Help, my drains won't keep up with my pump.

[asn-naso]

My new tank is a 105G, with a 30-40G sump. The pump is a Little Giant 4-MDQ, with a 1" return line. I plant to split it at the lockline, which I don't have yet. My drains are 1.5" bulkheads, shrunk down to 1" tubing all the way to the sump. (There are 2 drains, 1 return). I built 2 Durso's, and with them, or without them in place, the pump is pushing more water then the drains are draining. I adjusted the flow (via ball valve) of the return, and it helped, but the pump then made more noise. I have the tank in my study, and work from home alot, and would like it to be as quiet as possible.

I am also getting a lot of air coming out of the drain in the sump. I assume this is what's causing my problems. I have tried different size holes in the durso's cap, and also drilled a hole and pushed some RO hose down in there to try and find a way to let the air out. But it isn't helping. I have even removed the top of the durso, and tried to poke the RO hose in there to let the air out, and same problem.

The only thing I have not done, was to create a slit/hole in the durso under the water line. I'd rather not do this, unless it is needed and will solve the problem, because if it doesn't work, I need to go back to the hardware store for more parts.

Any suggestions?

 

[TexSun]

Re: Help, my drains won't keep up with my pump.

Hmmm... maybe a smaller gph pump?

 

[asn-naso]

Hmmm... maybe a smaller gph pump?

LOL - I've already thought about that option, but think there might be something off with my drains and air getting in there. The same pump/sump were running on a different tank and were running ok, which makes me think I can make it work here too.

 

[Bajamike]

Need to do a return line from the pump to the sump. Alot of times this line will control the flow to the tank.

 

[asn-naso]

Need to do a return line from the pump to the sump. Alot of times this line will control the flow to the tank.

Interesting idea. Before I do that, I am getting a ton of air from drain --> sump. How do I minimize this?

 

[CRW Reef]

Re: Help, my drains won't keep up with my pump.

Are your durso pipes 1.25x bigger than bulk heads or what size are your dursos?

 

[FishTV]

Help, my drains won't keep up with my pump.

Is your tank actually overfilling? It seems like you have plenty of drain. If your getting bubbles out of your drain line, you could have too much drain flow. Bubbles = turbulence, and too much turbulence might cost you enough efficiency to reduce flow.

 

[asn-naso]

Are your durso pipes 1.25x bigger than bulk heads or what size are your dursos?

The durso pipe is 1.5", the drain pipe is 1". -- The bulkhead is 1.5", that is why I went with 1.5" durso.

Is your tank actually overfilling? It seems like you have plenty of drain. If your getting bubbles out of your drain line, you could have too much drain flow. Bubbles = turbulence, and too much turbulence might cost you enough efficiency to reduce flow.

If I leave it as is, it will overflow.

 

[opakapaka]

Seems like your drain is being restricted to one point oulet, what I did to minimize that on mines was cut a whole bunch of slits in the drain. I had my drain tube going into my sump then into a hard pvc line with the slits that was there was much more opening for the drain.

 

[FishTV]

Help, my drains won't keep up with my pump.

Maybe a picture of your drain system? Do you have a lot of bends, restrictions?

 

[asn-naso]

I think I just figured it out. When I pull the 2 durso's out, the water level in the overflow area goes down, but the water level in the tank does not. If the pump is on full throttle, it will overflow. I think my built-in overflow isn't allowing enough water through. The tank is a peninsula style, with the overflow on the right side. 18" front to back. Slits are about 1" tall.

I'll try to post pictures later today.

 

[FishTV]

Help, my drains won't keep up with my pump.

Need to do a return line from the pump to the sump. Alot of times this line will control the flow to the tank.

This is a great idea though. I love my bypass just for cleaning my sump ( run the line back through a filtersock).

 

[Zooid]

I think I just figured it out. When I pull the 2 durso's out, the water level in the overflow area goes down, but the water level in the tank does not. If the pump is on full throttle, it will overflow. I think my built-in overflow isn't allowing enough water through. The tank is a peninsula style, with the overflow on the right side. 18" front to back. Slits are about 1" tall.

I'll try to post pictures later today.

That's really weird. The pump is probably only pushing 850gph, the overflow should handle more than that. How narrow are the teeth (spacing)?

 

[andyrm66]

I would say your basement of the overflow is correct. 1" pvc should gravity flow almost 1000gph, you should be able to push nearly 2000 gph gravity through your drains in a full siphon.

Drill some holes in the overflow? Cut more slits, or lower the amount of water going to the tank.

 

[ReefCheif]

Why not put a control valve on the return line and adjust the flow that way?

 

[asn-naso]

I have a ball valve on the return, and have turned it down to restrict the flow. I think I am going to buy a new pump. This guy makes too much noise.

Zooid - the teeth are about 1/4 of an inch wide, and so is the space between them. I counted 4 teeth in 2".

 

[Cake_Boss]

Re: Help, my drains won't keep up with my pump.

I have a hard time believing 1.5" drains can't handle ~800gph. Is there something in your drains? Did you glue everything in? Did you use excessive amounts, enough so that some glue could have dried in such a way to block the pipe?

 

[asn-naso]

Nope, I didn't use glue, only threaded connections. The durso's are set into place, with teflon tape on the bottoms. I am not sure, but think it's the overflow. Does anyone know how to calculate how much water can pass through 18" of 1/4" spaced teeth?

 

[andyrm66]

If your drains aren't running a full siphon, its your overflow that's the issue.

 

[daverf]

I would do a herbie style overflow, if possible. For this, you would cut one durso tube in half (so top of drain is well below where the water line is now). Then you would have to put a ball valve on this return, under tank and before it drains to sump. Once you do this, you will be able to adjust the ball valve (somewhere between fully open and fully shut) so that the cut tube overflow has a full but throttled siphon. You adjust (throttle) the ball valve to a setting where the level of both overflows rises to the other durso. This will give the full durso effect (silence), not cause any gurglings due to the flow, and I predict it will allow you to maintain full flow from your pump.

After doing this, if you think you need to adjust the pump flow (doubtful it would be necessary if you do the above right), I would do as majicmike suggests and not adjust the return line ball valve at all. Adjusting this will burn out your pump early. You don't want to restrict flow into or out of a pump unless it using a flow adjustor within the pump's design (or use smaller plumbing than recommended by the manufacturer).

My $.02