Dumb Question

Im going to be drilling my return so it doesnt siphon out, does anyone have a better way to do this? when people tell me to do it they say drill below the water line, but im confused on what im drilling? am i drilling the pvc that goes to my sump, or the tubing in my overflow? a diagram would be helpful b/c im just really confused on it.. :-[

 

Drill the hole where you want the syphon to break. It would be best to see what your return lines looked like, ie, how the come into the tank. Do they come up over the sides, or return through the glass?

Drilling a hole through plumbing down in the sump will do you no good.

PS, I see you're from Appleton, just south of my home stomping grounds... GB!

 

Its a standard overflow kit for oceanic, comes through the glass, i just moved to appleton from green bay in august!! i love it down here everything seems much closer, and the town doesnt shut down when the packers are in town (which usually im at the games anyway) but your usually better off staying indoors on a sunday lol

 

Sunday is my mom's favorite day to shop... lol.

As far as terms go, when you say "return" are you referring to the water returning to the main tank from the sump, or the drain to the sump? The former is proper.

To prevent a backsyphon, you basically have to make sure the returns are within 1" of the surface. When the main pump stops and the tank starts draining, as soon as the surface lowers to the return outlets, the syphon will break, and flow will stop.

Pics from you would help us know what we're addressing.

 

Basically what is happening is my sump will overflow if my power goes out so people suggested drilling to break the siphon so not all my tank drains..

 

Those are older pictures, but everything is pretty much the same minus powerheads, and the eshopps skimmer,

 

Yeah, basically your main tank is draining until halfway down where the returns feed water back into the tank. What you want to do is look where the returns feed through the bulkhead (from the picture looks to be higher up), and drill a small hole in each return line just inside the main tank. (preferrably on the bottom side, so water does jet up out of the tank) Your tank will then drain until it hits that hole, at which point the syphon will break, and flow will stop.

 

so i drill in in my return line? where my water comes back into the tank from my sump? should i do it right by the 90 before it hits the bendable fittings?

 

you should do it as close to the water surface as possible. remember wherever you drill it the display tank will drop to that level during power outages.

i dont even have a siphon hole, i have my returns about 1/4 inch under the water.
Why are your returns so low?

 

Im not really sure, i didnt build the tank, i paid a guy to put it all together for me, if i could redo it all i would the only problem ill have if i put it that high ill have water shooting out of my tank lol i learned my lesson and will do it myself from now on, but i need a fix now.. lol could i buy a new return kit and start over completely or would that just be a waste of money/time?