Wet/Dry Idea

[Mighty Prawn]

So, I've been addressing an issue of my pump filling the tank faster than it can drain. First, I added my cannister filter to the tank, and had it empty into the sump. This helped somewhat, but not nearly enough. The sump ended up having juuuust enough water in it to keep filling, but was sucking air at the same time. I figure this would probably damage the pump after a while, and it's noisy as hell.

So, I thought, well, before I take apart my drain and install flex pipe, or install a valve on my return pipe, I'm going to drill some holes in the return flex pipe.

So that's what I did. I drilled about 20 small holes in the return pipe, and about 5 medium ones. This does reduce the flow of the return a little, but not enough. I drilled right at the base so it is low in the sump. When the tank empties out, it sprays all over the sidewalls of the tank like crazy. I thought, once I get it at a nice equalibrium, could I have some holes in the pipe anyways to spray up against the walls purposely, and install eggcrate on all the tank walls so the water trickles down akin to a moss/rock wall in a pond. I am hoping that algae will grow along with nice bacteria colonies due to all of the oxygen it will be getting.

Anyone ever heard of something like that, or done it?

If it doesn't work I'm going to have to cut the flex pipe anyways to install a valve, so I wasn't worried about ruining the pipe.

My only thought, if it DOES work like I hope, and does have algae growing/bacteria benefits, that the holes in the pipe might clog, and resume a more powerful flow, emptying the sump out.

Thoughts? Ideas?

-Hideo