$15 PVC Overflow

Just wanted to update that after getting twin aqualifters instead of one underpowered powerhead, the overflow is amazing. I can crank the Mag24 all the way up, and push around 1600-1800gph through the 1.5" and 2" pipe (instead of the 1" and 1.25" in the original plans). I am incredibly impressed with this design, and though it takes up a lot of space in the tank, I am glad we did it.

THANKS!
 
Looks like we haven't had a post on this for over a year now, but I thought just incase anyone was looking at it I would post. I built just about the exact thing seen on <A HREF=
"http://www.nd.edu/~lego/grp2/www/reef_diy.htm">this site</A>. It worked beautifully for me for a long time. I left my tanks for up to two months at a time with this running and someone feeding and no problems. I also had tried using the powerhead and then switched to the aqualifter and found it to work perfectly. (That is one thing that is not in, or not visible, the plans I used. The 125* angle at the very top now has a hole in the top of it with a check valve then leading to a aqualifter.)

The water pulled from the top is pumped into the piece of PVC that looks as if it is left open in the photo or video. Mine is open as well and I believe sending the water down there with the aqualifter can also help things get back to speed after a power outage.

I tested for weeks. On off on off. Set up a timer to turn the pump on and off randomly and never had a problem, once I had the aqualifter that is.

I still wish my tanks were drilled and actually plan on drilling my and getting read of this PVC one. However the PVC worked seemingly perfectly and do not see anything that would have happened to stop that.

Post on here or PM me if you have questions.
 
Re: Awesome plan!

Re: Awesome plan!

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=5212491#post5212491 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rainer Feyer
This plan of both the Pretzel as well as Craig's plan are absolutely awesome!

I am wondering if the following changes would make sense?

Instead of the two inlet tubes which are of small diameter, why not make a connection between the left and right tubes horizontally, eliminate the middle inlet ( in Craig's design), and cut slits into the horzontal tube, thereby eliminating problems with clogging?

I am not sure if I wil be able to past the picture into this post ( haven't tried it before). If the picture doesn't make it, I sthink you all will get the gest of my thinking.

Your thoughts?

OK, tried to get the image into the post which did not work. I read the help section, but it only allows for 'linking' to an image. How does one get the image intot he body of the post?

(R)
Click to expand...


I agree. I think this will work better at being clog resistant and surface skimming.

Since we have to look at this stuff inside the tank. Has anyone gone the route of using black PVC on the internal plumbing just for better asthetics? Savko plastics carry most PVC sizes, fitting in black.
 
Re: Re: Awesome plan!

Re: Re: Awesome plan!

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7842506#post7842506 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CoolUsername
Since we have to look at this stuff inside the tank. Has anyone gone the route of using black PVC on the internal plumbing just for better asthetics? Savko plastics carry most PVC sizes, fitting in black.
Click to expand...

We didn't go the route of black PVC, but we created agrocrete rocks and molded them around the PVC we used. Worked like a charm and gave us places to grow corals, especially those light loving ones.

That said, we still found the PVC overflow to be detracting in aesthetics and recently we made the switch over to a dual u-tube, dual drain overflow. I still wish we had drilled the tank, but hindsight is 20/20, right? This is an amazing piece of work, and it definately functioned well, but no matter what we did we couldn't get it to look right in our tank.
 
Huh? The PVC didn't look that great so you added a dual u-tube? How pretty is the dual u-tube box, lol?

CoolUsername I saw the black PVC as well and was going to order some when I thougth I needed something of there site, however I was just going to order the pipe. The title of this thread is $15 PVC overflow. Though a great deal of people on RC really arn't worried about the money for an over flow with the massive amount of money they spend on other stuff you have to realize that the black would cost at least 8 times as much. I did see a post about someone painting PVC, but didn't look to much into it.
 
Honestly, the DIY PVC Overflow is almost a foot wide of 1" PVC prezelmania inside the tank.

A Dual U-tube overflow is a MAX 6" wide clear acrylic box, with clear acrylic u-tubes. Or you have the option of a black acrylic intake box.

Either system works perfectly as long as you add an aqualifter as backup. Having said that, I do agree that a Dual U-tube overflow definitely not as visually intrusive as the PVC prezel.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7844140#post7844140 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gordonious
Huh? The PVC didn't look that great so you added a dual u-tube? How pretty is the dual u-tube box, lol?

Click to expand...
 
