Water Control

Alrighty, yet another newb question. How is the best way to control flow from tank to sump / sump to tank? I cannot seem to get an equalibrium between the two (either there is too much flow from the bulkheads or the pump is sending too much into the tank. I have two valves on my plumbing going from tank to sump and one on my pump to tank. I added the second valve today with a turn knob for additional control. It is working better but I still have it going slowly one way or the other.

I am hoping you all might have some suggestions

Thanks,
Jay

 

Your return pump determines the water thats circulated from the sump to the tank and back to the sump.

Don't try to control the downward flow of water from the tank down to the sump. Leave it fully open.

Only Control the return pump that is pumping water from your sump into your display tank and adjust it accordingly.

Your downward flow will automatically adjust itself; unless you have too much flow you will see the display tank filling up, at this time you need to throttle the retrurn to get the desired level

Hope i didnt confuse you more.

 

FIRST THING, get rid of the brass gate valve immediately!!!

Brass contains copper and will kill your tank. use PVC valves and a ball valve is fine, flow does not have to be precise.

As long as your overflow is sized correctly, your return pump will control the overflow and return rates both. Never, ever restrict the overflow to the sump, make sure its wide open with no restrictions for gunk to hang up on and plug the line. Put a ball valve on the return side of the pump and control flow with that.

The tank level and overflow will balance out with the return.

Fill your display tank so the water level is right at the teeth in the overflow box. Next fill your sump about half way then start the pump with the valve open and the overflow unrestricted. The pump should raise the level in the display tank slightly and wate rshould start flowing down to the sump. If the sump drains too quickly valve the return pump down slightly until you reach a happy medium.

What sort of overflow do you have? It appears to be the same size PVC as the return and usually the overflow isat least one size bigger since its gravity and the return is inder pressure so can flow more in a smaller pipe. Does the overflow have a standpipe on it and does it draw in air so it flows smoothly or does it gulp andspit out large bubbles?

 

I won't repeat what you said .... I'll just give you a big +1

 

I will change out the valves, I live in a small town and there are not a lot of options at my Home Depot. The only PVC valves are the turn type and they are not precise at all. The overflow is actually a modified eclipse that pulls water into a chamber, I drilled a hole and put in a bulkhead. This goes to the sump the return is going into the second chamber that goes back into the tank. What I like is if the power goes out water flow to and back is stopped with no flooding. Since both pumps are self primed when the power turns back on everything starts working. Hope that makes sense? Both are using 1/2 pvc. I will likely need to order pvc valves online that can allows for a little more precision.

Do I need to change out water? The valves have been on for about 2 days now.

Thanks for the great advice.

 

Explain the two pumps again? It makes no sense to me. Its impossible to balance two pumps so they pump precisely the same amount so you may be setting yourself up for trouble.
Get a poly pad and stick it in the water to remove any traces of copper.

Ball valves are plenty precise for our uses. Its all I have ever used and it only requires one valve on the return pump discharge anyway so precision is not needed, flows can vary a little one way or the other. Actually your pump should be matched to your overflow so not much throttling should be needed.

 

That is probably my problem because I am rigging the units from scratch and using the pump that came with the Eclipse system to bring water into the first chamber and a Rio 1600 from previous tanks. One pump brings water from tank to a upper chamber which drains into sump (some over flows into return chamber as well). The pump in the sump pushes water into a second chamber that flows into the tank. The only time I could see this system failing is if one of the pumps fail (but I could be very wrong). Adding picture, hope it helps.

 

well if i understand this correctly, you are bringing water from the tank (with a pump) into the chamber that goes to the sump, The problem here is the pump over time may slow down and the pump in the sump will push all the water back up into the dt(or visa versa). getting 2 pumps to work in equilibrium just doesn't work. It may work at first but it is proven to fail.

is there some way you can make it totally gravity fed from the tank?

 

Kelly, since you already have the set up, for just a little money you could buy an appropriate over flow box and use it. It will be worth it.

 

The way you are doing it will never work and is a flood waiting to happen. One pump will always outrun the other, even if they are exactly the same pump. Get an overflow box or have the tank drilled, those are to only two options.
I would forget the sump for now and just use the Eclipse until you can get a properly sized overflow or you will be in big trouble.