dippin61 Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 Well I finally gave in and bought a new return pump. Some of you may know that I'm a huge advocate of slow/low flow through the sump. For the past couple of years, I've been using a MJ1200 as my return pump. Works awesome, and lets the skimmer do it's job. My only problem with it was, that my U-tube would always get air trapped in it, because the flow wasnt enough, so I found myself resetting the U-tube once a week or so. Kind of a pain in the butt. Gotta turn off the return, pull the U-tube out etc etc. So I didnt really want to spend much on a fancy return pump, so I ended up getting a Sea Line SL-6530 which is rated at 430 gph. (Great pump BTW. Its quite silent, more so then the MJ1200 I was running.) I figured my regular 'ol U-tube overflow with 1" drain would be able to handle it no problem. I always thought a U-tube overflow with 1" drain could handle about 600gph. Problem. First off, the overflow couldnt handle the return pump. I actually had to add another U-tube I had laying around just to keep up with it. And that added even more problems. Flushing. To fix the problem temporily I added another hole to my stockman. That seems to have helped the flushing a bit. Still makes noise, but for now I can live with it. But the overflow still doesnt look like it can handle it. The water level inside the overflow box, doesnt go down as far as it used to, and has stopped skimming the top of the water. So now I have scum on the top. So, where do I go from here? Should I try and plumb in a ball valve on the return and have the excess drain back into the sump, (problem is I run 5/8" vinyl tubing. Do they make 5/8" PVC?) or do I just bore out the overflow drain to handle like a 1.5" drain? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powdertang05 Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 just use a ball valve to the output of the return that will work just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dippin61 Posted February 27, 2007 Author Share Posted February 27, 2007 should i have the excess go back to the sump or just put the ball valve in? I dont want to put too much back pressure on the pump, seeing as I dont know how well it could handle it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powdertang05 Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 they are work horses and all it wll do in turn is let the impeller spn freely a few rotations so it may not work as hard. i would just stick with the ball valve on the output no need to have some go back into the sump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanz Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I would only do 1 u-tube... how much space do you have between the u-tube and the bottom of the skimming box? Too little and water can't get out fast enough, causing water to rise in the main tank, above the overflow box. Well that was my problem anyway. I tried doing 2 u-tubes before and one always breaks it's suction. Plus 1 is more than enough for your pump. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 Agree on the ball valve. Works great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.