Can't stabilize the water level

[OGKro]

Hi,

I'm struggling to stabilize the water level in sump/display tank. If i open the the valve too much the water is too deep in the overflow box. If i close it too much the water in the pump compartment gets really low. So i've tried playing with the pump speed. I set it too 50 at the beginning but it kept draining and no matter what i did the pump compartment was always low in water. So i've tried reducing how much water the return pump pushes. And now by reducing it the level in the overflow box is really low.


Here's a pic of my sump

 

[I never finish anythi]

Any water evaporation and the return chamber will drop . And it's a very small return chamber so it will drop throughout the day if you ain't got an ato ???

 

[OGKro]

Any water evaporation and the return chamber will drop . And it's a very small return chamber so it will drop throughout the day if you ain't got an ato ???

I do have an ato. But its not dropping from evaporation its dropping because i cant figure out how much the return pump should be running at or how much much the valve should be open

 

[Dburr1014]

if open the the valve too much the water is too deep in the overflow box. If i close it too much the water in the pump compartment gets really low.

This seems backwards.
What 'valve' are you opening and closing?
If it's a gate valve between the overflow box and sump, your statement is backwards.
If it's a gate valve between your pump and tank, your statement does make sense but you're playing with the wrong valve.

Can you explain better?

 

[mboley]

This seems backwards.
What 'valve' are you opening and closing?
If it's a gate valve between the overflow box and sump, your statement is backwards.
If it's a gate valve between your pump and tank, your statement does make sense but you're playing with the wrong valve.

Can you explain better?

That's what I was thinking. You don't need a valve on the overflow to sump. That needs to flow freely, otherwise you could overflow the tank. Just play with the valve on the pump side, set the water level you want in the tank, then adjust water in sump to a line on the sump. Use a sharpie or a piece of tape. Then adjust ATO to maintain that level.

 

[OGKro]

This seems backwards.
What 'valve' are you opening and closing?
If it's a gate valve between the overflow box and sump, your statement is backwards.
If it's a gate valve between your pump and tank, your statement does make sense but you're playing with the wrong valve.

Can you explain better?

Sorry i don't know all the terms. I had a nano tank with a back chamber so this sump thing is brand new to me.
By valve i mean the red knob on the left side that i can turn left to open more or turn right to close more. Open = more water/ close = less water.
So i have that to play with and the return pump power. And i feel like the return pump chamber is always sending the water to the display faster than theres water coming down

 

[John K]

Is this a siphon drain or traditional / open / duroso? (Sounds like a siphon set up. If so, second to the comment that you need an emergency/ back up)

Anyway.. when you slow the drain flow, the water level in the overflow will go up, and the same volume of water will go down in the pump section of your sump. This is inevitable as the water volume remains the same. Make that same adjustment, AND add additional saltwater to make up the amount your sump went down, and you should be in business.

 

[OGKro]

Is this a siphon drain or traditional / open / duroso? (Sounds like a siphon set up. If so, second to the comment that you need an emergency/ back up)

Anyway.. when you slow the drain flow, the water level in the overflow will go up, and the same volume of water will go down in the pump section of your sump. This is inevitable as the water volume remains the same. Make that same adjustment, AND add additional saltwater to make up the amount your sump went down, and you should be in business.

I have an emergency aswell, its a reefer 250 (if that info might help).

Does it mattr where i add the water ? In display or sump ?

 

[Dburr1014]

That's what I was thinking. You don't need a valve on the overflow to sump. That needs to flow freely, otherwise you could overflow the tank. Just play with the valve on the pump side, set the water level you want in the tank, then adjust water in sump to a line on the sump. Use a sharpie or a piece of tape. Then adjust ATO to maintain that level.

No, well that depends.
If he has a single standpipe you're correct. If he has a herbie or a bean your statement is incorrect.

 

[OGKro]

No, well that depends.
If he has a single standpipe you're correct. If he has a herbie or a bean your statement is incorrect.

Whats a stand pipe, herbie and bean ?

 

[Dburr1014]

I have an emergency aswell, its a reefer 250 (if that info might help).

Does it mattr where i add the water ? In display or sump ?

