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Return tank not holding water, any suggestions would be appreciated!


Traci
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Hi! I hope someone can help us with this issue! We recently inherited a 240 gallon tank, which we love but we've been noticing lately that we are getting occasional bursts of bubbles from the water return nozzles in our tank. We found that the water return pump/tank might be the culprit.

Then noticed more bubbles today, checked the pump tank and the water was this low, with the pump making a gurgling (sucking water) noise:


I filled the tank back up to the appropriate level and within an hour the water level was all the way back down to that same low level.


Thoughts, suggestions, should we have gone with hamsters (LOL!)?


Thanks for any and all advice!

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Hi Traci,

Can you post some pictures to give us a better idea of what the issue is?  Do you have a leak? Is the floor wet anywhere? It sounds like your pump is going out or is not fully primed and is sucking air. I'll be happy to help where i can with more info provided

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Thank you for your response! There are no leaks anywhere, that's what is so puzzling but we have to constantly keep filling it. The tank empties within minutes. I will try to upload photos as soon as I can figure out how to do it lol

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It's a 90 degree valve, and the pipe is about a foot long going into tank. Sorry about the post-its, the previous owner put those on for us. We've done a few 30% water changes but have never had any issues until now.

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Is the flow rate of the return pump higher than the rate at which water is making it into the sump?

You have to tune both the water coming into the sump and as well as the the water going out, otherwise that can happen, especially if your sump has separate chambers for filter media, bio media etc. and the chamber for the return is small.

Clogged or excessive filter media can also reduce the flow rate from one sump chamber to the next, causing similar problems.

With my sump setup on my 125 I have an adjustable gate valve on the water coming into the sump from the overflow and I can adjust the flow rate on the return pump. If they’re not in sync, either the sump can overflow, or you get what you’re experiencing, a pump draining it’s chamber and gurgling (this is more likely than the first scenario). 

If this is your problem, be careful about adding too much water to the tank to compensate or when you power off the return pump, your sump could overflow and flood your room with the extra water you’ve been adding. 

if that’s not the issue and you’re not leaking water, then I’m stumped. 

 

 

Edited by tolstoy21
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I agree with everything @tolstoy21has said. I would bet a dollar to a doughnut hole that the inlet to the pump, where the water breaks the fluid seal is at the level you indicate in your first pic. That's where your bubbles are coming from. Your pump is literally 'sucking air'.

It is very easy for new tank owners to not realize what all of the valves do and what position they should be in.

Follow @tolstoy21 's advice and try to balance the inlet flow with the outlet flow such that the level in your sump is maintained. This also assumes a consistent flow through the sump filter media.

I would fix this problem soon as bubbles in a pump have the possibility of causing cavitation and damaging your impeller. This is likely a lower chance in your case due to the lower pressures, but something which should be addressed in any case.

Good luck with your tank! 

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Thanks, guys!

So @tolstoy21, the problem seemed to be the "flow rate of the return pump higher than the rate at which water is making it into the sump" part you mentioned and "balance the inlet flow with the outlet flow" part that @Dandy Pearl mentioned.

But there had to be an initial item regarding the filter in the tank to set this mess into motion, which seemed to have blown off all the debris on it into the tank itself. The tank looked like brown soup for a while there, then finally settled down. We did a gravel clean and 30% water change to get things cleared up in there. All fish seem fine and healthy today. Whew!

We're a hiring a commercial/residential aquarium consultant to come out tomorrow and give us an assessment and tutorial on our set up.

Thanks again to all for the advice! Us newbies really appreciate it!

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