Silent and Failsafe Overflow System

BrklynArch said:
i nkow its been asked a million times before but im having a hard time finding the john guest fitting needed. my local HD is a mess not very well stocked and impossible to find anything
would this work?
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/1-4-npt-x-3-8-push-connect-murlok.html
Click to expand...

Never mind i found the Watts version at my local home depot. only 2 left and they were in a pile on the floor.
I re-read the very first pages and most questions truly are answered in the first 10 pages of this thread.
Bean you really do have an insane amount of patience dealing with us bonehead noobs. I salute you! (radio beer commercial voice lol)
Now the hunt for spaflex begins...neither HD or Lowes had it. Not sure if they were out of stock or if they carry it at all....the employees at both places are very confrontational and abrasive. I had a basket full of pvc fittings i was picking up and decided to go somewhere else to buy them because of the attitude of the guy helping me. I need to find a local mom and pop hardware store and start bringing my business to them instead.
Diy is fun for the most part but it can be frustrating as hell sometimes trying to find misc items. the fun is starting to be sucked out of this build and its starting to feel like work work rather than fun work
 
holes in bottom of tank?

holes in bottom of tank?

anybody have any pics or a drawing of doing this using a tank that has holes drilled in the bottom? I have two 1 1/2" bulk heads and 2 2" bulk heads at the bottom of my built in center overflow. Do I just bring stand pipes up the the levels bean has documented and then add my valves to the drain piping where it exists the bottom of the tank under the stand? If that is the case, do I still need to have the elbows on the top? probably not since the water will be sucked into #2 and if it gets too high it will spill into #3 and if it gets too too high #1 correct?
 
Ok so I finally made some progress. Please let me know if anyone sees anything that may be problematic.
First drilled the 3rd hole (tank came with 2 1.5" holes already).
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Why the 90's and unions instead of few 45's or flex? You may need to use the left hand standpipe as the open channel if the center one does not flow properly due to the 90 bends allowing water to backup.
 
I went with the 90 and unions because I found the 1.5" spa flex I found was insanely ridged and kinked. I didn't have a way to heat it up at the time. I had a bunch of 90's laying around and figured it would work the same.
If you think it might be an issue should I have all 3 terminate at the filter sock area of the sump in case I do need to substitute the open channel. Or do you think I should scrape it and try again. Another reason for the unions and 90's is where I plan on locating the tank it would be difficult to hack out a section if something goes wrong, and I've read the more unions the better.
Darn it! I was starting to feel good about the way it was coming out lol
But better the issues come out now and not when everything is in place
 
i guess ill finish the return and test it out. if i see a problem i can just pick up a few more unions and swap out the horizontal portion with some spa flex. thanks bean
 
Still having problems with the primary siphon not wanting to restart. I've got my secondary open channel with airline working great alongside it.. it's interesting to watch the periodic 'flushing' effect it has when it's operating.. Still won't get the primary to restart. I even redid the whole system with the valve lower in the system... still will not restart.. any clue? I'll post some pics back in here shortly.
 
Bean - Thank you for your input. I can see your points and where it would cause issues. Especially the stress and the stagnant water. That wouldn't be good.

So, if I made the setup like yours (not all the way down the tank), I shouldn't have a problem using black acrylic for the entire setup, correct? That should adhere to the glass with regular clear aquarium silicone and not have any "pressure" issues, correct?

One of the main reasons I considered going all the way to the bottom with the overflow box is because I've heard of issues of the coast to coast overflow box "shadowing" on the bottom of the tank and blocking out the light. Is this an issue? If so, how would it be resolved?

As for the tempered glass, I understand that as well. I did check and none of the glass (including the bottom) is tempered, so that wouldn't have been an issue. However, I definitely checked into that before I bought the tank (thinking I was going to drill through the bottom). Now, it might not matter if I'm going through the back glass with your setup. :)
 
quick question, i just built the over flow box for my beananimal setup. i already had the tank set up and drilled so i drained 8in of water from the tank and built the box and used rtv108 to silicone it together and to the tank. the problem im having is my house is somewhat humid from the tank and the cure time is slow. its getting better but the rtvis still tacky, now i used GE silicone 1the first time i tried the overflow box and it cured solid in 1 day. the rtv has been tacky for 3 days.......any thoughts......
corey
 
I was planning on building your exact design with the 1" bulkhead expanded out to 1.5" PVC drains. However, the connections associated with getting the 1" pipe to the 1.5" pipe make the system a little long for my preference, and will cause my tank to have to be offset from the wall (about a foot) further than I'd like (more accurately, further than my girlfriend would like).

I could do direct 1" piping all the way through, without expanding out to 1.5", and the tank would then only have to be about 6" away from the wall.

I'm only trying to get about 1000 gallons per hour max out of my overflow, I know the full siphon can handle somewhere in the 900 gallon per hour range, so I think I can go down to the 1" PVC for the whole system without worry. Do you think I'll have any issues? Will the open pipe be noisy if i go down to the 1" PVC?

Thanks
 
_Mackus_ said:
I was planning on building your exact design with the 1" bulkhead expanded out to 1.5" PVC drains. However, the connections associated with getting the 1" pipe to the 1.5" pipe make the system a little long for my preference, and will cause my tank to have to be offset from the wall (about a foot) further than I'd like (more accurately, further than my girlfriend would like).

I could do direct 1" piping all the way through, without expanding out to 1.5", and the tank would then only have to be about 6" away from the wall.

I'm only trying to get about 1000 gallons per hour max out of my overflow, I know the full siphon can handle somewhere in the 900 gallon per hour range, so I think I can go down to the 1" PVC for the whole system without worry. Do you think I'll have any issues? Will the open pipe be noisy if i go down to the 1" PVC?

Thanks
Click to expand...

X2 on this, i have almost the same question, but i'll my return will be about 700gph.
 
biecacka said:
quick question, i just built the over flow box for my beananimal setup. i already had the tank set up and drilled so i drained 8in of water from the tank and built the box and used rtv108 to silicone it together and to the tank. the problem im having is my house is somewhat humid from the tank and the cure time is slow. its getting better but the rtvis still tacky, now i used GE silicone 1the first time i tried the overflow box and it cured solid in 1 day. the rtv has been tacky for 3 days.......any thoughts......
corey
Click to expand...

What is the date on the tube of RTV108 and how was it stored? If it is not dry now, it is not likely going to dry.
 
BeanAnimal said:
Why the 90's and unions instead of few 45's or flex? You may need to use the left hand standpipe as the open channel if the center one does not flow properly due to the 90 bends allowing water to backup.
Click to expand...

Hey Bean sorry to bug ya again, but what you said has me worried. I only get to work on the tank on the weekends so i havnt had a chance to test anything out.
Do you really think the 90's will be cause for concern? the only way i can think of fixing it is picking up another batch of unions and reconfiguring everything to line up with the skimmer portion of my sump with the flex i have. Im going to see if i can get my hands on a heat gun and try and straighten out the flex best i can if i really need to go that route.
I also feel like the way i end up plumbing the drains will dictate how my return gets laid out (in terms of placement of valves and stuff) so that feels like its at a stand still now too.
 
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