best overflow box?

Lynnmw1208

Lynnmw1208

New member
I am still debating between 2 overflow boxes as I am worried about a flood if power goes out and then turns back on when I'm not home by chance. It seems the eshopps one has the U-tube that has to be bled of air every time so it seems dangerous for flooding. the cpr one has the aqualifter pump which seems like it would resiphon the box after power restore. is this correct? here are the 2 links
http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3579+3587+18358&pcatid=18358

http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3579+3587+3642&pcatid=3642

I would drill my tank but as I'm the 3rd owner (as far as I know) I have no idea what brand the tank is or whether it is tempered. so overflow is my best bet.
 
Get the Eshops then build a gurgle buster

http://home.everestkc.net/jrobertson57268/HGB/


The bubbles in a U-tube are easily taken care of as long as your return pump is strong enough. For example: My return pump is rated at 750GPH at 4" head and I have to throttle it back with a ball valve on my return line or the overflow can't keep up. Get your return flowing just strong enough to blow the bubbles completely through the U-tube THEN adjust the gurgle buster for silence.

An aqualifter can fail. What would restart your siphon when that happens?
 
I used the eshopps oveflow box before on my 29g tank. Its works great and it never broke its shiphon. You just have to match up the return pump with the right overflow box. I now use it in the sump. It connects my refuge to my sump.
 
My only question on the lifereef boxes is what makes them better than the Eshopps? I always hear they are better but I have yet to hear why.

Any easy way to make an overflow safer is to buy a dual model, use only one utube, put a gurgle buster on one drain to make it quiet, and have the other drain an open pipe set higher than the main one. I agree a PROPERLY drilled tank is the safest way to go but since the OP has said he is not drilling the tank, it doesn't really matter. Any overflow will fail if neglected
 
I'd take the small amount of trouble to drill your tank. I had a quality siphon overflow that worked very well and never lost its siphon when the power was cut. Power back on, it would just resume. However, it was a hassle to me. This is why:


1) If the flow rate through the siphon was too slow, small bubbles collected at the apex of the overflow tube. These small bubbles tended to want to meet each other and get married. Then bunches of them got married until they were one big bubble that kept growing and growing. This caused much of my hair to fall out with worry, and was a hassle due to all the flushing I had to do to clear the bubbles out. (This could be a more likely scenario if one used two siphon overflow boxes, as the flow rate would presumably be decreased.)

2) My MH lights would help algae grow in the tube. This facilitated the problem in #1, above.

3) The siphon tube was fairly narrow. A clump of algae or large snail clogging it was constantly on my mind.

4) After cleaning, it was kind of a pain to prime the siphon with an air hose. (I'm not fond of the taste of saltwater).

The drilled overflow I'm using on my next tank has a much larger drain hole, and is unlikely to clog (although nothing is impossible). Drilling the tank wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be.

I realize that some of the problems I listed above can probably be remedied. I just never found a way.
 
jasonrp104 said:
My only question on the lifereef boxes is what makes them better than the Eshopps? I always hear they are better but I have yet to hear why.
Click to expand...

I'd like to know this reason as well as this overflow box is a lot more expensive than the eshopps and the other one. Another thing I don't like is they will call you to get your credit card info... like that's any safer than an insecure site.... i don't like to recite that to someone..
 
If you could hold both in your hands you would not need to ask why the life reef is more expensive.While i can understand wanting to save money where you can an overflow box on a non reef ready tank is not where i would choose to do it.I have not seen the e-shop overflow boxes but i have a few amiracle overflows and they failed me on a few occassions. This was not a pleasant scene to come home to at the end of the work day-Kieth
 
I have the eshopps and it is great, it has never lost siphon as long as you are pushing enough water through it.

Is drilled better, of course, but one thing I noticed is that out of everyone that recommended drilling, noone asked about what size tank you have. May be unlikely but what if you had a 55 gallon which are very common to have ALL sides tempered...may be bad news if you didnt know better and just listened to everyone...
 
The only difference I can find on the lifereef is the 1 1/8" U-tube. I'm sure that they are great but I'm wondering what about them makes them worth more than double the price.
 
My Eshopps has never lost siphon.

With any overflow box you will have the issues that iwishtofish pointed out. If you don't clean the siphon tube regularly you will get some bubbles that will slow down the flow and cause your water level to rise in your tank. To decrease the chance of bubbles causing an issue you need to increase the capacity of your pump or decrease the tube diameter. Either approach will increase the water velocity in the overflow and prevent bubbles from accumulating.
 
I can give one tip on priming the U-Tube instead of using the airline and saltwater in your mouth method. What I do is fill the u-tube with water and hold it upside down, cover both ends with saran wrap and then quickly flip it over and into the overflow box. Then just slip out both pieces of saran wrap and your good to go.
 
I'm debating upgrading tanks as a result of my 55g leaking from the bottom. I currently have a j-tube overflow. No idea who makes it as it came with the tank and it was all used.

The next tank I go to will most likely a reef ready drilled tank with bulkheads. Why? Because my overflow has caused 1 major disaster, and just yesterday nearly caused a 2nd disaster. I believe a snail made it through my j-tube, and into the overflow box from there, somehow squeased into the pip of my drain, (should nearly have clogged it.) Then he nearly made it to my sump, where he plugged the pvc elbow I have for 90 degree drain into my sump. He plugged it, and the return pump pumped my entire sump into my tank. It was a good test to verify I have my tank set to the right depth, it was, nothing overflowed! Also, my return hose is slightly in the waters surface so, when I turned the return pump off, it siphoned the water from my tank back into the sump. Sort of a good thing as it didn't overflow the tank or sump. It was a really good test of failsafes.

However, It could have been disasterous.... I'm not sure how a built in overflow would work, as I've never seen them, but, I'm not dealing with it anymore if I upgrade!
 
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