Nice Cheap DIY Overflow

i got the air check valve

it will siphon now but if i turn the water off and then turn it back on it doesnt continue.. i have to prime again.... and it cant keep up with the flow from the faucet on full blast.. would you say thats okay???? or should i rebuild with bigger tubing?

 

What size pipe did you use? Mine is 1 1/4 and flowing pretty close to 600 gph with no problem. I have noticed that I have to suck some air out of the elbow weekly as it builds up a bit more than I would like. Water out of the faucet would contain a certain amount of air. I wonder if that is creating your re-prime problem?

 

Hey I did a 3/4 pipe..... I have 65 gal tank.. I still have not bought a return pump because I wanted to wait till I knew for sure if it worked...

 

I would say that 3/4 is going to be too small for your needs. I would start with 1 1/4 minimum. We are going to do one of these on a buddies 55 gal tank and we were planning on using 1 1/2.

 

wow... this thread won't die!

I got about 30 pages in and couldn't find more info on the problem I'm having.

I made two of these with a couple different designs to get it working, and I have a working overflow that will restart just fine after a power outage (actually made an overflow relay system that will shut the system off if levels in either of two tanks gets too high)

I'm using 1" PVC and the flows seem to be keeping up with my pump just fine, but i'm getting a very continuous "toilet noise" from both of my overflows and it really just takes away from the whole setup. So I've seen suggestions where the inner tank tube leg and the down leg from the tank need to be the same height? Also the T with the vent/prime pipe needs to be at the bottom of the last U junction? Cause mine aren't perfect, they are within I'd say an inch or two but it's really getting to me. I have clear hose on the T junction and you can see air just jetting down the hose simultaneously with the noise

am I going to get this noise with TOO much flow? or should it be relatively noise free if it's all set up? Just really confused and after spending about $60 for the pvc, tools, glue, and hose so far, it's starting to become NOT as cheap as just getting the overflow boxes

 

nice.. any money you can save now days is always good

 

wow this was an awesome thread! Thanks to all who helped in it! I'm setting up a small system at my LFS and was looking for some way to not have to drill all my tanks and buy bulkheads but not have to worry about power outages and restarts for my frag tanks and fish DTs... This overflow is great! Cheap and cheerful just the way I like it!!

Jim

 

and....... BTW... anyone know if this thread is a record for number of views??? LOL wow

 

what size tubing should I use if I want 600gph flow?

 

several people have made this overflow with 1 1/4 inch and say it's flowing anywhere from 600 to 800 gph. I'm doing one now in 1 1/4 for my 55 DT... seems part of the trick is making the pipes long as you can and equal length with the tee just above the elbow on the out going side.