Sump Plumbing Questions

This is the drain from the tank to the sump?

 

Yeah. Sorry for the confusion. The drain will be coming from the DT to the sump. I haven't cut the actual PVC pipe yet but have the fittings laid out. There will be a long piece of PVC on the end of the tee that goes to the sump. Thanks!!!

Ivy

 

I thought it was return...

So I realize the pipe is missing. Still don't quite get it if it is suposed to be horizontal.... So explain...

The DT is comming from the left down to the sump, and the valve is controling flow to fuge???

 

Powerman- I think he speaking of the orientation of the picture as horizontal vs. vertical

 

Sorry for the confusion. I tried using the phone and posting that way, but didn't work (obviously). I appreciate the help though. I think that this picture is oriented correctly. The flow will come down from the DT through the 45 degree bends and then split into the tee. The straight down section is the skimmer section and the long section will go into the fuge. Thanks and let me know if that didn't clear things up.

Regards,
Ivy

 

That's what I thought, and yes, your flow is just going to go to the sump.

You need to back up the drain so to speak, or turn the flow horizontal at some point and take the fuge off the bottom of the pipe. It needs solid flow to work with.

Like the way your tee is now.... turn it so it is pointing the other direction, with a 90 going down to the sump. Then off the bottom of the tee, come with another 90 and then the rest of the pumbing you have to your fuge. That way fuge comes off bottom with solid flow, and the rest free flows to sump.

Does that make sense?

It is a lot of 90s.... work another way to streamline... just it can't be a straight shot down to the sump... because that is what will happen.

 

If you look at post #7 AZ desert rat, he has a straight shot like you. But he has a hose barb in there and those are necked down pretty good inside. I think it provides enough restriction to supply flow to he tee. Obviously it provides enough flow for everything.... but if you use a straight pipe, it might just go straight through.

 

Is this kind of what you were talking about? If so, I don't know if I have that much space to do all of that. I would probably have to replace the 45's with 90's. I was trying to avoid as many 90 degree bends as I could. Would it work if I put the ball valve on the bottom side of the tee as it is oriented in the first set-up? I don' t know if I have space for that either but was just thinking. Thanks!!!!

 

Ya... like that.

I know what you are say. You don't want some ugly mess of spaghetti. You will have to work with what you have. Even if you turned the tee 90 degrees clockwise in your last pic.... it would hit and split in opposite directions. I would want it to look nice too.

You can always try your first way out and see if it works.... if it doesn't you could just restrict the drain to the sump a bit easily to get the desired out come.

 

Even with my barbed adapter I still find most of my flow goes down rather than horizontal. What you don't see is inside the 1"x1/2" tee, I bored out the 1/2" side so the PVC pipe can extend slightly into the flow of the 1" run rather than sop against the rib where you normally glue it. I then shaped the end of the 1/2" pipe at a 45 degree angle so it sort of scoops water out of the main stream.
If I were to do it over I would either turn the tee so it lies horizontal or use a wye fitting instead of a tee so both sides would be capable of getting the same flow.