Silent and Failsafe Overflow System

[Russter]

Thanks for the input Bean and others. I was looking at the Mag 18, just wasn't sure if it would be enough. I know this is going to be a crazy amount of flow on my 90, but more is better right?:fun4: I guess I just want to make sure I buy an insump pump that has enough flow and is quiet enough. Just want to narrow it down because there seems to be a lot of different "good ones" out there.

 

[sean04]

I finally came up with the specs for my external overflow with an internal weir for the beananimal overflow and I had a few questions before finalizing. (This is my first saltwater tank so hopefully my questions aren't too silly :worried

The first image shows the back wall of my tank and the second image shows the top of my tank. (special thanks to uncleof6 since I did a similar drawing to one he had created and of course to beananimal for this design )

My tank is a 55 gallon acrylic tank that will have a return flow of around 600GPH and all my plumbing, including the bulkheads, are for 1" piping.

My internal weir will not be coast to coast but rather 15 3/4" long since, the top of my tank will only allow me access to the internal weir via the opening on the top as shown in the second image.

Questions:

1. What is the recommended width of the internal weir? I was originally choosing a width of 2 1/2" which would be the maximum width I can go for to be able to access the internal weir via the top opening (the rectangular opening back center). Now, I'm thinking, maybe I can make it only 1 1/2" so I can save an inch of internal tank space since thats the purpose of having an external overflow ; but with a length of only 15 3/4", I was worried that 1 1/2" would not be enough to push 600GPH through it.<br><br>
2. For the internal weir, is 1/2" below the top of the tank enough space or would I have to increase the distance?<br><br>
3. As I understand, to achieve a quiet flow from the internal weir to the external overflow through the 3 holes, I would want the water line to be approx. center of the holes. Therefore, the top of the siphon channel elbow will be just above the water line and the center line of the open channel elbow will be below the water line as shown with the two tick marks in the first image. I will make the open channel slightly higher than the siphon channel and will try to line the center line of the open channel elbow to the water line. Does this seem ok, or will the operating water line be different so I should adjust the height of the external overflow box? I understand that I may adjust the height of the siphon channel pipe itself, but I was shooting for about an 1" of space from the opening of the elbow to the bottom of the external box. I've seen some designs with a large amount of space in between elbow and bottom, but as I recall the original design called for a narrow opening. Now that I think about it, I don't really know why I'm shooting for 1". :strange:<br><br>
4. In the internal weir box, with the water line at the center of the holes, the drop for the water to enter the weir is 2 1/2". Will this drop cause noise? <br><br>

Anyone...:wave:

 

[reefermad619]

Anyone...:wave:

It looks like you'll have 2 overflows? One inside and one outside? From what I've seen done, most people just cut a slot in the back of there tanks and only have an external overflow. The slot acts as the weir flowing into the external overflow.

 

[Russter]

Well, I just pulled the trigger on a Mag 18. I think that will be enough for what I need and they get great reviews. I look forward to getting this tank up and running within the next month.

 

[TheFishMan65]

Russter,

Sorry I am too late. BUT some people are recommending a slow flow through the sump and to make up the water movement with closed loops or powerheads. For water movement this is more efficient. It all depends on whay YOU want.

 

[agsprat]

Hey Bean! I've had your system installed on my tank for a year now and really enjoy it. Never going to not have one. I just have a question on what happens after power outages. Is this system suppose to come back to equilibrium by itself or do I have to retune the flow to the sump. It always seems to just fill and dump, fill and dump but never just get back to normal, or at least I never have enough patience to see if it does. Can you PM with you thoughts. Thanks for your help.

 

[jb61264]

Anyone...:wave:

Sean, sorry I'm not answering all your questions yet, but maybe consider what coyote97 has done with his tank in this thread

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1684130

With limited access to the top of your tank in the back, maybe don't even mess with an internal weir...I know this is the way I'm going on my next tank...may allow you to go wider than 15" which is not very efficient skimming on a 48" tank although I suppose it "would" work, just not as efficiently. I go 36" on my 75 gallon (48" wide) tank

 

[Russter]

Russter,

Sorry I am too late. BUT some people are recommending a slow flow through the sump and to make up the water movement with closed loops or powerheads. For water movement this is more efficient. It all depends on whay YOU want.

