Pump flow

[medican]

hey

When your power goes out will water flow backwards through your pump or do you need to make the room in your sump for that water too(including from your overflows)???

Thanks

[muck]

Yes it will and yes you need to have room in the sump for it.
Make sure you drill a siphon break hole just below the water line in your return line as well.

[BCOrchidGuy]

Like Much says (cool nic btw) make sure you drill a siphon break at the water line and then TEST it. Make sure it stays clean and try to keep it so snails etc can't cover it. I started with a 1/16th hole but found it didn't break the back flow so I opened mine up to a 1/8th and it worked well.

Doug

[medican]

Thanks ......

So the only lines I will have in the tank coming from the top into the tank will be loc-lines......So Im thinking 1/8 in hole in the knuckle just below the water line


That is if Im pickin up what your puttin down :crazyeye:

Thanx

[Willow]

don't the syphon holes need to be just under water level?

[medican]

don't the syphon holes need to be just under water level?

yup.............. :biggrin:

[BCOrchidGuy]

If the hole is at or above the water line you'll get a bit of a spray/squirt thing going on, not a big deal if your lights aren't right on the tank. If the hole is below the water enough water needs to be siphoned back to the tank to allow the hole to be exposed to the air to break the siphon. I kept mine just above the water IE maybe 1/8th inch and it worked well. To adjust your water level in relation to the siphon break you just adjust your overflow height.

Doug

[Willow]

i guess you dont need a syphon hole if your plumbing ends in elbows a few inches below the water level then?

[BCOrchidGuy]

If I understand you correctly, you just have to make sure your sump will handle that 2 inches of water until the output of your plumbing breaks the siphon. You can guestemate it by using the handy old tank capacity calculator. If your tank is 36x12 (standard foot print for a 33 gallon) and your plumbing ends two inches below the water surface, simply multiply the 36x12 (tank foot print) x 2 (water depth) then divide that by 231. That means your sump would have to handle about 4 gallons of water. That's a very rough estimate though. Like I said, test it and make sure the sump can handle it, and adjust as needed.

Doug