Plumbing issue- pump too strong?

[spikedangles]

After two years of planning and building my system I have run into an issue with the return pump.

40 breeder with coast to coast overflow feeding to an external box with 1" bean animal drains going straight down through the top of the stand into the sump.

Return line is a short run of 1" hose to 1" pvc running about 4ft to a single outlet into the tank. There is also a manifold hooked up where the hose meets the rigid plumbing.

I was sold a Jebao DCT6000 from another reefer second hand. He said he was using it on a 40b with no issues. I have the pump turned down to the lowest setting and it still seems way too much.


When I start the pump there is roughly 4" of water above it in the sump. Once the over flowing starts the pump quickly drains the last chamber of the sump. If I leave it sucking some air I get a rush of water out of all 3 bean animal drains and the water fills up the sump quickly. The return pump then repeats this process.

I'm wondering if I don't have enough water in the system? When I shut the pump off the water is about an 1" lower than max in the sump (after holes stop siphons).

If anyone has some insight into why this is happening and how to fix it I really need some help.

 

[KJAG]

After two years of planning and building my system I have run into an issue with the return pump.

40 breeder with coast to coast overflow feeding to an external box with 1" bean animal drains going straight down through the top of the stand into the sump.

Return line is a short run of 1" hose to 1" pvc running about 4ft to a single outlet into the tank. There is also a manifold hooked up where the hose meets the rigid plumbing.

I was sold a Jebao DCT6000 from another reefer second hand. He said he was using it on a 40b with no issues. I have the pump turned down to the lowest setting and it still seems way too much.


When I start the pump there is roughly 4" of water above it in the sump. Once the over flowing starts the pump quickly drains the last chamber of the sump. If I leave it sucking some air I get a rush of water out of all 3 bean animal drains and the water fills up the sump quickly. The return pump then repeats this process.

I'm wondering if I don't have enough water in the system? When I shut the pump off the water is about an 1" lower than max in the sump (after holes stop siphons).

If anyone has some insight into why this is happening and how to fix it I really need some help.

You can easily valve down the output of your return and achieve the perfect flow for your system. Have you tried this? Use a gate valve as opposed to a ball for more precision tuning. Be sure to not valve down your input to your return.

 

[spikedangles]

Is this safe to do with a DC pump?? Would I be better getting a smaller pump.

 

[Tyler Collinske]

You can do that and you can also buy another return pump with adjustable flow you can get those for a pretty reasonable price and just from my personal experience I always prefer to have a new return pump just to be safe since it's a key part of the tank.

 

[spikedangles]

10x turn over which is a lot will be a 400 gph pump, figure a 350 would be good bc 320gph is 8x (about as high as I want to go). I will probably just get a soccer syncra bc I don't see any DC pumps with that low of GPH

 

[McArcher]

You could use 3/4 or 1/2 return plumbing and it will greatly reduce the pump flow. Way cheaper than buying a new pump.

 

[spikedangles]

That's exactly what I did. Lowered the gph just enough. Running smoothly now