PVC Overflow 30 Gallon Reef-To-Be

Hey everybody. This is my first saltwater tank. It's a 30 gallon with two live rocks and 30 lbs. of base rock from reefcleaners.com (love them). I've created a DIY PVC overflow form pictures i've found online which is eventually going to drain into a 10 gallon sump. This is just a picture of me testing it for leaks and what not.

The only problem I have is sometimes it loses suction (i'm assuming) and stops siphoning. The tank would overflow if I don't suck on the check valve to get all of the air out and start the siphon again. I can't trust this to be run yet without supervision, unless I want to convert my whole room into a fish tank.

I also need to raise the intake on it so the water level in my tank is higher.

If anyone has any experience with these overflows or just any advice in general I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!

 

i dont have any experience with overflows or anything, but my guess would be that your return pump doesnt have a strong enough flow rate to push the water back into the tank at the same pace its coming out.

 

Check out this thread from another 3reef member. I am going to soon try something like this for my 29g Biocube too. Looks pretty straight forward, not sure why you have an air valve in stead of either driller a hole in the cap or removing the cap completely.

Here's the thread on DIY Nano Overflow:
http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/29g-bc-hqi-w-sump-123852-3.html

 

that actually makes a lot more sense then something being wrong with the air valve. Especially if he has to "blow" into it to create extra pressure.

Stook: What type of pump are you using for the return? Also keep in mind if you're having these problems now running tests with a Home Depot bucket less than 3' from your tank, imagine how much more difficult it will be when you have a sump that's 3-5' away, probably lower to the ground, and the pump is having to push up instead of sideways. I think you might want to do a little more research on head way for pumps and invest in something like the Hydror 325gph return pump. I think I paid like $35 for mine? It's easy to clean and good flow for tanks of our size!

 

I was thinking the exact same thing.....
When you buy a decent return pump, the manufacture will have done the calculations for you on height from pump and flow rates. Look on the back of the box should be a chart. For your tank, you will be looking in the range of about 5x the size for hourly flow, or in your case 150 gallons/hour. Just because the pump is rated at 150 gph, doesn't mean it's going to be that efficient when it fights gravity up 4 feet.

As for the overflow, many manufactures have made ones that work very well, and as for the risk of an accidental loss of suction and a main tank overflow, well, I myself choose (past tense) to trust the pros on this. I got mine from eshopps for about 50 bucks. It hasn't failed me yet. I don't want to styffle your creativity in any way, as I myself plumbed my own pipes from the sump to the DT, but I've heard way too many horror stories of folks coming home to a 1' pond in their living room.

 

I just don't understand how you would flood your house if you have an overflow installed. As long as you do not fill up the tank while the pump is running, you should be able to figure out a water level that works best. Also I'm just thinking if my power went out, wouldnt the water from my DT drain into my sump depending on where my overflow is set to drain at. Which I wouldn't give it any more than maybe .25-.5" of play room as far as water level goes.

Just seem's like it's a pretty straight forward ordeal but I haven't done it before and I have had tanks flood (or more less shatter) and spill over 30g+ in my living room. Thank good for steam cleaners! Sucked the water right up.

 

From what I saw, the overflow box was a DYI, and so far it seems to be working as far as flowing....The only issue he said is the system looses it's siphon and he's got to suck the air back out of the tube or else the tank would overflow. To me that seemed like it was the overflow box having issues. Although this isn't actually stated, it seemed like the probable cause.

If you're really hell bent on doing a DIY box, I've seen best results when you add a small chamber box on either side of the walls, this is meant to hold water in case of a pump fail, and the pipe won't loose suction. If your design is not loosing pump flow but you are experiencing loss of suction anyways, I'd check for a small leak allowing air into the main tube.

 

If you live close to Pittsburgh, I could give you one for free thats meant for a 30 gal. I tried exactly what your doing and did it successfully but it just wasn't an amazing filter. 10 gallons isn't much to work with.

 

Thanks for the replies everyone and the great info! I got the siphon the stay by adding a small piece of airline tubing onto the check valve and a cap on the end of the tubing. I suck out the air then cap it off to keep the valve closed (that's cheap check valves for ya )

Here's a pic of it hooked up to my 10 gallon sump I've just created. I'm using an Eheim 2080 canister filter (it's a monster) as the sump pump. The intakes are in the sump and the outlet is on the DP. Since I have the sump raised up there really isn't much overhead for the canister to pump against and it seems to be running fine.

The only problem I have now is with my bubble trap in the sump. I have a small aquatic life 115 skimmer in there which is producing a lot of micro bubbles. I don't know if I made the B'trap too big but they are getting right past it, getting sucked into the canister and right back out into my DP.

That's what I love about this hobby though, there is always something to work on and always something to learn!

 

That's cool! Ive never seen a sump on a side of the tank. Original.