Overflow Box

I am going to compare water volume of skimmer box with water volume of ice container to see if they are the same,if the container holds the same or more water than the skimmer box,do you still think it might effect GPH flow ?

 

The container is taller the drain box section which will leave the U tube at it's original depth below water surface and the container will be at the same height as the original skimmer box.

 

If you drill a hole in the u-tube, that would break the siphon in a power outage. However, once the power comes back on the siphon will not start again. This could have two major consequences:

1) If you have more water in your pump compartment of your sump than extra volume in your display tank, your display tank will flood.
2) If you are not home, your tank may not get much water flow for a certain period of time.

The air tube that you see connected to the top of some u-tubes is to make is easier to remove trapped air from the u-tube, which can eventually break the siphon. Some people have those tubes connected to an aqua-lift pump. I do not recommend that solution as it is prone to failure. If air is getting trapped in the u-tube, that means your flow is not high enough. At a high enough flow, no air will get trapped in the u-tube and the siphon will not break.

I can't really comment on your proposed changes... pictures would help. I would just stick with the manufacturers design. I have a huge skimmer box on my HOB overflow, and I can barely notice it because it is the same color as the tanks background.

 

I hope whatever becomes of you skimmer box does work for you and will not flood your house. For me I will not ever take a chance with flooding. Thus the skimmer box is something I will certainly not ever mess with. Please make sure that once your set up and you get a siphon going you see where the water drain limit will be in your sump. If the power goes out you'll have an overflow in your sump.

 

I wouldn't recommend messing with the box at all. You have to ask youself how much your belonging are worth that will be damaged or destroyed in the flood, as that is the likely outcome of messing with an overflow. They are finnicky enough when they are properly engineered. My two cents are to just use it and try and mask it somehow, but it is your tank and ultimately up to you.

 

If i'm not mistaken about the concern of flooding, which seems to be if the return pump goes out for what ever reason,is the amount of water going to the refugium from over flow box before it looses it's siphon.Can the refugium hold that amount of water before it over flows.Hmmmmmm ?

 

This is an easy test. Turn off the pump and see if your tank stops siphoning before it hits the top. Also the return on your tank may start siphoning water directly from the tank. Make sure you accommodate for that volume as well. What you should do is raise your return hose/nozzle so that is slightly above the level of your skimmer box. This way you don't have to account for that extra water coming out. Another technique I have heard of is drilling a hole in your return hose/nozzle so that it kills the siphoning effect right when the water level drops below the created hole.

 

ive had an idea about an overflow for a while since ive been making a custom one for the 20 hex i have and i figured that the least amount of components for the cheapest cost and less space is to use a 200 GPH HOB filter(200 is plenty for a 20) and drill a drain in the bottom of the HOB container portion draining down to a 5 gallon bucket that is being used as a sump so in case the power goes out and comes back on there shouldnt be such a problem....my design included an overflow though made of plexiglass siliconed to the back of the tank and the bottom reinforced with 2 pieces of pvc going from the bottom of where i stop the overflow to the bottom of the tank and then i could just hide the pvc with my rockwork....i figured if i needed it deeper than necessary and put some rock rubble in it to make a mini fuge as well.....so for you situation you could possibly get a big HOB filter and do something similar without the overflow idea if you really want to but id recommend an overflow