Fuge Problems

B

blide

I added a 20g fuge to my display and now I'm having drain problems. The fuge is drilled in the top corner and I made a 1" Durso pipe for the fuge drain and it flows straight down to the sump which works fine. The problem I'm seeing is my durso in my display is having suction issues. (I can see the water level rise and lower in the overflow.) Does anyone know why it's doing this?

Do both drains need to be submerged?

Fuge:
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Drains: (Left - Display Drain / Right - Fuge Drain)
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How's the fuge being fed? Is the water going display -> Fuge -> Sump? Or is the sump fed seperately from the main tank?

Usually, when I see the water fluctuating issues on a durso system like you're describing, it's 'cause the air hole on the durso isn't big enough, clogged up, etc...
 
I'm only using one return pump (mag 12) for the whole system. The return pump is split and feeds the display and the fuge.

Basically its like a larger tank with 2 durso's and one return pump. :?

Could it be because the fuge durso is lower than the display durso?
 
Hrmm.. if the drains are fully submerged, and the sump level is fluctuating, you're probably getting variable backpressure.. more of a cyclical series. Maybe bring the drains up until they're 1/2 way submerged and at the same level?
 
As someone who loves to overcomplicate solutions I would drill the air hole on the fuge durso to fit a plastic valve. They have some smaller valves at Elliots Hardware. With a valve there you can adjust the air flow into the durso stand. The problem sounds like an issue with the durso not getting enough air. Other possible root cause is that air is trying to make it way up from the sump. Either way a valve and some tinkering would fix the problem. I am not a fan of the guess on the hole size and drill method.
 
@blide wrote:
I don't see any change in the sump... It's just in the overflow box on my display. said:
Just to rule it out, can you remove the top cap on the dursos, and / or raise the drains so that they're outside of the water in the sump?

If removing the caps fixes the problem, it's the air holes, if raising them out of the sump fixes it, it's back pressure.
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Thanks guys I'll try it out tonight..

I have also noticed that the water coming out of the fuge drain is extremely rapid. The flow is twice the speed of my display drain and I don't know why? What would cause the water to jet out like a kinked water hose?
 
Well, if the fuge drain is completely underwater, the flow would feel like more because you're also shooting out bubbles of air, whereas 1/2 the flow from the display goes straight up :)
 
Well great... When I got home from work I checked and everything is working fine. Maybe my late night tinkering fixed it? Thanks for the advice everyone. :D
 
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