Question on how to cut down flow?

[msante79]

I just finishing putting the water in and set up the ph and skimmer and they work fine. it was when I started the siphon on the wet/dry aand noticed that the out flow was a lot faster that the in flow. I was wondering if anybody out there knows how i might be able to go about evening it out. maybe some type pf valve. Please if anybody has any type of suggestions they would be greatly appreciated.
Mark

 

[mumbulog]

you can go to home depot and buy pvc piping to plump your tank that way. you can by valves that will connect with your pvc and you can control the water flow that way. It's real noce, when you are doing maintence or have troubles you can shut the water flow down for a bit.
Gordon

 

[msante79]

Gordan,
that was sort what i was thinking about doing, I just did not want to go out more stuff w/o knowing if it works. Thank you for everything.
Mark

 

[dskidmore]

For a wet dry or a sump, you're really better off with an overflow arangement than a siphon. The commercial ones are pretty pricey, but you can build one from PVC for a fraction of the cost.

 

[msante79]

Does anyone have a diagram how that might lookor work

 

[dskidmore]

Unfortunately I havn't gotten around to re-installing my image editor.
Ok let's see how well you visualize.
We start at the tank, and have a U-tube to get over the top. The outside of the u-tube turns into a U going back up. At the top of this second U, one more elbow, than a T facing up, down, and into the elbow. (This is your sipon break, this will be the water level your tank falls to. It should be placed clearly below the top of the tank.) From the T you have your drain line down.
The right side up U keeps the upside down U from ever loosing suction. When the right-side up U overflows at the T, water spills down the drain line.
Optionally you can have the tank side go up again to just below the water line and do surface skimming with it. (Recomended, but more difficult to plumb correctly.)

 

[squidd]

it was when I started the siphon on the wet/dry aand noticed that the out flow was a lot faster that the in flow
"Outflow" of what...??
From main tank..(overflow /drain) or "from" sump..(return pump) ...
Not sure where the problems is exactly...

 

[msante79]

what iment by out flow is that the return pump returns more water back to the tank than the siphon brings into the sump. the problem i am having is that the sump sends more water out than the siphon brings in. I hope this helps.

 

[dskidmore]

Hrm.... An overflow won't increasd the flow from the tank to the sump, although I still recomend one. You need a larger diameter U-tube or a double U-tube. Of course, as with all siphon setups, you're always going to be balancing between too much or too little flow. I really strongly suggest an overflow setup with a larger diameter than the U-tube you have.

 

[msante79]

Thanks for everything.

 

[trainfever]

You could put a PVC ball valve in your return line so that you can regulate the flow of your return but you are better off if you increase your overflow by adding additional overflow lines or increase the one you have now.

 

[dskidmore]

If you're going to put a ball valve on the return, it's best to do it on T, with the extra (throttled) line going right back into the sump. This will extend the life of the pump over the ball valve on the only return line method.