Water level issue

[valley]

Hello, I’m having a confusing problem with my return line and water level in my sump. I increased the power of my wavemakers today and the water line in my return pump section dropped too low. Because of this, the return pump ended up running too dry and sent water that clouded up the tank.

I’ve tried adding water to the sump but the water would end up in the display tank instead of staying in the sump. What do I need to do?

For reference, this is a 60 gallon breeder display tank with a 20 gallon sump. I’m using the Eshopps PF-800 overflow box rated at 800gph and a Jebao dcp-4000 pump rated at 1056 gph. I have the return pump at 30% and a gate valve on my drain line.

 

[Timfish]

Are you adding freshwater to replace what's evaporated? Increasing wavemakers at most should only cause nominal increase in the water level in the sump as waves push a little more water over the overflow. If the level in your sump is decreasing either it's evaporation or there's a restriction in your drain lines. If it's the later you need to figure out why before you have any spillage.

 

[Snoopy 67]

You need to OPEN the valve on the drain line.
The pump is pumping but there is not enough water going back into the sump to keep the level high.

 

[Bosreef]

You need to get rid of gate valve on return

 

[PharmrJohn]

Yep. It's just about managing your water flow into your sump AND managing your return pump for water going back to your tank (presuming you have either a ball valve you can adjust OR a DC pump you can fiddle with).