Looking for plumbing help

[BiGGiePauls33]

As long as your sump holds the water when the power goes off, you'll be fine. I raised my secondary drain as well, I have a 74 gallon sump and when power is off I have a out 1-2" to spare.

 

[Duds]

Am I the only old one that turns return pump off during feeding lol.

 

[Cpage101]

I’ll try to explain it better. I’ve told others before, it was my first time plumbing and I am really clueless so idk I winged it. Bayareareefer has the same tank and he recommended I increase the height of the secondary drain pipe in the overflow box to raise my water level because stock water level on this tank was quite low. I had agreed. So I added an extra inch to my secondary. So now, my water level is an extra inch high. I just measured the water level in the overflow box and it’s sitting at 4.5”. Maybe a bad idea. If you guys think it’s a recipe for disaster, I can easily remove secondary drain pipe and bring it back to stock height. I’m open to learning and this was just a subject I had no clue on. But hey my water height is really nice lol I like how full the tank looks.

as long as your sump holds the extra capacity, I wouldn’t worry too much about it obviously it takes a little bit longer to even out when you turn the system back on. If you raised it by an inch, what is the height of your emergency drain it must be really close to overflowing the overflow?

 

[Reefried]

I’ll try to explain it better. I’ve told others before, it was my first time plumbing and I am really clueless so idk I winged it. Bayareareefer has the same tank and he recommended I increase the height of the secondary drain pipe in the overflow box to raise my water level because stock water level on this tank was quite low. I had agreed. So I added an extra inch to my secondary. So now, my water level is an extra inch high. I just measured the water level in the overflow box and it’s sitting at 4.5”. Maybe a bad idea. If you guys think it’s a recipe for disaster, I can easily remove secondary drain pipe and bring it back to stock height. I’m open to learning and this was just a subject I had no clue on. But hey my water height is really nice lol I like how full the tank looks.

Oh ok I think I get it.

When I change the height of my secondary drain pipe in overflow box, it just raises or lowers water in the overflow box. It does not change tank water level. I’m sure it may a little bit but not enough to notice.

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

Am I the only old one that turns return pump off during feeding lol.

I used to, now I don't bother with the voracious fish in there. I think I'm up around 20 ish. Some quite large, some tiny

 

[jayteerq]

As long as your sump holds the water when the power goes off, you'll be fine. I raised my secondary drain as well, I have a 74 gallon sump and when power is off I have an out 1-2" to spare.

Word that’s exactly my case. 1-2” to spare. A little sketchy hahaha

 

[jayteerq]

as long as your sump holds the extra capacity, I wouldn’t worry too much about it obviously it takes a little bit longer to even out when you turn the system back on. If you raised it by an inch, what is the height of your emergency drain it must be really close to overflowing the overflow?

Yeah it’s about 1” from the edge hahaha

 

[Cooper2]

I’ll try to explain it better. I’ve told others before, it was my first time plumbing and I am really clueless so idk I winged it. Bayareareefer has the same tank and he recommended I increase the height of the secondary drain pipe in the overflow box to raise my water level because stock water level on this tank was quite low. I had agreed. So I added an extra inch to my secondary. So now, my water level is an extra inch high. I just measured the water level in the overflow box and it’s sitting at 4.5”. Maybe a bad idea. If you guys think it’s a recipe for disaster, I can easily remove secondary drain pipe and bring it back to stock height. I’m open to learning and this was just a subject I had no clue on. But hey my water height is really nice lol I like how full the tank looks.

Most recipes for disaster start with sprinkle modification....lol

Controlling the water level in the display is best accomplished by tuning the area of the weirs if you can't raise them. Altering the height of the pipes in the overflow usually leads to noise or poor performance at some point. I've used flex seal tape to block a few teeth on the weirs of a few aquariums and it works really well. Non-toxic and been doing it long enough to know its safe.

The thing I really wanted mention is for anyone dealing with a system that nearly overflows the sump in power off scenarios, and is using any brand of fleece roller. Be sure to power the roller through your controller (Apex GHL whatevs) and have it on a delay after power restoration. If it simply comes on right away, your roller will burn through the roll until the sump level returns to normal. 5 minutes is a good hysteresis setting for delay in most cases. And get rid of check valves, half the time they stick open anyway. If raising your return outlet is difficult or undesirable, try drilling a hole that will let you press in an airline fitting into it and use a short length of airline to rise straight up and loop back towards and into the water. Trim this airline to just below the surface and watch the siphon break at exactly the right time...everytime. Nothing to stick or fail.