Right off the bat, forgive me if this sounds incredibly stupid.
I've been reading all I can on this site to prepare for setting up a saltwater aquarium, particularly the BeanAnimal overflow design. The keys in that design to keep the overflow silent are that the siphon pipe is submerged and always full of water, and the remainder of the water cascades down the open channel pipe in a low volume so that it doesn't pull air in causing gurgling and flushing sounds. Also in his design, he has a coast to coast overflow to maximize surface skimming.
I don't have pictures or diagrams as this is just an idea in my head, so we'll just have to imagine. First, imagine that that the overflow box is on the side of the tank. Okay, here comes the stupid part. <deep breath> If there was a way to use a pipe large enough so that the entire flow of water cascades down the open channel pipe, it should still be just as silent. What if, instead of using a siphon and open channel pipes, the top of the side of the tank itself were trimmed down to allow water to cascade down the side of the tank, similar to waterfalls you might see in a garden where water cascades down the side of a flat rock, or in architectural features where it cascades down glass? Or maybe even a zero edge pool.
The BeanAnimal design has been thought through very thoroughly to make it self tuning and and has fail safes to account for things such as blocked pipes and varying flow. Would this design negate the need for those fail safes? Aside from how to redirect the water into the sump, what problems would this setup encounter? Has anyone ever done this before?
First post! Yay!
I've been reading all I can on this site to prepare for setting up a saltwater aquarium, particularly the BeanAnimal overflow design. The keys in that design to keep the overflow silent are that the siphon pipe is submerged and always full of water, and the remainder of the water cascades down the open channel pipe in a low volume so that it doesn't pull air in causing gurgling and flushing sounds. Also in his design, he has a coast to coast overflow to maximize surface skimming.
I don't have pictures or diagrams as this is just an idea in my head, so we'll just have to imagine. First, imagine that that the overflow box is on the side of the tank. Okay, here comes the stupid part. <deep breath> If there was a way to use a pipe large enough so that the entire flow of water cascades down the open channel pipe, it should still be just as silent. What if, instead of using a siphon and open channel pipes, the top of the side of the tank itself were trimmed down to allow water to cascade down the side of the tank, similar to waterfalls you might see in a garden where water cascades down the side of a flat rock, or in architectural features where it cascades down glass? Or maybe even a zero edge pool.
The BeanAnimal design has been thought through very thoroughly to make it self tuning and and has fail safes to account for things such as blocked pipes and varying flow. Would this design negate the need for those fail safes? Aside from how to redirect the water into the sump, what problems would this setup encounter? Has anyone ever done this before?
First post! Yay!