Okay, you have an emergency drain, great.
So you're going to play with the valve that comes from the tank overflow box to your sump.

First and foremost, set your pump speed where you feel comfortable running it and leave it. Don't touch it again.

With your valve completely open start closing it slowly till you see bubbles coming out your Emergency Drain.( the emergency drain should be slightly underwater). Once you see bubbles coming out the emergency stopped turning the valve. Now you can very slowly start to open the valve until the bubbles slow until just a few come out. This is where you're done. You are now tuned.

 

[ReefingDreams]

We need a picture of your overflow box showing all plumbing. When the pump is completely shut off, what's the water level look like in your sump? Nearly full?

 

[Dburr1014]

Whats a stand pipe, herbie and bean ?

Standpipe is also called a durso overflow. It's just a single pipe to allow the water to go to your sump.
A herbie, is two pipes, one main drain and one emergency.
The bean animal, is three pipes, one main drain one secondary for tuning, and one emergency.


In the Herbie Style you use the emergency for tuning. It's the next best thing to a bean animal which is the cream of the crop.

I have a standard 75 gallon with a single overflow in the corner. And my style tank there is two holes but one was set up for durso and one's a return. All I did was use the return as my emergency and the return I just ran a hose and over the side of the tank and made my overflow a herbie. Much safer and much quieter. You just have to remember every so often to monitor the bubbles that come from the emergency. You never know food or something they get stuck in your gate valve, the Quick Fix is to open it real quick about a turn and then go back to where it was previously. Just wait for a minute to see where the bubbles are and tune in again but it's very simple and Only Takes a Minute.

 

[Pvtgloss]

I struggled wroth my water level on my e170 with a sump upgrade. I had the same problem and almost gave the tank away before I even started my journey. Finally my LFS suggested to close the valve until there a small trickle down my emergency drain. 2 years later I've never had a problem.

 

[JayM]

I have an emergency aswell, its a reefer 250 (if that info might help).

Does it mattr where i add the water ? In display or sump ?

It doesn't matter where you add the water.

I'm not sure if this method is universal or not, but here's what I did:

With return pump off, I pinched the line shut (I don't have a valve inline). Filled display to desired level and adjusted drain height accordingly. I then filled my sump to the desired level. Just a touch above 1/2 way in my case. I then "unpinched" the return hose and allowed display water to siphon through the return nozzle into the sump to make sure there's no chance of overflow should I lose power. After that it was just a matter of adjusting pump speed a little at a time until the display held steady at the desired level.

 

[Dburr1014]

We need a picture of your overflow box showing all plumbing. When the pump is completely shut off, what's the water level look like in your sump? Nearly full?

Yes good call, you don't want the sump to overflow if you lose power.

 

[Tahiti]

I struggled wroth my water level on my e170 with a sump upgrade. I had the same problem and almost gave the tank away before I even started my journey. Finally my LFS suggested to close the valve until there a small trickle down my emergency drain. 2 years later I've never had a problem.

Yep! I knew this was a Red Sea tank before I even clicked on it. My tank was doing the same exact thing and it drove me crazy. What fixed it was raising the water level to the top of the overflow pipe. Basically raise it as high as it will go. If I don't do that, the water level will just fluctuate and the ATO will just dump tons of water into the sump. I might just change out the diaphragm valve for a spears gate valve.

 

[OGKro]

We need a picture of your overflow box showing all plumbing. When the pump is completely shut off, what's the water level look like in your sump? Nearly full?

When the return pump is off my sump is almost full, A you can see in the back left of the sump is the return pump chamber and it really close to full

 

[OGKro]

Yep! I knew this was a Red Sea tank before I even clicked on it. My tank was doing the same exact thing and it drove me crazy. What fixed it was raising the water level to the top of the overflow pipe. Basically raise it as high as it will go. If I don't do that, the water level will just fluctuate and the ATO will just dump tons of water into the sump. I might just change out the diaphragm valve for a spears gate valve.

thats exactly what was happening, thats why i turned off the ato

 

[Dburr1014]

When the return pump is off my sump is almost full, A you can see in the back left of the sump is the return pump chamber and it really close to full

Looks all right to me, you got another inch or two to spare, lol.
Now try to tune it as I laid out in a previous post.