very confused with sump plumbing

[salty96]

I get the basics... Overflow- then pipe from overflow into sump then your baffles and finaly your return pump with pipe back up to your main display.

To avoid flooding: I should have a sump big enough to to hold a good amount of water, drill holes in the return pipe- and avoid HOB overflows.

Heres what I dont understand. How am I gona plumb this thing? do I super glue a pipe into the the drilled hole in the overflow. and then super glue the return pipe into another drilled hole.

How do some baffles have a higher amount of water then others?

whats up with the holes you drill at the end of the return pipe?

what are check valves?

[brad_G]

You must use a bulk head in the holes. It basically is a threaded male piece and a threaded female piece with a rubber gasket that smashes between them. The male thread goes thru the hole while the female part must be bigger than the hole. Make sense?

The hole in the return should be small and just above the water line. It will suck air if the return pump should fail. This will break the siphon and hopefully save your sump from flooding .

[saltwatershark]

Don't super glue! If you're trying to glue the PVC use a primer followed by PVC weld/glue (from home depot). One suggestion I have is to drill the sump at the very top and add a bulkhead. Then, if you can, run a pipe from that bulkhead down to your main plumbing stack (or any drain that is lower than the new bulkhead, like a sink drain). Doing this will provide you an insurance policy against overflows because any extra water will spill over into the new bulkhead and will be discharged into you drain. I highly recommend this approach but also understand that it might be difficult or impossible for your configuration.

[myaerica]

The holes are siphon breaks.Check valves stop the water in your display from flowing out and flooding the floor in A power outage.

[Get Hooked]

The holes are siphon breaks.Check valves stop the water in your display from flowing out and flooding the floor in A power outage.

When you say drill holes just above the water line in your return PVC plumbing - is this the water line when the pump is on or off?

Also - if your sump can hold all of the overflow then do you need to do anything? My Megafow overflow uses the candycane durso style - it is 2" below DT water line. So given that, I just need to make sure that my return lock line and nozzle is ABOVE 2" so that I don't get backflow in the Return line correct?

[SeedlessOne]

When you say drill holes just above the water line in your return PVC plumbing - is this the water line when the pump is on or off?

Also - if your sump can hold all of the overflow then do you need to do anything? My Megafow overflow uses the candycane durso style - it is 2" below DT water line. So given that, I just need to make sure that my return lock line and nozzle is ABOVE 2" so that I don't get backflow in the Return line correct?

On... That way once it goes off the siphon will break.

Without a hole it will continue to siphon back into your sump which could cause a flood. In other words but a siphon hole!