Some progress on my 68g. Standpipes, foam, gfci...

[Kinetic]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10103175#post10103175 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tuberider
Yeah, that's what I meant to say.... I have the same setup on my tank with the dual standpipes, one I run slightly backed off with a ball valve the other is wide open. Completely silent when dialed in with no bubbles/splashing. It's odd that not more acrylic tankmakers build with external overflows. I understand they have a higher failure rate, but I wonder how much higher if done correctly.

Talking to the custom makers, external vs. internal is all about looks now. The failure comes from badly designed overflows. What happens is on tanks that aren't thick enough, the wall curves, which can cause an overflow to spring leaks over time, since it's not sitting flush. But given your overflow is beefy enough or does not share it's 4th wall with the back of the tank, you are fine.

My tank is 1.25" thick on the back wall, so my overflow box shares one side with it. The overflow box is 3/4" acrylic as well. That thing won't fail at all =) It also has narrow teeth so nothing would really clog both drains up.

How tall are your standpipes? My only mistake with this tank was making my overflow box way too small, width and height wise =(

 

[tuberider]

One of them (the one suppling the bulk of the return from the tank) is about 2". The wide open one that acts as a failsafe is about 6". They are just simple straight standpipes. One can easily handle the flow from my Mag 7. However with the short one backed off a little, it does not draw any air making it nice and silent.

I can sleep at night knowing there is a failsafe with the other one wide open, yet not draining into the sump, and sleep at night without the sound of a noisy overflow.

My acrylic on the back of the tank is 1/2" with a 3/4" euro-braced top, the box is 3/8"(10Hx12Wx3.75D). Gen assured me that the overflow box is like a brick house, and described box failure in an almost identical manner as you.

I do wish I went with the open top, Eurobracings cool and all, I think open top is even more cool though. I'm only semi cool now....

 

[Kinetic]

ooh cool you had Gen make your tank =) Yeah I had a tank made by him once as well, he put two large strips of acrylic down the sides of the back of the tank as well to give it even MORE reinforcement. I've learned a lot from him AND SoCalCreations on designing an acrylic tank. They both know a ton and do great jobs with them.

 

[norcal99]

Cool design you've got. I did something pretty similar except it was a 20G with an external glass overflow. If I could make a recommendation to your overflow setup, the hole on top of the durso standpipes are going to create a lot of bubbles in your sump. Unless you've got really slow water flow in your sump and a really ingenious baffle design, there's a good chance of tons of microbubbles in the display. I would at least consider plugging the holes in the caps, and instead put a ball valve on the drain lines and use that to raise the water level in the overflow box to prevent the slurping noise. It'll also prevent any unwanted air from entering the drain lines creating excess bubbles. Just some food for thought.

Can't wait to see this one up and running! should be a pretty slick system.

 

[Kinetic]

Hey Mike, thanks for the suggestion. I will have a gate valve on each drain, but I'm afraid that I may be in a fine balance between the drain and return, and if it fluctuates too much (say one drain gets clogged) I may get a flooded living room =/

Plus it's two 1.5" drains, which means it can take TONS of flow, which means I'd be restricting like crazy. I'm only using a Quiet One 4000 for a return.

I'll try the gatevalves with the holes on the top for awhile...