Water level in sump suddenly changed

DmitryB · 2026-10-03T19:17:43-0400

I'm sitting here minding my own business, suddenly my overflow (IM 170 INT) starts gargling. I'm like "That's annoying" I look at the sump and the water level in the first chamber (I haver rollers there) has risen. Anybody have any idea what could have happened? I opened the valve more and the gurgling stopped, but the water level in the first sump chamber is high. I was thinking could something have clogged the regular drain? I have snails crawling into the overflow chamber all the time. I'm sure I haven't caught all of them. What else could have happened?

mcarroll · 2026-10-04T04:42:14-0400

DmitryB said:
I'm sitting here minding my own business, suddenly my overflow (IM 170 INT) starts gargling. I'm like "That's annoying" I look at the sump and the water level in the first chamber (I haver rollers there) has risen. Anybody have any idea what could have happened? I opened the valve more and the gurgling stopped, but the water level in the first sump chamber is high. I was thinking could something have clogged the regular drain? I have snails crawling into the overflow chamber all the time. I'm sure I haven't caught all of them. What else could have happened?

What you said is a good guess – have you gone in to investigate yet?

DmitryB · 2026-10-04T12:12:33-0400

Hard to investigate! The overflow is up against the wall and I can only reach so far back. I got a flexible pipe cleaner thingy and I got that in and it got as far as the bend in the pipe, but not sure what's happening beyond that. This is a Bean Animal overflow. If there's a snail in there, it would be in the vertical pipe going down. I'm not sure if it's safe for me to remove the horizontal piece to try to clean the vertical PVC. I'd be doing all this blind, mind you. Just by touch.