tray overflow!

[medicalGreenGrower]

i've been putting together my setup over a long period and when i built my home made trays i went to the hydro store and bought several pairs of drain and fill bulkheads. i built my trays and many months later, yesterday, i tested my system and my trays overflowed massively. both my fill and drain bulkheads are the same size and i noticed that on the hydro store's web site, their flood/drain sets have one 1/2 and one 3/4 inch bulkhead. So i'm assuming the guy gave me the wrong set up and if i had the 3/4" for a drain, my tray wouldn't overflow. Can anyone tell me if the proper set up is a 1/2 inch fill and a 3/4 inch overflow valve? The other option would be a smaller pump i guess but then i would have to buy 5 new pumps and that would be too expensive right now. let me know if that's the real issue though. thanks.

 

[NorCalHal]

You can use , and I have,used the same size fill/drain fittings. They were actually both 3/4", not 1/2.

Is your drain below the table rim? Did it drain at all? If it did drain, then it sounds like your pump is too powerful, if it did not drain, you will need to adjust the height on your drain fitting.

 

[Funkfarmer]

Or set the pump timer for a shorter period.

 

[medicalGreenGrower]

thanks! i looked at my set up and yes, there is a riser that makes the drain just below the top of the tray, so i removed one and now the drain is lower. i also noticed that the drain pvc pipe is below the reservoir at one point so the drain water has to flow up for a few inches before it gets back to the reservoir. i'm going to change that now and hopefully i won't have to change my pumps. they are 145 gph and i have a medium cat litter trat for my tray and a medium garbage can (20 gal.) for a resevoir so i'm pretty sure they are too big. is there any way to reduce the flow or should i just use a short fill cycle? thanks for the tips.

 

[Tater]

You could T off of you pumps and maybe use 2 pumps instead of 5, this would effectively more than half their flow rate.