diy overflows

[Moti Mo]

i'm a little confused about the purposes and design of an overflow. I plan on making one to feed my sump, but I don't want to make one that doesn't reap all the benefits of having one. What is the purpose of a box on the inside of the tank as opposed to a syphon tube that is an inch or two under the water? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[mtellin]

Youd want a box on the inside to lessen the chance something would get sucked up in there and break your siphon, another good idea it to put egg crate at the top of the inside box so those pesky snails stay out

HTH,
Mike

 

[Mouse]

The way i'm going to do it is to have two holes drilled at the top of the back of the tank. One of them will be just above the other, and the lower outlet will have a ball valve or some kind of adjustable tap. This way the lower pipe can be adjusted so that the flow rises up to meet the second pipe, and that way i will be able to fine tune the outflow of the aquarium. This will mean that i can get rid of any noise coming from the outlets, ill have a surface skimming action going on, and if the lower pipe gets blocked with a fish or something the upper over flow will take the rest of the water. The only thing is that you would have to make provisions in the sump for the fact that once the pump is turned off you will have a large ammount of water flowing back into the sump. I have been thinking a long time about this particular section of aquarium design as i am terrified of a 400 gallon tank dumping its load onto my floor. So im going to keep it simple, and ensure provisions are made for every eventuality.

[ September 27, 2001: Message edited by: Mouse ]

 

[Moti Mo]

thanks guys