Nice Cheap DIY Overflow

Overflow

yes its the check valve, i folled where u said to tie it in a not or two when done siphoning the air. I was sayin that i think i have to much flow coming to the sump because the chamber for return filter water was slowly filling up. I think my return pump is not fast enough for this setup. oh, the cap is drilled with holes, the cam did not get it but it sure looks smooth eh?

 

Your overflow will only run as fast as the return pump returns it. There is not really any need to back it up.

If the cap with the holes can keep up with your return then it does look alot smoother than my big L-shaped one;D

"I was sayin that i think i have to much flow coming to the sump because the chamber for return filter water was slowly filling up."

Last thing you might want to check to see that all you pvc connections are air tight as if the bottom of the loop in the tank is not a perfect seal it could continue to draw water down past the top where the intake is and flood your sump.

 

Ahah

that could be the problem as at the time of testin, i had not sealed the pipes. The cap was cut with the dremel tool

 

gonna add my $.02

New here but here is my experience. I built this overflow and finally got it perfect! Setup, I have a pump rated at 1300 gph for my 125 gal tank. This pump is pumped into 1" flexible hose to a 3/4" reducing tee where its splits to two outputs. That being said because this overflow will not work 1 at a time (with 1 1/4" pcv) with this much flow. I modified this design to include a 4" pipe which the down pipe going into the tank dropped into (where the 4" pipe served as the skimmer/overflow). This worked great and kept up with the flow! Too bad it sounded like Niagra Falls and since it is in the bedroom the wife was having none of it So back to the drawing board. I came back here for some advice and spoke with rking who had recently built one and decided to build Coveys "strainer" to cut down on noise. Once again it served its purpose and it was nearly silent. Only I was back to square one and it will not keep up. I decided to build two the exact same way and halleluya Coveys design with the strainer (1 1/4") used in tandum keeps up with a 1300gph pump and is essentially silent. Hope this helps someone.

 

Sweet Welcome to 3reef!

Glad the thread helps.

Got any pics?

 

here is a pic...

Sorry for the late reply, wanted to get everything symetrical first.

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oops

Ok so how do I post a pic without doing that!

 

You copy and paste the contains of the "BB Code:" from your Gallery like this.


Very symmetrical.

 

is their any way you can use this over flow to suck water from different levels int he tank? Like for example drill some holes in the bottome of the intake so it will suck water in from the top and the bottom of the tank. Just a thought

Thx

 

I don't think that would work in that when the return pump was off the water would drop to the level of the holes flooding the sump.

Short of remodeling the plumbing scheme I don't really see how you could do it.