dcbaros Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 This may be a dumb question but If I have a tank with refugium and something clogs the overflow, is there anything to prevent the return pump from overflowing the tank? Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Uh, what? Gonna need more details than that. HOB fuge, in-sump, AiO, layout, etc. Link to comment
RK_tek Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 If you leave yourself enough room in the tank to contain the contents of the return section, no. An ATO can add water which could lead to an overflow. I use an aqualifter which only pumps 3G/hr anyway Link to comment
dcbaros Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 Uh, what? Gonna need more details than that. HOB fuge, in-sump, AiO, layout, etc. I don't have a sump or anything, I was just wondering. What would keep a setup from overflowing if the overflow clogged. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 I don't have a sump or anything, I was just wondering. What would keep a setup from overflowing if the overflow clogged. You're still not giving any details as to where this refugium is or how it receives flow, how the tank gets it back, etc. Link to comment
dcbaros Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 You're still not giving any details as to where this refugium is or how it receives flow, how the tank gets it back, etc. Did not think I really needed to..water goes into an overflow box or drilled hole in the tank to the sump. Its pumped back up. If such an overflow was clogged the pump in the sump would continue to pump causing the tank to fill up with the sump water. Is there anything to prevent this? I don't actually have one. I have an AIO. I was just curious. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Did not think I really needed to..water goes into an overflow box or drilled hole in the tank to the sump. Its pumped back up. If such an overflow was clogged the pump in the sump would continue to pump causing the tank to fill up with the sump water. Is there anything to prevent this? I don't actually have one. I have an AIO. I was just curious. I still don't know what a refugium has to do with a drain pipe clogging up lol. That's why a lot of people are now using multiple drain pipes (see Herbie, Beananimal, etc). If you only had one and wanted some insurance, you'd need to have a float switch in the main tank that is connected to a relay that the pump is connected to. It would be activated when the water rose too high and would cut power to the pump. Link to comment
dcbaros Posted January 25, 2015 Author Share Posted January 25, 2015 I still don't know what a refugium has to do with a drain pipe clogging up lol. That's why a lot of people are now using multiple drain pipes (see Herbie, Beananimal, etc). If you only had one and wanted some insurance, you'd need to have a float switch in the main tank that is connected to a relay that the pump is connected to. It would be activated when the water rose too high and would cut power to the pump. Refugium has nothing to do with it, I just meant a refugium in the sump. Thats what I figured though, a float switch. Link to comment
jtwisconsin Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 I think your question is not so much about refugiums, but instead is how do you design a sump to not overflow the main tank if the drain became plugged. The baffles in between each compartment of the sump stop water from flowing if the water flow became interrupted. In my sump on the 40B the last section (with the return pump) holds about 1 gallon of water before the level falls below the pump intake. If the drain became plugged, the baffles would prevent water from moving into the return section and it would simply run out of available water. If you take a look here you can get some ideas how a sump with baffles work: How does a sump work? The baffles essentially partition off a large section of the sump. Drain gets clogged, water can't move over them to the return chamber. If you are really nervous about preventing an overflow, you can wire up a float switch on the display tank to turn off the return pump if it hits a certain high-water level like Jedimasterben said above. You could also plumb in an emergency drain at a higher than normal water level that would feed back into the sump if the water level ever rose to that height. Link to comment
markalot Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Did not think I really needed to..water goes into an overflow box or drilled hole in the tank to the sump. Its pumped back up. If such an overflow was clogged the pump in the sump would continue to pump causing the tank to fill up with the sump water. Is there anything to prevent this? I don't actually have one. I have an AIO. I was just curious. Short and simple answer ... You need a small section in the sump just big enough for the return pump. If the overflow gets clogged the return pump drains all the water from that section and then runs dry. In a really small tank you might still get some overflow but not the contents of the entire sump. A float switch to prevent burning out the motor is also a good idea. Link to comment
farkwar Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Small return chamber. Like this. http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/RichardSperry/media/2015-01-24%2022.38.49.png.html'> Link to comment
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