building a refugium tank , wondering if I can drill a hole in back of hob filter to act as a overflow and send it to main sump - feed would be via t off of return to tank, this way I think I can close both supply and return to isolate if desired as a standalone pump and fire up the motor on hob to run as it was intended... in theory /in my head it seems like it would work!
hob modification as overflow
- Thread starter VitaminD
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nerdymunky
Community Member
Neat idea for sure, but I would be concerned with the flow rate. If the flow into the fuge is even slightly greater than the HOB pump, it will overflow. If the HOB pump is greater than the flow going into the fuge, the fuge will slowly drain to a point where the HOB can't suck out any water.
JoshH
Tank Status: Wet...ish, growing things....
I think it would be a very big risk, basically you're looking at a HOB overflow with the benefits of being used as a filter if needed. In the "overflow mode" your HOB filter would be a siphon. The issue with this is the huge potential for the siphon to break causing your whole system to overflow. It's not hard to Google this issue and see the risk at hand. If it were me I would drill the refugium like a standard tank to prevent this. You can still have a valve of some kind on the tee off as well as the return to your sump so you can isolate it and use an unmodified HOB filter for filtration on your refugium. Really cool idea but not worth the risk when a much safer option is available IMO, Just my 2 cents.
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