Sump return pump to powerful

Hi, very new to the hobby... first saltwater tank and have a quick question.

I have a 35 gal display tank with a 20 gallon sump/fuge below. I'm using the diy overflow described in this thread. All my plumbing is with 1" pvc.

Now for my problem...

The pump (a rio 1700) is too powerful and will suck the area it has in the sump dry in less than a minute.

What can I do to fix this?

 

the only thing that I could think of is that you could increase the size of your overflow, if you allow more water to overflow, your pump would not dry up. How big is your tank?

 

Or install a ball valve after the RP. Luna

 

get a smaller pump.that pumps 3 times too fast.i had a 1200gph pump on a 55gallon display and 29 gallon sump and i had rocks blowing around my tank.a big sandy mess.

 

I have a 1" overflow & 3/4 return. My return pump is a RIO 2500, WAY TOO BIG FOR MY OVER FLOW!

I had to cut it down to about 60% with a ball valve so my overflow could keep up.

One thing I did that helped a bit was switch from soft lines on my return to hard. The barbed fittings for the soft lines only had a inside diameter of 5/8" where as the fittings on the hard PVC line had a full 1" ID diameter.

 

i would put come sort of a restriction on the pump, or get another overflow. more gallons per hour is always good

 

more gph is bad. You don't want more water flowing through your sump than your skimmer can process. 3-5 times the tank volume per hour is where you want to be. If your skimmer only processes 250 gph and you are running 600 through the sump you are sending dirty water back into the display. One person shouldn't be trying to get their flow from their sump return.

 

I agree, get yourself a new pump and save yourself the trouble...JMO8)8)

 

why spend all that money put a ball valve on it and slow it down. Wont hurt the pump and allot less expensive....

 

your pump is about 650 gph and for your tank thats about 18x/hr, you could put a valve inline with the outflow to minimize the flow. or switch out the pump with another one being used in a different spot.