sump evaporation

[davidncbrown]

So, I was told by the owner of my LFS, whom I trust, that when you have a sump water tends to evaporate from the lowest part in your aquarium, the sump. This is what I had thought before and he confirmed it for me, however I'm having significant evaporation in my tank as well. I have an output siphon in the first filter chamber of my nano, with a return in the third/return chamber. Every day the return chamber's level seems to go down a couple inches while the sump only goes down about a half an inch. Anybody experienced with sumps know why? This is my first sump.

[ermartin]

So, I was told by the owner of my LFS, whom I trust, that when you have a sump water tends to evaporate from the lowest part in your aquarium, the sump. This is what I had thought before and he confirmed it for me, however I'm having significant evaporation in my tank as well. I have an output siphon in the first filter chamber of my nano, with a return in the third/return chamber. Every day the return chamber's level seems to go down a couple inches while the sump only goes down about a half an inch. Anybody experienced with sumps know why? This is my first sump.

not without a picture. The normal drop would only occurre in the sump since the water will fill the top to the highest point and then overflow so what your describing isnt enough to diagnose

[davidncbrown]

Well I don't have an overflow. Its a tube that siphons water from the first filter chamber into the sump, and then the sump pump pumps part of the water back into the fuge to recirculate and part of the water back up to the tank to match how much water is being siphoned out.

[ermartin]

Well I don't have an overflow. Its a tube that siphons water from the first filter chamber into the sump, and then the sump pump pumps part of the water back into the fuge to recirculate and part of the water back up to the tank to match how much water is being siphoned out.

Based on your description you would have a double evaporation point if you not using an overflow. Its also sounds like your flirting with disaster what happens if you loose siphon .its also impossible to match the siphon rate with the return rate accurately. This would just be my wild A** guess without a picture

[Matty1124]

evaporation is happening all over your tank... your only seeing it in the chambers where water is being pumped out of because these chambers are keeping the rest of your tank chambers full... i agree you have your system set up kind of kooky if you have two pump chambers... if one of the pumps fails, or beings to have decreased output your looking at a disaster... post a pic of your set up or better yet a diagram of how you have things set up...

[REEFBUG]

I have to agree, with all of the above. Water does not evaporate from the lowest point, it happens wherever it is in connection with air. You only see it in the sump because the way the system is designed, and I am sure the LFS's tanks are set up the same way, the water level stays constant in the tank because of the way it feeds the sump.

There is no way that I can imagine your tank is working as described, not that you are lying, just that the description has confused us. If it is set up with just a siphon into the sump and a pump returning the water to the tank, it would have overfilled the sump or overfilled the tank within a day. There is simply no way to do it that way. (now guys I know it is possible with very sophisticated sensors and such, but we are not going there.)

Maybe a photo, or a few are in order for us to help you.

[davidncbrown]

Hmm ok well I have to get to work soon, but I'll try to get some pics up tonight. But for now I'm going to try to explain it a little better. In the first chamber I have a U-tube hanging over the back. I have an aqualifter pump to keep this primed, in case the siphon is lost and I have 3 siphon break holes in case the pump dies and the water level drops. This water is siphoned through the U-tube into some tubing that ends in the refugium section of my sump. There is no way for me to adjust the water flow on this one. The water flows from my refugium, through a couple baffles into the return section. In the return section I have a Rio 1400 pump with a tee on it. The pump goes into one side of the tee. On the other two sides of the tee, there are ball valves. It is just like this picture, only with vinyl tubing I have the valves adjusted to match the water flow of the water being siphoned into the sump (so some water goes back into the fuge, and some goes back to the tank). I seem to have it adjusted pretty good right now, but after a day or two the evaporation in the tank starts again. I know this is a kookey way to set it up, but I really don't want to drill my tank and put in drain pipes.