Overflow Box

Yes I know the best thing to do is drill my tank, unfortunately, for various reasons this is not an option.

I have a couple of question about these boxes that I was hoping someone could answer.

1. I have a 125g tank so I was wondering how much gph I would need for the overflow box. ( havent decided if I want to plumb a sump and refugium since I do have a sump and an extra tank or a sump/refuge combo just using 1 tank )

2. What boxes do most use currently? CPR, Eshopps and the ones from Lifereef seem to be the most popular from what I have seen.

3. I have also seen the diy pvc overflow, does anyone use this? If so, how do you like it?

 

i have heard great things about Eshopps, that is what i am going with when i make my sump/fuge.

i would think you just have to make sure the overflow has more gph than your return pump.

 

Yeah that was my understanding of the overflow too but I wasnt sure if we had to have a certain amount of flow coming from the tank depending on size.

 

yea im in the same boat you are, i havent chosen an overflow size yet.. im just going off what i as told.

cause think.. the overflow is only going to "overflow" whatever the pump causes it to.. so i would say we would be ok going alittle overkill on the overflow, cause what if we upgrade our return pumps later for example we would have to do the same for our overflow?.. we just have to wait for an experianced answer :-/

oh and i saw your post about the pvc overflow.. why go through the hassle.. i think hob overflows look much cleaner than pvc all inside of your tank.

 

Well, easy to make, cheap and it works..lol I do agree the HOB overflows are a lot nicer which is why I asked the question in this thread. I just hope we get some input from others who have different ones and how they are at keeping their syphon and so on.

 

Im using and Eshopps overflow and i cant really complain about it.

I could be wrong but i think a good flow rate to shoot for is about 10x your tank volume. So get an overflow that can handle that volume of water or close to it.

 

Ever had any problems with it losing syphon? The Eshopps are the cheapest out of the 3 I named so to hear someone is happy with it really draws interest.

So the flow rate for the overflow is 10x tank volume? Hmm.. well at least that gives me an idea.

 

Never had any problems with the siphon. It's worked pretty much flawlessly to be honest. I just clean the tubes every so often and that's it.

I'm pretty sure I read 10x the tank volume here on 3reef somewhere. I went with this when i picked the overflow i wanted and dialed my return pump to match what the box could handle.

 

packleader swears by eshopps if thats any piece of mind.

and so that 10x thing being said i think you would be pushing it with the eshopps 800 cause it says up to 125 gal.. you have a 125.. go with atleast the 1000 and you should be golden.

 

Awesome thank you.. I was looking at the PF-1000 or 1200 so that helps. Also good to know about packleader swearing by them, much appreciated!