Pump routing

[Anonymous]

Hey gurus, I have a little giant pump drawing through a port near the bottom of my sump for my 125g. It takes up over a foot of my under-stand space, so I thought about using an elbow to turn it 90 degrees. Then I wondered if I could route pvc elbows up and over the base of the back of my stand and back down so the pump sits behind the stand, thereby gaining about a foot of space for a bigger refugium. The barrier to go over is about 6 inches high (this is slightly higher than my sump water level while running). Does anyone see any problems with this? Can these pumps be mounted vertically? Also, my pump sucks a lot of air vortexes from the sump--is there a common solution to this? Do I need to put a ball valve on the return to cut its flow down? I'd hate to decrease my water turnover, but it starts slurping if I lose an inch of sump volume to evaporation, which happens every other day or so. Thanks for your replies.

 

[Len]

Hi. You can do this, but you may have to prime the pump first if the rise goes above the water level in the sump (i.e. over ~6 inches). Most pumps, including LGs, can operate vertically.

To prevent the pump sucking in air from the surface, either raise the level of the sump water level (or at least the area where your pump draws water from) or put a 90 degree elbow facing down on the intake so the pump only draws water from the bottom of the sump.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes you can. I have my return pump set up that way. Make sure you fill the line prior to running th pump the first time.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advise. I'll try it and let you know the outcome. Hey Len, you sound pretty knowledgable--could I see a picture of your tank?