Well guys, i'm in a bind... help.. again.

I have drilled the side of my tank and put an elbow up to the surface. the hole is drilled 3" (to center) down from the top of the tank on the side pane of glass. I just purchased a new pump which is now pushing about 400 gph. I have had to lower the height of the riser on the elbow to allow more water to flow in. With the lowering of the riser i now have a large gap between the water level and the overflow... I am worried my smaller fish might get in there and go down to the sump. How can i fix this? Possibly make an acrylic box that fits around the drilled hole like an overflow? Could someone please draw me some plans. I'm losing my mind after reading that Tom C thread.

 

you said its about 3" around? try fitting a bio ball over it that will at least prevent the fish from gtiing into the sump, if you want to stop them from getting into the box itself try some mesh wire, but your gonna have to clean it alot

 

No, it's 3" down from the top of the tank. The hole is 1.5". There is no box yet. Just a 1" pvc pipe that has a 90 on it that goes up to the surface. Only now it's like 1" below the surface and i am worried about the fish.

 

You are supposed to drill the hole at the bottom of the tank along the same measurements as you use at the top of the tank. You by sticking a simple stub of 1 inch pipe will never be able to skim the water surface like you need to. When Guys try to drill and use a bulkhead or two at the surface of the water in the back of the tanks it never works worth the trouble of drilling let alone setting the tank up.. You have to use a 2 or 3 or 4 sided column overflow box to gain surface area to sump drain. Right you have a mess ): maybe a way to fix it to get full surface flow and skimming.

 

I think i'm going to get that underwater drying aquarium safe glue and some acrylic and design an skimming box in the corner around the hole. It will be like an overflow box, but it will just go through the hole in the tank down to the sump. Any thoughts. If i knew how to draw it i would upload a pic.

 

Before you get to much going on I'd just get myself a a patch of doubled strength glass cut and take some silicone and plug that hole you now have and get the proper overflow installed or if you drill that hole low enough ? and it may well still be fine then you can just buy the properly constructed overflow.. This is not a hard item to build But it has to be made the right way.. Its all that holds the water back should power or pump fail. I Look at if as if you are going to all the trouble to set a reef up best do it the way it should be done. And save your self Time money animals labor and aggravation later one.. I base this opinion on screwing it all up every way that can be and or having to physically fixed up what other beat me to in the screw up dept. Not trying to sound rude or crude or short or to rain on you parade and don't take it that away . But Hoss what I have seen many times is that some do it correctly and some just do it. You decide..How you want to getter done Its your money and time..

 

Drill another hole in the tank 3 or so inches up from the bottom and slightly to the right or left of the original hole.

Build a corner over flow (glass or acrylic) - Plumb this ala "herbie" drain - Lower hole is primary drain and the upper hole is the secondary / backup drain. Use egg crate to keep critters from going "over the wall"

This is a very quiet drain system. Here's pics of my plumbing on a 20H
Middle pipe is backup - slightly to the right and a little lower (with ball valve) is the primary


here's a closer pic of the egg crate overflow guard

 

Eggcrate makes a good fish barrier. It allows plenty of flow into the drain but keeps everything else out. Just make sure to clean it out so it doesn't plug. Good luck on getting the problem fixed.

 

I don't know but maybe these pics of what I set up may help.
View attachment 8134 This is the main tank overflow.
View attachment 8135 This is the top of the return.
View attachment 8136 Pump from sump. I use ball valves for maintenance and check valves for power outages and feeding cycle.
Should you have any questions drop me a line>>>>AR AR

 

A simple square box with a piece of egg crate on the top will keep anything larger than 1/2 out of your overflow. to that you could add a strainer like this if you want to keep smaller things out. Keep in mind that you have to make sure you keep it clean.

Or if you felt adventurous you could put skimmer combs on the box and turn it into a surface skimmer.


Edit: A box kind of like this, note didn't have time to skimming combs into drawing