Hardscape

[lockrookie]

What's your over flow plumbing size? If you have the latest generation quiet one pump see If you can turn it down. As well you have alot of turns on the overflow pipe it may be causing back pressure or restricting somewhere. Also try taking that thingamajig of the main line it may be restricting.

[Baldy]

Maybe try choking back your return pump to begin with. If you don't have a ball valve right after your return pumps outlet, you should put one there

[reefwars]

there is no way a 900gph return pump is overflowing a 1 1/2" pvc drain , there has to be something else going on , a 1" drain should be more than enough let alone a 1 1/2" drain , you shouldnt have to turn down your return pump.

im running 2400gph after 3ft of head through a 1" pvc and i have the pipe restricted about half way with the gatevalve.

[lastlight]

Agreed about the overflow that doesn't add up.

For a PVC wire run you could use an angle grinder to cut a wide slot lengthwise down your pipe and mount it with slot urn away from view. Nice and easy to lay wires in there. By nice and easy I mean it will still be a giant pain to remove a wire if needed but better than fishing them through...

[kien]

Was thinking maybe your stand pipe was too high but I don't see a standpipe in your overflow.. You didn't add one afterwards did you?

Did you put any sort of gating material into your overflow weir? Like acrylic or egg crate? That could restrict your flow considerably without the appropriate size grills.

[kien]

I went back and had a look at your weir and it does look like you have an acrylic sheet on that back wall with slits cut out for the weir. It's possible those slits are too small and not allowing enough flow into the overflow box. You may have to cut those slits bigger.

[Trevor W]

Originally Posted by kien

I went back and had a look at your weir and it does look like you have an acrylic sheet on that back wall with slits cut out for the weir. It's possible those slits are too small and not allowing enough flow into the overflow box. You may have to cut those slits bigger.

Yes it does have one piece of black acrylic covering the pane that is notched for the overflow. I had also thought that perhaps the cuts in the "teeth" are just not large enough. Well I will have to come up with some way of making these larger. The acrylic is siliconed to the pane and it also has a euro-brace. So any suggestions on how to make these larger?

No stand pipe, just a 1.5" strainer that I unscrewed after the first failed attempt.

[Trevor W]

Originally Posted by reefwars

there is no way a 900gph return pump is overflowing a 1 1/2" pvc drain , there has to be something else going on , a 1" drain should be more than enough let alone a 1 1/2" drain , you shouldnt have to turn down your return pump.

im running 2400gph after 3ft of head through a 1" pvc and i have the pipe restricted about half way with the gatevalve.

This was exactly my thoughts aswell!

[kien]

You may have to invest in a dremel tool if you don't already own one. Or maybe borrow one. They have a lot of attachments that you can use to cut those slits bigger. I don't know how far apart those slits are but you could maybe use a drill bit to drill holes in between the slits (at the bottom) in an effort to turn two slits into one?

[Trevor W]

Originally Posted by lockrookie

What's your over flow plumbing size? If you have the latest generation quiet one pump see If you can turn it down. As well you have alot of turns on the overflow pipe it may be causing back pressure or restricting somewhere. Also try taking that thingamajig of the main line it may be restricting.

1.5" drain line. The thingamajig is just a check valve with a union on either end for servicing or replacing the check valve. I thought perhaps there was some back pressure but even with just a bulkhead wide open the tank fills before there is barely anything in the overflow box, for example the tank fills to the point of almost touching the eurobracing before there is anything significant in the overflow box. I just tried again and i quickly started dialing in the gate valve thinking maybe I just had to start a full syphon and nope it stay at about the point of overflowing the display.

The drain line as complex as it may look is not actually that many twists and turns and the ones it does have are made of 2-45*'s and everything has a down sloping angle. I dunno perhaps it is the line causing back pressure.