Nice Cheap DIY Overflow

[sönke]

Hallo everybody and sunny greetings from Cyprus. Unfortunately I discovered this forum a little bit too late, last week i ordered an overflowbox But I think I will try this cheap cheap version as well, just one thing I can´t make out, how will the overflow start again after a power cut ? Or do u have to start "manually" again

[Covey]

WELCOME TO 3REEF!

The loop that runs up and over the lip of the tank is air tight. It holds the siphon. It restarts on its own.

[reiple]

Covey that is way cool and way easy to build! nice. I was thinking of how to build a cheap overflow for a small long nano and this one rocks.

[mkarston]

First of all, this is a really good thread with tons of information solely around the overflow. I have seen other discussion threads this long, but never that have actually stayed on topic and stayed alive for this long.

Anyways, here is my situation. I am setting up a second tank (I currently have a 90 gal reef, and am now setting up a 65 gal reef). My tank is reef-ready, so I don't require this overflow for the tank itself.

However, I built the tank stand 40" high and will have the room to have a shelf in it with the sump & skimmer on the bottom and a 15 gal glass aquarium as a Refuge on the top. I plan to pump water out of the return chamber of my sump up into the Refuge, and I then need to build some sort of overflow in the Refuge to siphon back into the intake chamber of the sump.

Some questions/comments I had:
1. The height of the glass aquarium (my Refuge) is only 12 inches.
2. What is the key to keeping a good balance between rate of water going into the Refuge and the water siphoning back out
3. What diameter PVC will I need for this smaller application; I read that someone posted they had a friend who built a small one for there nano.
4. Is it possible to use something like this on the intake? (I don’t know if my application would require it, but just a suggestion).
http://a1272.g.akamai.net/7/1272/112..._FS34721PZ.jpg

Thanks in advance,

Craig

[Monacle]

what's that little doohickey sticking out of the corner of the 90? other than that, looks easy to build and looks nice as well. Thanks for the picture

[chem_fun]

GREAT THREAD. Wonderful discussion and directions.

Here's my "issue."

I teach science at a really small charter school in Michigan. I keep my tank alive via a small fund raiser through out the year. I have (though I hate to admit it) had water get on the floor 4 times. The first, was when the cleaning crew (who has now left our employment) smashed my aquarium late at night and tried to safe the fish by placing them in fresh water. Flood 2 and 3 (my fault...RO/DI, pressure pump...over night...BAD...oops). The third time, I think a student was goofing off at lunch and a tube on my seaclone came off. Only about 5 gallons that time. I need to make some changes so they don't ask me to scrap this cool project in my classroom.

(sorry for the long story)

I'm going to remove everything from inside/outside the tank (Save the maxijet 1200's) and put it in a sump. This seems the most fool proof way as there is much less outside the tank to leak. (oh, and I got acrylic not glass now) I was thinking of getting a large rubbermaid container for the sump. Now I need to determine the most efficient, cost effective, fool proof way of getting water to the sump. This idea looks great. With the age of the thread, I'd say it's near fool proof. (no one has mentioned floods)

I'm not opposed to drilling and adding a bulkhead. Is this any more or less fool proof? Given the situation what would you suggest?

I was also thinking (to make it more foolproof), that without sacrificing sound, and to ensure siphon...I could add a hose to the venturi hose of one of the maxijet's. ***Thoughts on this?***

I figure one of the two options, with a mag5 or mag7 would still be cheaper than getting a remora or something more safe than my seaclone. AND, more water volume to the system.

-Scott

P.S. Is there a reason that Spell Check is misspelled?

[chem_fun]

What about surface skimming? Could you add a horizontal pipe with holes in it (on the top). This would act both as screen and surface skimmer. Though you would have to clean it out a bit more often than a 1.25 inch pipe.

[Covey]

"Now I need to determine the most efficient, cost effective, fool proof way of getting water to the sump."

"oh, and I got acrylic"

If you got an acrylic tank and you want fool proof I would just drill. I think these HOB overflow are good but acrylic is so easy to drill.

"I was also thinking (to make it more foolproof), that without sacrificing sound, and to ensure siphon...I could add a hose to the venturi hose of one of the maxijet's. ***Thoughts on this?***"

I don't think it would be worth it. The venturi on a maxi-jet doesn't drag very hard. On my original 1 1/4" 14" tall overflow you had to suck like mad to get any air out of it to being with. The overflow is very stable and the air line is really just there to prime it for the most part.


Spell Chek is the name of the software

Good luck

[Troy2000]

Covey,

It's been over a month since anyone posted on this thread. However, I just wanted to let you know that I have been following this thread for several months now. In May this year I built the overflow, tested it and it works beautifully. I constructed it of 1 inch pvc and run a mag 7. I have not had a single problem with it. Last week we had a power failure of about 3 hours (probably the 5th one this summer). When power was restored, the system was back up and running with absolutely no problems

Troy

[Covey]

Welcome to 3reef. Thanks for posting. Good to hear it works like it should.