maybe 3 gallons) into the sump and trip the float which shuts the sump off until i take those gallons out of the sump.

Not ideal but it is now 100% impossible to flood, isn't making a lot of noise and is effectively skimming the top of the water and maintaining siphon and water level in the sump.

[megahaus]

okay.. I ended up sing the check valve to start the siphon. and lowered the point of intake. that starts a good flow... but I can't get my intake to the sump to keep the siphon.. do I need to put an endcap on mine also? I don't have a float switch and that kinda sucks because it's sunday night and I don't have one. So.. here's what happened. I had it doing great for 10 minutes, no change in water level, then I went to go grab a bite to eat in the kitchen for about 15-20 minutes and bam.. I've flooded my bedroom (which includes the awesome red oak that my tank happens to be sitting on) What happened was my siphon broke it's siphon because my pump couldn't exactly keep up with it. I'm using 3/4 inch pvc and return pump is a 525 pond pump (had it in something else before using it for the return) So knowing that the 3/4 inch pvc could drain that fast I got a ball valve and cut it off ALOT!!. But when my siphon broke my pump kept pumping its pathetic 100 gph tops. I don't want this to happen again..

[pyromaniac398]

if that illustration of yours is what it is like then yours will not keep siphon after a power outage. The way that mine is set up the t is raised so that water stays in the U-tube even after water drops before the overflow level. Its really hard to explain through typing. Your drainage point has to be higher than the bottom of the U-tube. Its the only way your water will stay in the u-tube so that when water starts again it will continue to siphon.

[Cern]

Actually my drawing was done in haste and my intake is in fact lower than the U tube. My flaw is the red section without an end cap it breaks siphon since its a straight shot right down to the sump. It's almost identical to the one you built except for the T junction mix up. It works great even with the flaw i built into it. I'll get around to building a new one pretty soon, I'm just sick of fiddling with the sump/plumbing.

Megahaus I had the same problem, I was using a fluval 203 for a return pump lol. You will just have to find the right amount of throttle on the valve for now so your pump can keep up. Id say watch it for at least 20/30 minutes. Then go back and check it often until you can sleep well. I had to cap my open tube because I built it wrong. However if it is loosing siphon for no reason you probably have an air leak somewhere. I had a check valve in one of the caps sealed with some aquarium silicone and it came loose and would slowly cause a siphon break. So if it's slowly breaking siphon you might have a leak somewhere.

I think a flood is inevitable for any first time sump builders.

[megahaus]

so.. what is the max gph flow on this, have you tried it.. how can I maximize this flow potential.
when I do practice power outages, the flow never returns unless I cover the two open pipes.. return and the other thing. that then lets air bubbles out of the intake. how can I stop this?

[ibefishy]

pyromaniac, i was wondering if you have tried to use any 45 degree elbows in place of some of the 90 degree ones to help with the flow? I was going to try to make one of the overflows that you made but thought of using the 45's instead of a few of the 90's. Also the little blue valve at the top, is that one of those little valves used to keep water from siphoning back into an air pump?

[rogue97gtp]

Does anybody know the lengths of the pipes? I am building this as well and want to make sure I have built it right.

[e_baer]

Yeah, I would also like to know because I plan on making this in the VERY near future.

[Lowej82]

I have a 600 gph Hurricane Quiet Flow hob over flow never used I would let go for $15.00 + shipping if interested send me a pm for pics.