Overflow problem, any engineer out there?

[Coleus]

oh no problem :-) i had bad day yesterday and probably misunderstood your joke.

[reefwars]

Tai you think about crap too much just do it lol

[Coleus]

yeah yeah yea, speak the man who gonna help me. You come and do it :-)lol

[Delphinus]

I'm just trying to look at your build thread and understand this. So the sump will sit in a different room, but on the same floor? Ie. not underneath in the basement or something. I assume not underneath like that because then you could just go straight down first and pipe under the bathtub.

So is the sump then 2 rooms away if it is on the same floor but has to bypass over a bathtub? What size plumbing are you using on the drain line?

I would think that for a Herbie, it wouldn't matter if the main drain line had an initial upwards slope because that will just add more backpressure to the line and then you just have the gate valve opened more. But if the emergency drain line has upward slope then as stated already you want to ensure a constant trickle flow to prevent stagnant standing water but I worry that even a trickle would be subject to occasional burping which is going to totally defeat the purpose of having gone Herbie in the first place.

Can you post some pictures or diagrams?

[ScubaSteve]

Originally Posted by Coleus

oh no problem :-) i had bad day yesterday and probably misunderstood your joke.

No problem. Yesterday was about the same for me

I don't know if you mentioned this but why aren't you having the sump under the tank?

One other solution that you could think about is to have a small sump under the tank the handles the overflow and emergency drain and recycles it back to the tank, then have a small return pump send water to the main sump for treatment. Flow matching because a bit more challenging here but it eliminates the problem of having an emergency line that flows uphill.

[Coleus]

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

I don't know if you mentioned this but why aren't you having the sump under the tank?

One other solution that you could think about is to have a small sump under the tank the handles the overflow and emergency drain and recycles it back to the tank, then have a small return pump send water to the main sump for treatment. Flow matching because a bit more challenging here but it eliminates the problem of having an emergency line that flows uphill.

My original plan was to have the sump under the tank but then, for the easy of cleaning, but then i got to talk into put it in the mechanical room for easy cleaning and noise problem. Your idea maybe not a bad idea, hmm, what is the best way to do flow matching. Time for google :-) Cheers

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by Coleus

My original plan was to have the sump under the tank but then, for the easy of cleaning, but then i got to talk into put it in the mechanical room for easy cleaning and noise problem. Your idea maybe not a bad idea, hmm, what is the best way to do flow matching. Time for google :-) Cheers

If you're going to pump water from a sump below your tank to another sump in the mech room the 2nd sump will have to be higher than the first sump and have an overflow installed so water can flow back to the sump under the tank. I really have no clue what ScubaSteve is suggesting but attempting to match flow from two or more pumps is bad idea, not saying that's what he is in fact suggesting. Whatever you pump water to has to have dependent flow rate back, not independent.

[ScubaSteve]

Originally Posted by sphelps

If you're going to pump water from a sump below your tank to another sump in the mech room the 2nd sump will have to be higher than the first sump and have an overflow installed so water can flow back to the sump under the tank. I really have no clue what ScubaSteve is suggesting but attempting to match flow from two or more pumps is bad idea, not saying that's what he is in fact suggesting. Whatever you pump water to has to have dependent flow rate back, not independent.

Ya, I was in a rush when I was typing earlier and didn't word it correctly. What you said is exactly what I was referring to (avoiding using 2 pump). Like I said in my post after, treat the little sump like a common sump between two displays with proper drain systems.

[ScubaSteve]

Originally Posted by Coleus

My original plan was to have the sump under the tank but then, for the easy of cleaning, but then i got to talk into put it in the mechanical room for easy cleaning and noise problem. Your idea maybe not a bad idea, hmm, what is the best way to do flow matching. Time for google :-) Cheers

So the trick to this approach is to let flows be independent of each other. Let the displaytank drain into the small sump at the same rate the return pump is feeding it back into the display. This is easy, it's just like a normal sump set up. The trick is sending water to the remote sump via a pump and letting it flow back naturally (basically another drain system just like of the display. If you can have the remote sump raised above the small sump under the tank and just use another herbie drain at the remote sump, you're golden. Think of the little sump under the display as a common sump for two displays. That's basically what you'd be doing. Just make sure the little sump can handle the extra volume of water from the two sets of pipes for when the power shuts off (so you don't flood that nice new house of yours).

If you have to pump the water to the remote sump, then pump it back then you are looking at having to match flows and the endeavor will probably be too complicated.

[reefwars]

now your seeing i was right eh and we should have put the tank up to the window as per the origional plan , but you didnt want to give up the 2ft of floor space and now were in a worse situation.....i knew putting that tank against the wall was a bad idea and i said it from day one.....cpnsidering its an in wall tank