What did I do wrong!!

H

Hw-Draft

Yesterday I made a change to the drain stand pipe. Before all I had was 2-90 degree elbows put together with a 1/16" hole drilled in the top of one of them. Then a piece of ridged tubing stuck down in the hole for the air. Well yesterday I got tired of all the slurping noise and went down and bought a T and an end cap. So I removed the old 90's and put the T in drilled a 1/4" hole in the end cap and stuck it on. Well last night while we where sleeping the water overflowed over the top of the tank. :evil: My guess is I only lost about a gallon or so so it wasn't to bad but I need to fix the problem. Here are some pics of what it looks like now. What do I need to do to keep this from happening a gain?
Thanks,
Alan
On the plus side it gave me a reason to stay home from work and mess with the tank.
 
Thanks for the input. I was just on the phone with George and I will be heading to HD to get the stuff I need to fix this. I will post some pics as I go this after noon so you can see my progress.
Thanks again
 
This is what I built to fix the problem. Of course it attaches to the stand pipe in the tank. I hope that the valve I picked to use is big enough. There wasn't anything between this one and the ones for 1/2" pvc. As you can see in the second picture the valve is below the tank rim so no more overflows. :wink: At lease I hope. Let me know if you see any problems with it. I would much rather know now before the something happens.
 
Ya know, that water level still looks pretty high..there doesn't appear to be much overflow action in that overflow. :?:
 
Your screen is not draining nearly enough I think. Just take that whole piece off and stick a piece of eggcrate(like this - #) in the hole.

I tried to build a durso with a valve like that on top, but could never get it to work very well, wide open was the only way it flowed well at all. I wound up just starting with a small hole in the top and drilling it larger in small increments until it flowed properly.

Set up right, the top of the horizontal will be slightly out of the water.

It takes some tinkering-

How tall to make the vertical.( yours is too tall right now)

How large to make the hole.

How far under the water the pipe in the sump needs to be.

Those are the three variables that make it work.

You should oversize it versus the bulkhead size as well. I think, its been a long time ago, I used 1 1/4" with my 1" bulkhead. It might be 1.5 I'll check it later and update. It is 1 1/4"

Brandon
 
How far under the water should the pipe in the sump be?
Keep us updated, because I'm trying to set up a durso standpipe with a 1" bulkhead just like you.

thanks
 
One more tip that I haven't seen anywhere else.

Build it where you can removes the whole thing.

Assuming the bulkhead is 1" -

A 1" mpt to 1.25" bushing screwed into the bulkhead

Then build the whole thing and slip it down on top of that bushing.

That way you can 1- drain your overflow box and 2- have room to reach down in there with your hand or a small net.

I've rescued a couple of fish like that and retrieved stuff that I accidentally dropped in there as well.
 
Yup, your intake is too small.. the water level should even out midway on the T fitting. I'd pop in a piece of eggcrate into the L pointed downward. And make sure you're using 1.25" piping for a 1" bulkhead.
 
How far under the water should the pipe in the sump be? said:
Good question. That was the hardest part for me. It took some experimenting.

Mines is 1" spa-flex with the end about 6" under water, dumping into a bio bail filled bubble trap area.

Until I got the depth of this right I had a bad "fart in the bathtub" thing going on down there.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for all the great advice. The water level in the pic looks to high because there is a 1" piece of acrylic that sits on the top of the corner box with the u shaped cuts in it that the water runs through. I took it off for the pic so you could see the pipe better.

It seem to only work with the valve all the way open. Maybe my valve is to small and isn't letting in enough air. It seems to be working pretty well right now though.

I guess I still have a couple of issues to fix. First I am only using 1" PVC. My bulk head looks different then Brandon's. On the in side of the tank is the female so I have the pipe in it now. So I will have to glue a piece in the hole then use the 1-1/4" PVC. This is really no big deal.

My biggest problem is under the tank. Right now I am using a 45g Rubbermaid container for the sump (since my other acrylic one leaked). So my water level changes as the day goes on. To fix this part I just need to get off my lazy butt and fix my sump that way I have a constant water level for the tube to go into.

Thanks
Alan
 
My bulk head looks different then Brandon's said:
Bulkheads are pretty much all the same, either threaded or slip.

What you see in that drained picture is a 1" mpt - 1 1/4" bushing, screwed in to the bulkhead. The bottom of the whole thing just slips down over the top of it.
Click to expand...
 
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