Major panic here...

[muss60]

My husband set-up a sump system last week; he's away this week and yesterday when I returned home from shopping the tank was filled with bubbles and air and I noticed the section of the sump where the pump sits, the water levels are very low. This happened when we were balancing the input/output flow etc., but I couldn't get anything to even out so I put in one of the old filters that sits on the back of the tank until he returns.

We used to have two of them; I only had room for one today, plus the skimmer is in the sump and I had to turn that off too.

This is ok for one week right?

 

[Scooterman]

Sounds like water evaporated & then the level went too low & causes the pump to suck air right? Probably need to top off with RO/DI daily if not already set-up!

 

[muss60]

water evaporation can occur that fast??? usually it takes at least a good week for less than a 1/2 inch to evaporate; but could be, I'm not the expert here. As long as the tank is ok in the meantime, I'm ok.

 

[returnofsid]

Normally, the section of the sump that contains the return pump is small so it doesn't take a lot of evaporation to see the results you saw. The reason for this is so we top off more often. Topping off every day instead of every week will keep the salinity level more even, instead of it fluctuating more.

 

[muss60]

I knew the learning curve was going to be dramatic - and it's proving right. Thanks so much for your help.

 

[returnofsid]

Hang in there, you'll get it!!