Main drain possibly clogged

[jdpeters]

I have to tune my gate valve on my 40 gallon reef basically daily. The water level in my external overflow box slowly rises over the course of the day. My sicce sdc6 has been service. Can I possibly put a gentle snake or auger down my main drain? My plumbing is nearly impossible to take apart. I designed it for the my previous home and have moved since so it’s dang near impossible to disassemble.

 

[rayadog]

I don’t see why you couldn’t snake it given the angles of your plumbing. Depending on how long you need to reach, they make some pretty gentle cpap tube snakes that someone once suggested on here that I’ve used now.

Are the wiers clean and free? Definitely sounds like water is being delay somewhere; 2 big obvious points but if your pump so good it might be the overflow. Return tubing could be obstructed I guess too?

 

[Dom]

I suspect your gate valve may need service.

As debris build up on the gate, you have to keep opening it to tune flow. Once set, more debris accumulate, closing the opening, leading to another adjustment.

 

[LPS Bum]

Agree with the above. Shut off your return pump, take apart your gate valve and give it a good cleaning. Then dial it back in and see if that helps.

 

[Jamie814]

The water level in my external overflow box slowly rises over the course of the day.

First what kind of drain setup do you have? 1, 2 or 3 drains?

 

[Jamie814]

If you only have 1 drain it should not have a valve on it, most likely is a single Durso drain.

If you have 2 drains the first should have a valve tuned to a full siphon and the 2nd should be a Durso with a trickle flow through it to balance flow variations when the valve on the primary drain is tunned properly.

If you have 3 drains the first should have a valve, the 2nd should be a Durso and the 3rd is your emergency (dry) standpipe.

It is physically impossible to tune a drain valve to match a return pump flow exactly without having to constantly adjust it to prevent overflow or air being sucked into the drain.

A full siphon drain is not self-regulating for variables, which will always be present.

 

[jdpeters]

The water level in my external overflow box slowly rises over the course of the day.

First what kind of drain setup do you have? 1, 2 or 3 drains?

2 drains

 

[jdpeters]

I suspect your gate valve may need service.

As debris build up on the gate, you have to keep opening it to tune flow. Once set, more debris accumulate, closing the opening, leading to another adjustment.

Ok I didn’t consider that

 

[jdpeters]

This valve comes apart from what I can tell, correct?

 

[jdpeters]

It’s gross and full of bubble algae

 

[Jamie814]

Is the second drain a Durso with a U-shape inside the overflow box? Do you have a lot of bubble algae in your display tank that’s getting into the overflow and clogging the valve daily? Bubble algae won’t grow inside your gate valve since it needs light, so cleaning the valve will only be a temporary fix until more algae clogs it again.

 

[mcarroll]

Having a valve in a drain is asking for trouble (or at minimum added maintenance) to begin with. That setup is popular, but could be simpler.

You can get up to unscrew those unions with a basin or sink wrench:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basin_wrench

Just make sure it's big enough to get around the union's nut.

 

[jdpeters]

This thread is probably dead but I appreciate anyone that contributed. I had taken it apart, soaked it in some warm water and scrubbed the valve. It seemed to have fixed my need to adjust slightly ever initially but it’s back to slowly changing again.

Does anyone have any other 2 cents? I went nearly 18 months without a problem on this take plumbing wise initially

 

[Dom]

This thread is probably dead but I appreciate anyone that contributed. I had taken it apart, soaked it in some warm water and scrubbed the valve. It seemed to have fixed my need to adjust slightly ever initially but it’s back to slowly changing again.

Does anyone have any other 2 cents? I went nearly 18 months without a problem on this take plumbing wise initially

To be honest, I don't ever recall any kind of valve installed on a drain. When tuning flow, valves are typically on the return side.

Ideally, I would re-plumb to remove the gate valve entirely and install it on the return.