The Super Scary Sump

[MatthewN]

I just got my first sump tank and I'm a little paranoid (ok, alot) that the thing is going to flood my house. I've already had a few near floods and I definitely don't trust this thing. The sump is like this insatiable monster that continues sucking water out of the tank and making this not-so-pleasant sucking sound. Are all first-time sump users paranoid? Will I just need to build trust with my aquarium over time?

 

There does not seem to be a way to stop the perpetual sucking sound. I will call the Reef Octopus people on Monday and see why their tank is so LOUD. If there isn't a fix, it looks like I'm out of luck. Return policies don't really seem to exist in the aquarium business unless the product is defective. I get it but maybe I should buy from Amazon.com next time? I was looking at the Aquaforest OceanGuard 435 (82gal Aquarium) and this Polish company seems to have some amazing products. Their products come with human-readable instructions and helpful tips. My Reef Octopus came with a few diagrams.

 

Anyway, my house is not flooded... yet.

[WormLicker]

Oh gosh this would 100% be me if I had a sump.

Good luck! Hope somebody can give you some confidence, I know nothing about them. 

[ninjamyst]

I felt the same with my first sump.  Scary as heck when first plumbing it and no idea how it is suppose to work.  And that's with a plug and play red sea reefer.  I see you have a custom.sump so even more scary.

 

But don't worry cuz that is what this forum is for.  And thank you for posting a photo!

 

Now let's get to the good part.

• The whole purpose of a sump is to prevent flooding!!!  So there you go.  You just have to make sure your sump can handle the volume of water that back siphons from the return pipe when you turn off your return pump.  How big is your display tank?  Got a photo of the sump when return pump is off?
• Your water level seems low.  You should have about 7-9in of water in the skimmer chamber.  Add more water =).  Maintaining the correct water level will fix your loud issue.  Make sure you hook up ATO to keep water level constant.
• Do you have a gate valve to control amount of water coming from the overflow?  That can also be the source of the noise.  You need to fine tune your return pump flow and the overflow drain flow till noise goes away.  

 

 

[jservedio]

As long as your sump has enough room to hold all the water that overflows when you turn off the return pump and a backup drain it can't overflow without an ATO failure. No need to worry - your ATO is your biggest overflow risk, so be sure to have a mechanical backup (float valve).

[PeterU]

Your ATO sensor needs to be in the return chamber. That is the only place your level should vary.

 

Do you have a valve on the outlet of your return pump? This is where your flow needs to be controlled from.

[MatthewN]

Thank you all for your comments. I was able to finally make peace with the sump and see it as my flood protector rather than a flood monster. I also bought a new Reef Octopus return pump that automatically throttles the return if the water level of the sump gets too high.