Oversized gate valve for full siphon?

bozo

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My full siphon is 1 inch pipe but there’s a 1.5 inch gate valve on it from a previous tank. Bean animal set up.

I’ve been having issues with keeping the water level in the sump and also the overflow consistent. Sometimes it rises, sometimes it lowers randomly.

I was wondering if it could be the gate valve being too large in comparison to the rest of the line, creating a pocket of air in the valve. But it purges all the air in 30 seconds whenever I turn the return pump back on.

Should I get a 1 inch spears gate valve to match the rest of the plumbing?

Or could it be the return pump being inconsistent?

Thanks
 

TangerineSpeedo

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Try setting the water flow so it just trickles over your emergency drain after your system has been running for a few minutes. It should help with the inconsistency. Other factors may include; skimmer, pump, build up on your overflow weir, reduction of flow in your sump, air getting trapped in a elbow on the drain.
 

Varmette

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I have found that giving several minutes between adjustments to see how it will actually react is helpful.
 

John K

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Second to giving it time to settle after the circulation goes off/on. Mine takes several minutes to settle back to normal operation mode after I feed, but it does consistently get there (mine seems to need a very slight adjustment once every couple months at the most).

That said, I have used an oversized gate valve in the past and found it to be more temperamental to tune. If it were me, I would change it to a 1" gate valve.
 

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