Nice Cheap DIY Overflow

lol!

 

Thanks Covey! I used your idea in my 120G over 3 months ago and had no problems. I used 1 1/4" and never need to use the valve. Here's a pic:
Overflow

 

I was looking for a solution so that I could drain my frag tank into my 2nd refugium in a way that would be reliable and would not introduce any bubbles into the refugium. This is what I came up with initially:



Someone on RC suggested that I use the hang on PVC overflow method from this thread so I constructed a prototype out of 1.25" PVC and it works as has been reported by nearly everyone else.

However, I am getting a large number of bubbles which are introduced as the water exiting the upper tanks sucks in air and mixes it as it travels to the lower tank.

This seems to be inevitable in the design unless I am getting my bubbles because I did not glue the pipe together and it is sucking air in through the seams. I think the air is coming from the inlet and not the seams, but I am not positive and I don't really want to glue this thing together until I am fairly confident that it will do what I want it to do.

I thought I would ask to see if anyone has made a varient which does not introduce any bubbles?

 

It could be because you didnt glue it, hmm.
If you mean that that pic was what you were going to do (drilling holes) and you are not going to drill your tanks.
But if you are going to drill your tanks then you dont need this design. a standard overflow will work

 

What a great overflow!!!

I just built this overflow and tested it using a Rio 2500 pump. The Rio 2500 puts out 748gph and the overflow had no trouble at all keeping up, plus I saved about 80 bucks. WOOHOOOO!!

 

I have a 120 as well. What pump are you using? I'm trying to decide on a pump and I'm going to say I'll have 5 feet of static head. Unsure how to figure dynamic head, so I was going to oversize the pump a bit.

I'd like to end up with about 600-700 GPH.

Any opinions on a cost effective pump?

Joe

 

I'm using a Quite One 4000; it turns over 3.25 times (if it had no rocks/sand) an hour. That works out to 391 gallons an hour at 4 1/2 feet head.

I am not sure if it is the pump or my return plumbing is constricting it.

 

Thanks for the reply, I wanted a bit more flow than that. I was looking to do about 600 or so per hour.

One tip I wanted to add. Some people were wanting to paint their overflows black to keep things a bit hidden. I was in a local hardware store and found 1-1/2" ABS pipe (black pipe). They had all the pieces needed to build one out of 1-1/2" ABS.

One other thing is I saw 1-1/2" ABS 180 degree fittings!! They call it a p trap of course, but all you need to do is remove the street 90 off.



So long as the space between the U is big enough to fit over the top of the tank, this would be nice. They were about 2.08 a piece.

So I'll be building mine out of ABS.

What about the Danner Mag drive model 12?

Powerheads - Mag-Drive Pumps - Danner Mag-Drive Supreme 12 - 1200 GPH Pump - Aquarium Pet Supplies For Tropical Fish And Aquariums

Joe

 

DIY Overflow

After reading this thread, I decided to try one for myself!!;D I used 1 1/4" Abs piping and was able to get water flowing out of it during the testing stage (forgot to mention, I cemented it all with Oatly Abs cement). Since I read that it is suppose to continue siphoning after a power failure, I turned off the tap (water source) and left it sitting there for about 5 mins and it worked when I turned it back on. Then I tried 45 mins and it also worked. I decided to give it one more try so i can trust it to not flood the house and tried 2 hours. After two hours, it totally lost its siphon. I observed that the water coming out of it decreases gradually when the tap is left on... so could it be leaking air out of the checkvalve? or what can be the problem?

 

have any updated plans been drawnout of this design? I am getting to build one this weekend and wondering which plan in particular was used.. I dont have the air check valve around here (okinawa) and may have to buy one via the net.


update: built mine but it is slow flowing, I have the rio 2100 set at 1/4 output or i flood my tank.
does the pipe on the tank side need to be as long or shorter than the pipes leading to the output?