Right now I have 4 koralias and I am looking to get rid of two of them to limit the clutter in the tank. I know this is going to be rediculous flow through my sump, but I am going to give it a shot and see how I like it. Thanks anyway!

 

[dosequis4]

Hello all,

A friend of mine, and myself, are in the process of setting up two tanks and we are going to go with this overflow.

The question: Is there a rule of thumb or a standard amount everyone uses for the holes from the top of the tank? Post on page 1 mentions 4.25" down on center. Is that what everyone else does?

First scenerio - glass tank - 125 gallon - 72" wide. Going to do a 48" overflow box on the back.

Second - glass tank - 150 gallon XH - 48" wide 30" tall. Overflow box to be 48" wide as well.

As we get farther along we can probably get some pics up. (assuming we do it right )

Oh and is there some sort of guideline for how far apart to make them?

 

[jb61264]

Hello all,
The question: Is there a rule of thumb or a standard amount everyone uses for the holes from the top of the tank? Post on page 1 mentions 4.25" down on center. Is that what everyone else does?

Oh and is there some sort of guideline for how far apart to make them?

Short answer is no you will see many variations on how people apply this design to their system. For me, the best thing to do was to build my overflow box (mine is internal) and then use wood blocks of varying widths to stack up my overflow to the position I wanted it (I wanted the water level in the tank to always be just above the bottom edge of my black trim)...once I had my overflow sitting where I wanted it, I figured out where I wanted to drill for my bulkheads by actually positioning the elbows inside the overflow box and marking the center for drilling.

As far as width, I believe I heard on here when I was drilling mine to have them be at the very least the diameter of the hole you drill apart..so if you drill a 1.5" hole...you should have at least 1.5" in between for your next hole...I went 3" apart to be safe on mine

HTH...where in Nebraska are you located?

 

[dosequis4]

Short answer is no you will see many variations on how people apply this design to their system. For me, the best thing to do was to build my overflow box (mine is internal) and then use wood blocks of varying widths to stack up my overflow to the position I wanted it (I wanted the water level in the tank to always be just above the bottom edge of my black trim)...once I had my overflow sitting where I wanted it, I figured out where I wanted to drill for my bulkheads by actually positioning the elbows inside the overflow box and marking the center for drilling.

As far as width, I believe I heard on here when I was drilling mine to have them be at the very least the diameter of the hole you drill apart..so if you drill a 1.5" hole...you should have at least 1.5" in between for your next hole...I went 3" apart to be safe on mine

HTH...where in Nebraska are you located?

Thanks for your feedback. Makes a lot of sense. Since this is our first run at something like this figured we should double check.

We are both in omaha.

 

[dosequis4]

Would there be a disadvantage, or a reason why, a person wouldn't go say 1.5 - 2 inches down for drilling to minimize the height of the overflow box?

 

[uncleof6]

Short answer is no you will see many variations on how people apply this design to their system. For me, the best thing to do was to build my overflow box (mine is internal) and then use wood blocks of varying widths to stack up my overflow to the position I wanted it (I wanted the water level in the tank to always be just above the bottom edge of my black trim)...once I had my overflow sitting where I wanted it, I figured out where I wanted to drill for my bulkheads by actually positioning the elbows inside the overflow box and marking the center for drilling.

As far as width, I believe I heard on here when I was drilling mine to have them be at the very least the diameter of the hole you drill apart..so if you drill a 1.5" hole...you should have at least 1.5" in between for your next hole...I went 3" apart to be safe on mine

HTH...where in Nebraska are you located?

