Sump/Plumbing

[Ducksta]

Just wondering if there is some trick to plumbing tanks into a system that are on the same level as the sump?

If it more hassle than it is worth, I will leave them seperate, but thought I would ask

[Eddie Salita]

Do you want to know how to get them to drain into the sump?

[BaZ]

I don't believe it will work Ducky, as these setups normally use gravity.

You'll need it to fall from the tanks to the sump somehow.

I may be wrong though, I am not a plumber

[ViS]

If the water level in the sump is constant (ie there is a section where the water level does not change) and it happens to be at the height you want the water level in your low tank to be, then a simple syphon overflow will work a treat.

If that is the current situation, let me know and I'll explain further.

[CThompson]

I have a 4’ tank at home, full of partitions. I use on it a canister filter, inlet one end, outlet the other. Water moves from one end of the tank to the other. This tank sits on a concrete floor (with a really thin piece of polystyrene). The canister filter sits on the same level.

In your case, instead of having partitions, you will have separate tanks, going to, and leading from a sump (all on the same level). In both cases, the water is moved from the filter section (canister in mine, sump in yours) back to the starting point via a pump.

The difference I can foresee in this sort of set up is you don’t have to make your sump large enough to contain all the water that will fill it in the case of a power outage.

You will have to make sure the tanks are plumbed in such a way that the water doesn’t simply go from one inlet to the other outlet, with out going through the body of the tank (i.e. make sure the water doesn’t skim the surface layers only).

I would also organise at the least the outlet to the pump to be plumbed low down so that it will always be primed.

Craig

[Ducksta]

Andy, I would have liked the water level in the tank to be about 2" higher than the water level in the sump, and had already considered the idea of a 'bridging overflow pipe' I will call it. The more I think about it though, the 2" doesn't seem worth worrying about, and it will give me more laniancy with blackout waters running onto the bottom row.

I think that will be they way I go Was just after inspiration.

[WAZ]

I found Craigs "patricians" inspiration, ducky.

Did you?

WAZ.