180 Gal - How much will overflow?

IHaveCrabs

IHaveCrabs

Premium member
So I have a 40b as my sump and I'm wondering how many gallons should I expect in a power outage with minimal plumbing? Any of you out there that can share their experience or knowledge?

Jon
 
It's simple fill everything to the point where it just works properly then pull the plug and watch
Every tank will be different depending on the level of parts that will back flow . Then add more water staying below your max backfill point you desire.
 
Last edited:
anarchy said:
What John said
Click to expand...

+1. Also don't trust check valves to help keep some of the water in the DT, they will fail at some point. I also factor the sump to handle the volume of my ATO bucket in case it were to stick on and have a power outage while traveling.
 
When attempting the "pull the plug method" which I also recommend, just be sure to be ready to get the pump plugged back in if the water is getting close to the max of what your sump can handle.

I would also suggest that you position your return lines close to the surface and not very far below the water line in the DT and make an air hole vent to break any syphon.

Always think about worse case scenario and try to design your system redundancies and fail safes accordingly.

Best of luck!
 
+1 to all above. Now,if your returns are close to surface, and you will lose let's say 1 inch of water, that's ( assuming standard 180 gal. dimensions) approximately 7.5 gal. of water you need to have room in your sump. To find out gallons, just do simple math : LxWxH/231 = gallons , where H in your example will be the difference from top of water when tank is full, to level where it will be after stops overflowing. I hope it makes sense to you.
 
Thanks all. I did the basic calculations to ensure it will hold it all. Just want to not have to learn by pulling the plug but it is a test I will be doing for sure regardless.
 
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