I'm buliding my own sump, and i'm in the planning phase right now and i ran into a problem. The problem is when the power goes out for whatever reason, that means water keeps on flowing down from my 55 gallon aquarium into the 20 gallon aquarium(sump) and thats bad news, over flow, i plan on put a vaule where I can close it, if this does ever happen which i know it will, but what im afraid of is if i not home and the power goes out. Is there any thing that i can put that will automaticly stop the flow from coming down and flooding my living room.
DIY sump problem
- Thread starter Mark_10
- Start date
the best bet for you would to just buy an overflow box for the aquarium so that way if the power does go out the water will only go down as far as the cut outs on the overflow box will let it. saves on worries of overflows.
here are some examples of how you can plumb your tank to prevent overflow of the sump:
Diagram of an overflow box (use this if your tank isnt drilled):
"standpipe" overflow, for drilled aquariums:
internal overflow:
Diagram of an overflow box (use this if your tank isnt drilled):
"standpipe" overflow, for drilled aquariums:
internal overflow:
Yep, you definitely either need to have a hang-on overflow, or drill the tank and have an internal overflow.
Even then, plan the level of the water in the sump so that there's enough room for the water that's above the level of the overflow to go into the sump without flooding it.
Even then, plan the level of the water in the sump so that there's enough room for the water that's above the level of the overflow to go into the sump without flooding it.
