Separate skimmer container
 

How many have a desperate skimmer container? How do your drain it into you sump? Where is you ATO?

I am having a hard time balancing my return and drain... This in turn makes it really hard to balance my ATO as well. I am curious what is used to drain to your sump as well ( a pump or gravity).

I need some more ideas.

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I think maybe your issue is that your return is pumping out more then your drains can handle. Are the drains restricted in any way? ball or gate valve? You might need to restrict your return flow to get the balance. Your skimmer should never interfere with the balance.

Read through this link, you will get many ideas

http://www.melevsreef.com/links.html

It is not the skimmer that is interfering, it is the drain between the skimmer container and the sump, I think is my bottle neck. I have gate valves in place OK n both the drain and return and I have to have everything just about shut off everything to balance the return and the drain.

I have a Sedra 7000 ( 700 gph) and 1" returns (960 gph) and 1" between the sump and skimmer container. I shouldn't have to turn them down as much as I seem to have to. I also seem to be always sitting right at the syphon break (small hole drilled into the drain), so it gets noisy.

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Having a hard time understanding what you are trying to tell me so heres are a few questions:

is your skimmer tied into your drain or is it pumped feed?
what is the size of your drains from the tank?
any pic to help better explain?

Sounds like two sumps? One for skimmer and one for, well, not skimmer?

So you have (2) 1" drain lines going into a sump with just a skimmer in it and from there is a single 1" line that goes into another sump that houses your return pump? Is this correct?

1" returns should have at min 1 1/4" drains IMO.

The skimmer has it's own pumps and my DT drains into that container. The skimmer container is connected to the sump with a 1" line. The 2 and sump houses my refrigium and my return pump.

Sorry, I am trying not to babble, but I am frustrated and I definitely may be over thinking this.

I seem to be unable to have the water level in the return area to stay at an even level but the skimmer container level, is above the return line always.

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Yes

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