what to do with overflow?

Exactly, I toyed with lowering overflow skim box below the tank's water
line. This created a lot more flow to the sump, and return area didn't run
dry, however this is not acceptable arangement ( sump won't take THAT much
water if pump fails or power goes down).

So far I have two options. First, redesign return area to be as large as
possible. Second is to make more "teeth" in the overflow surface skimmer
box. (or widen them up)

I'd like to explore first option to the fullest extent before I start
grinding teeth in the overwflow box.


"kim gross" wrote in message
...
Wayne Sallee wrote:
Because I don't think that is the true problem. Maybe the overflow lets
the water fluctuate more than he wants, but I think that the bigest
problem that he is having, is that the water volume in the sump is so
small that it does not give him adiquate room for that fluctuation.

Wayne Sallee


Charles Spitzer wrote:



Correct.

Depending on the size of the tank, if the water level raises 1/4 of an
inch it could be more than 1.5 gallons of water alone, let alone the water
in the pipes. 3 gallons is not much water, and most overflows depending
on the tooth arrangement can use up to 1/2 or even 3/4 of on inch of water
to build up before they are close to max flow, and if the overflow needs
3/4 of on inch of water in a 72x18 tank, that would be around 4 gallons of
water, so the sump would run dry before the overflow got to max flow
rate..... An of course if he has a long pipe run with large pipe there
could be a gallon of water in the return pipe also.


Kim

How high over the box does the water rise?

Wayne Sallee



TekCat wrote:
Exactly, I toyed with lowering overflow skim box below the tank's water
line. This created a lot more flow to the sump, and return area didn't run
dry, however this is not acceptable arangement ( sump won't take THAT much
water if pump fails or power goes down).

So far I have two options. First, redesign return area to be as large as
possible. Second is to make more "teeth" in the overflow surface skimmer
box. (or widen them up)

I'd like to explore first option to the fullest extent before I start
grinding teeth in the overwflow box.


"kim gross" wrote in message
...

Wayne Sallee wrote:

Because I don't think that is the true problem. Maybe the overflow lets
the water fluctuate more than he wants, but I think that the bigest
problem that he is having, is that the water volume in the sump is so
small that it does not give him adiquate room for that fluctuation.

Wayne Sallee


Charles Spitzer wrote:



Correct.

Depending on the size of the tank, if the water level raises 1/4 of an
inch it could be more than 1.5 gallons of water alone, let alone the water
in the pipes. 3 gallons is not much water, and most overflows depending
on the tooth arrangement can use up to 1/2 or even 3/4 of on inch of water
to build up before they are close to max flow, and if the overflow needs
3/4 of on inch of water in a 72x18 tank, that would be around 4 gallons of
water, so the sump would run dry before the overflow got to max flow
rate..... An of course if he has a long pipe run with large pipe there
could be a gallon of water in the return pipe also.


Kim

it rises about 1/4" ... it could go up an 1.5", but my sump gets dry very
quickly, so it never reaches 1.5" mark
I need to calculate how much water my sump needs to pump back to the tank to
achieve 1" or 1.5" water line increase, and still have some water to cover
up the pump.


"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message
link.net...
How high over the box does the water rise?

Wayne Sallee



TekCat wrote:
Exactly, I toyed with lowering overflow skim box below the tank's water
line. This created a lot more flow to the sump, and return area didn't
run dry, however this is not acceptable arangement ( sump won't take THAT
much water if pump fails or power goes down).

So far I have two options. First, redesign return area to be as large as
possible. Second is to make more "teeth" in the overflow surface skimmer
box. (or widen them up)

I'd like to explore first option to the fullest extent before I start
grinding teeth in the overwflow box.


"kim gross" wrote in message
...

Wayne Sallee wrote:

Because I don't think that is the true problem. Maybe the overflow lets
the water fluctuate more than he wants, but I think that the bigest
problem that he is having, is that the water volume in the sump is so
small that it does not give him adiquate room for that fluctuation.

Wayne Sallee


Charles Spitzer wrote:



Correct.

Depending on the size of the tank, if the water level raises 1/4 of an
inch it could be more than 1.5 gallons of water alone, let alone the
water in the pipes. 3 gallons is not much water, and most overflows
depending on the tooth arrangement can use up to 1/2 or even 3/4 of on
inch of water to build up before they are close to max flow, and if the
overflow needs 3/4 of on inch of water in a 72x18 tank, that would be
around 4 gallons of water, so the sump would run dry before the overflow
got to max flow rate..... An of course if he has a long pipe run with
large pipe there could be a gallon of water in the return pipe also.


Kim