If you have a back ground on your tank or have it painted you never see the pretzel. In the design I used there was no pretzel mania in the tank at all and sure it was a foot wide, but an inch deep. My heaters are more intrusive then that. Now the design that there are photos of on the top of this page, that has a lot of tubing in the tank.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7844140#post7844140 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Gordonious
Huh? The PVC didn't look that great so you added a dual u-tube? How pretty is the dual u-tube box, lol?
Click to expand...

fullTank.jpg


fulltank.jpg


Granted we did make some other aesthetic changes, but the biggest was getting the PVC out of the tank. We built ours a little larger (using 1.5" PVC vs. 1") but the point still stands, I like the new look better.

I'd take the acrylic overflow box for the u-tube system over that PVC pretzel any day.
 
I really have to see if I have pics of mine in my tank. Like I said that plan was much less intrusive in the tank. BTW nice tank. I love the black clown I have always wanted one.
 
hey.. mine's been working great in my cichlid tank.. i'm still kinda lurking around before I make the jump to SW as cheaply as possible... collecting all the info, plus acquiring free tanks is not an easy job (just got a 50gal the other day free.. and have a line on a 140gal for free too)

I think that the guy in here with a 'surface skimming' issue has some misconceptions of what he should be expecting from his acrylic overflow.. I thought that was the purpose of a skimmer down in your sump, to add bubbles to the water to grab the suspended proteins and remove them..

in order to 'surface skim', wouldn't you need bubbles? I thought the purpose of having a sump was to have a skimmer, to avoid those bubbles in your main tank? Also, it's not that much of an issue if your overflow and pump find a balance where the overflow either has a direct fall or a little whirlpool sucking said 'skimmate' off the surface.. also, break your surface tension with the return line.. it's not hard.

Once I get the size tank I want to use for a starter.. I plan on two overflows, one in each corner, setup to hug the corner with significant siphon power, and a central return.

anyway.. here's my siphon.. it's 1" PVC and it cant keep up with my return pump (a fountain pump from lowes) i wish i had made the legs longer for more flow.
65gtank1.jpg
 
I have two tanks connected currently that do not have a sump, they sit at the same level. LOTS of movement in the tanks and an HOB right on one of the tanks. Still get film, crap stuff on top of my water.

evilpsych you will see that the chemistry of the water and the way it acts is completely different with marine tanks of any sort. My hometown is also completely filled with marshes and inlets connected to the Delaware bay and the ocean and anywhere water moves slow you can see build up of "stuff". I have had between 7-3 fresh water tanks set up in the last couple of years and seen surface scum one time when I let a tank with only plants in it sit still with out a filter for at least a month. My salt tanks it's a different story. The only time I did not have surface scum to some extent is when my sump and PVC overflow were running.

My PVC overflow had three inputs which all faced up and pulled the surface down into the sump. Exchange at the surface was great.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8145731#post8145731 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by toastman
I love that Gourami, I think its a new strain of REef safe fish...lol nice work
Click to expand...


geee.. all I said was I have the PVC overflow in question on my cichlid tank. 3/4 of the residents are cichlids (however small)....

way to be a jerk to those of us aquarists that *still* enjoy FW.
 
evilpsych i could be crazy .. i dont think he was trying to be a jerk ... i tink he was trying tobe funny yes but a jerk no ... just mho ...
 
Can anyone help me please...I built the overflow using the original directions. Work great! except that im getting air build up in the pvc...which in turn i cant use the automatic fill up because the sump stays low and over fills the fish tank
 
the key to this is to have the last horizontal piece before it dumps into the sump as close to the top as possible. if it isn't, the added drop causes a siphon rather than an overflow situation. That's 99% of the problems people have with this concept, is that they think if they build it the way they want it to be, it will work the same.

Another way to explain it is this. If there is no return pump keeping the water flowing into the tank, and the pvc return has equalized the water level in the main tank, the waterlevel inside the initial portion of the overflow should be little more than the diameter of the overflow itself. It took me about 3 times building my "pretzel" to realize this. My latest design can handle about 3x the amount of water running through it, however because it is designed in this way, I no longer have issues with air bubbles accumulating in the top of the U.

The waterflow is the same, you just lose that excessive 'flush' of power when the water has to fall a greater distance to reach the equalization point. When setup as I have suggested, the overflow acts more like a hole drilled in the back of your tank than a series of PVC. Prime it once, and you end up with a rather stable system. of course, having a backup plan (aqualifter and checkvalve) are just plain smart investments.
 
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