New with sump, Water level question?

Hi i just finished building my sump and i wanted to put an auto top off with the floating thing inside the sump, but what i dont understand is how the level of the sump is going to be the same of the tank.

Or i think that the only way that the level in the sump is going to go down is until the the overflow in the tank stops then the level in the sump is going to go down because is missing water but if the overflow never stops then i suppose that the level inside the sump is going to be always the same.

That way how am i going to have the little floating thing to go down and start to put water in the sump if the sump is always in the same level. THATS WHAT MY LOGIC TELLS ME BUT NEED HELP FIGURING IT OUT. THANKS

 

The overflow never stops. Your return pump will always provide water to the DT as long as evaporation has not brought the water level below the return pump's threshold for water delivery. It's evaporation that triggers the ATO to kick in. As long as the return pump is working properly and the overflow maintains siphon, the DT water levels will remain the same.

 

check out melevsreef.com ..............dude has tons of info on sumps.

 

As stated above, the DT level stays constant. Depending on how your sump is set up, water levels in your return pump area will decrease, depending on evaporation. You can test this for yourself, if you like, by filling your tank and sump to ideal levels, and then siphoning out a gallon of water. If you do so, you will see that your DT level stays constant, but your sump return water level falls.

So simply determine what level you want the water in your return section to be, and set that level as the threshold for your float switch. Whenever the water level falls below that value, your float switch will activate, and pump RO water (hopefully) into the sump.

Incidentally, the way I determined what level I wanted in my sump was by shutting off the power to my tank, and seeing how much the water level rises in my sump. You don't want to add so much water that your sump will overflow in case of a power-outage. So fill it such that you still have a reasonable amount of empty space in the sump when the power goes out.

Hope that helps (and is clear enough?)

 

Yes guys it helped a lot thank you.

 

As st

 

whoops,last time I try to post off my iphone...lol.

 

If I might add one thing to JJK's posting. The separating baffle heights and the amount of them installed affect the over all flows across through and water heights with in the sump. Example... your pump sections baffle might be too high or compartment too small and at start up or power faults may cause a dry run or cavitating pump with chronic air ingestion. If it is not running yet and this was not already thought out I'd consider this for optimum performance. Also remember anything you ADD or REMOVE to the sump changes the capacity and flow. Some skimmers hold and displace more than others and require specific depths. This Is semi off topic but will affect the placement and effectiveness of the auto top off you want to install.