overflow control with large sumps

[pondfrog]

Just curious if anyone has suggestions on keeping safe with large sumps. Specifically what I mean is that I have about 75 gallons in my sump under a 300gallon. I currently use durso standpipes to quiet the tank down. If one of these standpipes is mildly occluded the water level in the tank begins to rise and touches the top acrylic braces. So, I 'm thinking if I don't check the level for a while and one of the standpipes becomes mildly occluded (algae, salt creep on the air inlet, etc) I could end up with 60 of the 75 gallons on the floor and worse probably leaking onto some of the electronics uner the tank. Anyone have any safety suggestions?
Steve

[dgasmd]

pondfrog:

Couple of things. First of, your stand pipe should not get clogged with anything enough to cut down on the flow unless you are using some tiny pipes for it like 1/4" or less. If this is a concern, I suggest you upgrade to a much bigger diameter tubing.
Second, look at your tank, equipment by the sump, power cords, overflows, etc and imagine if you had a flood from the most common places if anything electrical would get wet. This already happened to me. I knew it would happend if I had a flood and like an idiot I left it alone until it almost burnt everything electrical associated with the tank. I redid all the electrical wiring to avoid this happening in the future. The only 2 things I could not remove at all, I completely cover with a garbage can so if they get sprayed or water falls over them, they will not get wet.
Third, never put anyting in the overflow box. Chances are it will be sucked up by the stand pipe and overflow your entire tank. 12 years with syphon boxes and never had a flood. I get my drilled tank and put a stnd pipe. Then, I get the bright idea of adding 2 bagfs of chemi-pure to the overflow since it had a lrge water flow by it. The bags were so heavy I never imagine they would move from the bottom. Well, they got sucked up by the water flow and plugged the standpipe flooding the floor with about 70g.

[KenT]

My 1.5" drains are drilled approx. 2.5" down from the top of the tank. I have a Mickey Mouse method but it works. One side I connected an elbow, and put in a 1' piece of PVC. Before I put it in I took a router and made 5, 1/2" slits down the whole piece. The top half of the pipe was left solid so the water would be drawn from the bottom of the pipe to prevent air noise. The end has an end cap. The other side has a 1.5" "T" fitting. The "T" is reduced to 1". The other end of the "T" has a 1.5" 90 degree facing the top of the tank. I'm sure this is hard to picture. This set up proved to be extremely loud due to it being a siphon. To break the siphon I drilled a hole in the fittings on the drains out side the tank. I connected airline tubing to the hole and it stopped the siphon, but would not drain fast enough and the water level would rise. To fix this I took the airline from 1 side and placed it on top of the tank so it extended just below the the rim of the tank. Now when the water level rises and reaches the airline, it re-creates the siphon and the level goes down. This is an inconsistant cycle. Meaning sometimes the water will rise, and sometimes it does not. But if it does it will not overflow. I'm sure you have no idea what the hel I am talking about so I will try and post some pics.

[KenT]

Lets see if I can make some sense here

1st pics are inside the tank

Left side

[KenT]

Right side

[KenT]

This is the outside of the tank, left side. I drilled a hole on top of the fitting allowing air to break the siphon

[KenT]

This is the airline tubing that is over the lip of the tank and connected to the left drain outside the tank.