Sump Question - What happens when overflow blocks?

[maurod]

I am going to add a sump to my system in the coming weeks and had a question regarding how to prevent or safeguard what seems to be an unavoidable problem.

How do you design the system so that if your overflow blocks, you do not dump the contents of your sump onto the floor?

The only design consideration I can think of to prevent this is to make the volume of return section of the sump contain less water than would overflow your tank if all of it was pumped up there.

History - 29gal display with a future 29gal sump, and an external overflow(which I am still looking for - hopefully Dawn's will work!).

Thanks for all answers...

M.

 

[dedfish]

If your overflow gets blocked you need to worry about your tank overflowing. The water in the sump will continue to pump through your returns and the tank would not have a chance to drain. You can prevent the chance of this happening by having redundant drains. On a tank your size that could take up a lot of space. I think having a overflow box with a cover so things can not get inside is a good idea. Also regular tank maintainence and checking the drain will go a long way.

 

[Richard]

why dont you just have 2 drains drill in the back of the tank. That way if one get clog the other will continue to drain.

 

[maurod]

I guess I could add a second overflow, but how do you guys live with the possible nightmare of many gallons of salt water just flooding your floor ?

Am I just too paranoid? In IT, we look to prevent any predictable failure. This seems like an inevitability , why not design to handle it? Can you design to handle it?


M.

 

[smcnally]

You just have to design it around that. My last setup was set so if my pump failed and turned into a syphon, the syphon would break before the sump overflowed. In the opposite sense, it was set up so if the overflow blocked, the area that contained the pump (in the sump) only held enough water so that it could not overfill the tank.

 

[One Eye]

I used to just let it overflow....that way I was guaranteed to do water changes

 

[NateHanson]

I don't think it's inevitable (this from a guy who totally flooded his living room only months ago). Unless you can create redundant drains, I think the best solution is just to keep large items out of your drain. I now have 12" of 1" PVC with an 1/8" wide slit cut half-way through the width of the pipe, on alternating sides, about every 1/2". The result is a very large amount of surface area on the strainer, so it can't be blocked unless I drop a plastic bag in my tank, and more importantly the slits are too small to allow anything big enough to clog the drain into the plumbing. Anything that can crawl through an 1/8" slit will easily flow down my plumbing to the sump.

Making your return area small enough that the display can't overflow will also work, but it means you have to be very regular with top-off, or install an auto-topoff system (and that introduces a whole new set of flood potentials ).

 

[dz6t]

Or go without a sump and use hang-on refugium. Murphy's law states "if water is pump out of the tank, it will end up on the floor."

 

[Jim Tansey]

I have 20 gal sump feeding a 75, the pump is located high up in the sump so that it will run dry before overflowing the tank.

Jim