sump woes, please help!

[motlot77]

just built my sump/fuge and i'm having a real hard time dialing it in.

i can't seem to get the in/out flow equal. my water is either rising or falling in the sump. no matter how small an increment i adjust the flow coming into the sump it eventually rises or falls.

now i did notice 2 or 3 small leaks at one of my pvc joints. could this be the culprit?

thanks for the help!

[Radioheadx14]

i have found that any small leak can really put a quirk in things. seal it up and see if it helps. my sump and overflow still gulps from time to time.. i cant make it stop, but i dont think it makes a huge difference.

[motlot77]

ok, thanks, that's what i'm hoping for.

[spike78]

By rising and falling, do you mean the water level goes up and down in a cycle? Unless water is overflowing your tank or sump, the amount f water you pump in to the thank should equal the amount of water coming back into the sump.

[motlot77]

no cycle, it keeps going up or down. no matter how small of an amount i adjust the valve, i can't seem to get it steady. it shouldn't be this hard should it?

i think it's the leak making it wonky.

[Playa-1]

Stop the leak and then see where your at and go from there.

[spike78]

When you say the water level in the sump rises, it has to stop at some point. It doesn't overflow the sump does it?

As well, if the water level is falling in the sump, it stops before the pumps run dry right? Your tank doesn't overflow right?

There has to be a break even point no matter what the adjustment is. If the water level of the sump is going up and down in a cycle, then most likely you have some sort of siphoning happening. What type of standpipe are you using?

[uscharalph]

Is your overflow keeping up with your return pump?

[bllfish]

As spike 78 said, the pump you are using determines how much water goes down the overflow. Small pump smaller amount of water, large pump, larger amount of water. The only concern is having a pump too big and the overflows are too small to handle the amount of water being pumped from the sump.