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Guest
Hey RF. We just got our sump online yesterday and we have an issue we have no idea how to fix. It's a 180 reef ready tank with two 1" Megaflow durso drains. Once they go through the bootom of the tank the left drain runs about 4' horizontally before it dumps into the sump. The other drain only jogs over about a foot or less and dumps into the sump right next to the other. Both pipes run through 1" bulkheads installed into the top of the sump. They are not glued to the bulkheads because I figured we would want to be able to take them out for future maintenance or replacement if needed. I figured there wouldn't be too much pressure on them anyway since they are just drains. Below the bulkheads we installed pvc pipe to under the water level to eliminate the splashing. Again the left one that runs the longer distance has no issues with this. The right one though would build up back pressure and leak out of the top of the bulkhead in the sump, pool up and water would run off the side of the sump into the stand... not good. I increased the pipe diameter below the bulkhead on this drain and the back pressure leak in the bulkhead stopped. However there is tons and tons of air coming through this one drain pipe. So much so that the skimmer chamber in the sump looks like a skimmer in itself with foam and everything. This air/water mix and foaming is making quite a bit of noise too. The left overflow is running perfectly with good water height and not too many bubbles running into the sump. The right one is running with a much lower water height on the durso drain and no matter what height I set the water in the overflow at it doesn't increase the water height on the durso drain pipe itself. We are running a Reeflo Dart for return pump and it is lifting the water from the sump up about 14" to the intake (we have to do this for space restriction reasons in the stand). It then has about 42" of head height running up two pipes where it enters a manifold at the top of the tank dispersing the water out 6 loc-line nozzles (will be 8 but we don't have the last two loc-lines yet). I must say the pressure blowing out of these nozzles is far less than I imagined it would be with the gph rating on this pump but the flow through the sump is quite enough so I don't think we need to increase the pump output volume. Everything is running wide open with no restriction other than the plumbing. I have attached some pictures and a video below for visual aids.
I am hoping someone here has some experience with these drains and can help with either some really clear instructions or maybe even a visit to the house to help us get this corrected. Any help is very much appreciated.
Return pump (yes the box is temporary until all issues are resolved and then we will install a permanent shelf)
Left drain, kinda tucked behind the return plumbing (no flex line is attached to the nipple in this shot but trust me it's there now)
Right drain and other end of left drain line
A quick video starting with the return pump and plumbing then showing the drains and sump
I am hoping someone here has some experience with these drains and can help with either some really clear instructions or maybe even a visit to the house to help us get this corrected. Any help is very much appreciated.
Return pump (yes the box is temporary until all issues are resolved and then we will install a permanent shelf)
Left drain, kinda tucked behind the return plumbing (no flex line is attached to the nipple in this shot but trust me it's there now)
Right drain and other end of left drain line
A quick video starting with the return pump and plumbing then showing the drains and sump