Yeah, but how big was the actual hole? 1.5" is not a standard hole for a bulkhead-- snickers..... the hole for a 1.5" ABS bulkhead is 2.375" (actually 62mm) and for a 1" bulkhead is it 1.75" (actually 45mm)

Jim

 

[john_blaze]

So I have read through a good portion of the pages in this thread and I feel like I have a good understanding of what I want to do. I have just recently bought my first tank, a Sea-Clear 125 long :spin3: Once I get a few questions asked, I am going to start my RC build thread :bounce3:

Anyways,
I want to build an external overflow, but would like to put it on one of the sides so that the tank will be visible from the front and back. Because 125's are only 18" wide, I plan on cutting a ~15" flat topped weir. The drain/overflow calc says 8" overflow w/ .92" drains will get me 500 gph (I am using melev's recommendation of 3-5x water volume through sump).

Now to the questions:
1. How deep (or how tall?) should my overflow box be? Is there a certain depth or should it just be big enough to accommodate the piping?
2. Any idea how much flow I will actually get? I tried to do the calculation but I have no idea how high the water will be over the edge...

Can someone please help out this newb! THANKS!!!!!!!!

 

[reefer_man_mike]

Bean,

I am currently setting up a 120 and have had holes drilled in my tank for my over flow and CL. But only today did i find out about your creation. I was wondering if its still possible to alter my design to perhaps drill more holes to accommodate the other 2 stand pipes. I was thinking to myself how many holes can a tank take before its to much. Then i saw that picture a couple pages back with the tank with 11 holes in the back glass.

My tank is made with 1/2" glass with a single center brace. I have 3 holes in the back glass which are 2.5" or 2.75" what ever a 1.5" bulk head takes.


My next question is, i read in the thread that you can not feed the skimmer with this set up as it is asking for trouble. How about feeding my fuge in my sump is this possible still?

here is a picture of my tank, i have to keep the tank as close to the wall as possible that's the reason for the standpipe being on an angle.

My sump. The front i corner in the fuge.

i have a 120 gallon 4x2x2 tank that im running a blueline hd55 pump as my return so roughly 1100 gph at 0'. I quite confused as iv read a lot of the pages and i dont seem to understand a set up that would accommodate me. I need to do an external overflow box, i have an internal weir that measures 36"x 4"w x 7"h as you can see in the picture posted i had a modified durso that im unhappy with. Once i remove the bulk head i have a 2.75" hole for water to pass from the weir to the external box is this enough?

What size external box would i need (yet there are size restraints) to create and what size plumbing to handle the pump? :sad2: im very confused.

 

[das75]

Reefjunkie's (Canreef) back drilled, internal Herbie

Full build.

 

[das75]

Here's a 120g (Skimmin @ Canreef), the external overflows where drilled for Herbies with 1.5" primaries. Return pump was a Dart and figured 2000gph total (1000gph each box).

 

[Russter]

90 gal with with 1.5" drains up and running last night. It is so quiet (just a slight trickle of water in the open drain. I am having a bit of trouble getting it to restart at times. It seems like the siphon drain is not purging it's air and the open drain is taking most of the flow. Only after fiddling around with the ball valve on the siphon drain does it seem to kick in. I am (almost 100%) positive that there is no air leaking in the siphon drain, so any ideas why this might be happening? The siphon drain terminates about an inch into the sump. Otherwise, this drain system is amazing.

 

[BeanAnimal]

i have a 120 gallon 4x2x2 tank that im running a blueline hd55 pump as my return so roughly 1100 gph at 0'. I quite confused as iv read a lot of the pages and i dont seem to understand a set up that would accommodate me. I need to do an external overflow box, i have an internal weir that measures 36"x 4"w x 7"h as you can see in the picture posted i had a modified durso that im unhappy with. Once i remove the bulk head i have a 2.75" hole for water to pass from the weir to the external box is this enough?

What size external box would i need (yet there are size restraints) to create and what size plumbing to handle the pump? :sad2: im very confused.

The 2.75" hole should be enough, but drilling a secone one would be ideal. The setup as described with the 1" bulkheads will work just fine for your needs. The external overflow box only needs to be large enough to accomodate the standpipes. Check the example photos from GlassReef, Uncleof6 and others.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Reefjunkie's (Canreef) back drilled, internal Herbie...

Here's a 120g (Skimmin @ Canreef), the external overflows where drilled for Herbies with 1.5" primaries. Return pump was a Dart and figured 2000gph total (1000gph each box).

DAS, there is a herbie thread...