Drains!! For the love of God, please help me!

Please Please Please, can someone help? I screwed up. I'm setting up a new aquarium and I got a fresh water tank and drilled an overflow drain in the side (I know it should have been the bottom so please don't rub in).

I can't get the drain to work. It is as attached photo shows but all I can get is a trickle down the pipe. The pipe is 20mm internal diameter but it won't keep up with the sump pump which just pumps the sump dry.

Can anyone help offer an easy fix?

Really appreciate any help as I am at the point of taking a hammer to it!

 

What return pump are you using, and what size is the plumbing? Without knowing too much, I'm guessing your drain is too small. It needs to be significantly larger than your return. Another potential problem I see is the 90° elbow. It can get air trapped there that slows down your drain even more. When I had my tank drilled from the side I used a t instead of a 90 and extended it up past the water level, but I think it is really just too small.

 

Thanks mate, The problem seems to be something with air-locking. It worked ok once when I went straight to silicone pipe with no elbow just made a horrible gurgling noise that I tried to cure, but created more problems in the process. I tried a T but same problem. The pipe only goes to a trickle after the elbow or T no matter how full the in part is. It's weird

 

you can try inserting an airline tube into the return just enough to let the air escape. It may help.

 

Try increasing the drain diameter. There's no suction to support a gravity feed for the drain. I would personally start over because you don't want a band aid on a problem that will be a nightmare down the road. We all make mistakes.

 

Need to know more info.

1) Drain size.
2) Return size.
3) return size pump GPH
4) How long is the drain line to the sump.
5) Take a picture of your entire set up. It looks confusing.

 

+1 with the above. More information is needed regarding the set up and the current drain. The picture makes it look like it's small 1/2 in tubing you have there as a drain.

 

Drilling the bottom may not be an option if it is tempered glass.

It it isn't tempered then you could drill the bottom & use that as your return.

or Use the existing hole as a start to a Bean Animal style overflow (or still do a Bean and use that as the return).

 

Do you have an overflow box there? If so I would say you don't have enough water in your system. Like others have said, let's see more pics.

 

If your original pic is the drain elbow you need to allow air to escape through the top of the 90 degree elbow. You will have to experiment with the hole size. See the example pic of a drain....