New to sumps and have a question

[piscesgirl]

Hi!! I recently bought a new tank setup and yesterday, got all the livestock transferred over from my old tank. Everyone looks happy and curious (except I can’t find my yellow wrasse ) my question is:
It came with a gravity type overflow, an air/water pump for it, Ice Cap sump, aqua max protein skimmer, and a jebao 10000 return pump. It took me a couple days to figure out how to get the return pump to keep up with the overflow, stop the water from going up and down in it, etc. it still gurgles but I’ll figure that out eventually.
I want to feed the fish this morning and not have it all go into the overflow…if I push the “feed” button on the return will the sump overflow? I’m so scared of this thing, it’s ridiculous my other tank had everything HOB so it was much more controllable for me.
Any advice will be so appreciated!

 

[randomfishdude]

The sump SHOULD NOT overflow. If it is or looks like it/ does there is a siphon somewhere and or you don't have a big enough sump.

I usually turn off my return. I however have a octo for a return so I usually just hit the pause button. And it pauses for 15 or 60 minutes.

For me the up and down is caused when I don't have enough water the the sensor turns the pump on and off.

 

[piscesgirl]

The sump SHOULD NOT overflow. If it is or looks like it/ does there is a siphon somewhere and or you don't have a big enough sump.

I usually turn off my return. I however have a octo for a return so I usually just hit the pause button. And it pauses for 15 or 60 minutes.

For me the up and down is caused when I don't have enough water the the sensor turns the pump on and off.

Thank you. I read somewhere that I can adjust the siphon speed? I think the amount of water coming out of this over flow is a lot because I’ve got the return speed up to 100 lol the fish and corals don’t look like they’re in a hurricane but it seems high for a 75g
I’m wondering if things aren’t moving so fast, I can manage feeding them

 

[randomfishdude]

What kind of overflow device is it? Is it one of thoes siphon things?
I'd turn the pump off and see what happens.

 

[piscesgirl]

The sump SHOULD NOT overflow. If it is or looks like it/ does there is a siphon somewhere and or you don't have a big enough sump.

I usually turn off my return. I however have a octo for a return so I usually just hit the pause button. And it pauses for 15 or 60 minutes.

For me the up and down is caused when I don't have enough water the the sensor turns the pump on and off.

Oooh one more thing! When I push the feed button should I also turn off that aqua lifter?

 

[piscesgirl]

Here is the equipment. I read if I put things in the overflow box it would help but I don’t see a difference lol

 

[randomfishdude]

Oooh one more thing! When I push the feed button should I also turn off that aqua lifter?

Probobly?
I've done a Lil reaserch on thoes kinds of overflow. You want the siphon that it has to stop when you turn off the pump. The water level in tank should drop low enough. If the sump does overflow raise the little box up.

 

[Idech]

You need to calculate how much water is going to drop into the sump, IMO. Even if just an approximation. I’m sure there is a formula online or someone here could help you.

I wouldn’t go blindly and hope for the best. The water is going to stop only when there is a syphon. Your syphon is pretty deep into water but since it’s in a separate box, maybe it makes a difference ?

I don’t have enough experience to answer.

 

[piscesgirl]

Probobly?
I've done a Lil reaserch on thoes kinds of overflow. You want the siphon that it has to stop when you turn off the pump. The water level in tank should drop low enough. If the sump does overflow raise the little box up.

I appreciate that. There’s a hole drilled in the return pipe going into the tank. I’ll measure how much water is above that. Thanks!

 

[piscesgirl]

You need to calculate how much water is going to drop into the sump, IMO. Even if just an approximation. I’m sure there is a formula online or someone here could help you.

I wouldn’t go blindly and hope for the best. The water is going to stop only when there is a syphon. Your syphon is pretty deep into water but since it’s in a separate box, maybe it makes a difference ?

I don’t have enough experience to answer.

Yeah I’ve been obsessively careful so far because I don’t know what I’m doing. I appreciate your feedback and will try to calculate how much water is above the hole in the return, I guess in the line too. Gosh I feel like I need a bigger sump.

 

[DCR]

The changing level and the gurgling inside the overflow box is typically caused by the overflow pipe going in and out of full siphon. It is designed to work as a gravity drain but will go into full siphon if you are putting more flow into the overflow box than it can handle as a gravity drain. The return pump is putting more water in the tank than what the overflow can handle as a gravity drain. When this happens, the level in the box will rise until it goes into a full siphon mode (expels the air out of the pipe and causes the gurgling). This greatly increases the flow out of the box and the level will rapidly drop until the siphon is broken by the air hole in the top of the pipe. The cycle will then repeat itself. The easy solution is to reduce the speed (flow) of your return pump so that it does not go into full siphon mode.

The concern about the sump being large enough to handle the drain down is a separate issue. You can determine that just by turning the return pump off and observing. You may have to reduce the normal level in the sump to hold the drain down.

 

[piscesgirl]

The changing level and the gurgling inside the overflow box is typically caused by the overflow pipe going in and out of full siphon. It is designed to work as a gravity drain but will go into full siphon if you are putting more flow into the overflow box than it can handle as a gravity drain. The return pump is putting more water in the tank than what the overflow can handle as a gravity drain. When this happens, the level in the box will rise until it goes into a full siphon mode (expels the air out of the pipe and causes the gurgling). This greatly increases the flow out of the box and the level will rapidly drop until the siphon is broken by the air hole in the top of the pipe. The cycle will then repeat itself. The easy solution is to reduce the speed (flow) of your return pump so that it does not go into full siphon mode.

The concern about the sump being large enough to handle the drain down is a separate issue. You can determine that just by turning the return pump off and observing. You may have to reduce the normal level in the sump to hold the drain down.

Ooooh, so I thought the over flow speed was determining the return speed. When I had the pump speed lower, it caused the sump water to raise a lot. So I increased the pump speed to lower it. I can see it’s a vicious cycle lol
I will lower the speed to see if it gets better. Now, where’s my yellow wrasse? Lol

 

[piscesgirl]

Wow, you helped with the gurgling noise so much! I raised the box slightly (which was good because my lawnmower got sucked in yesterday lol) and I put the air stick thing with the o-ring inside the top hole and it lowered the water level. One problem down haha thanks again!