SnowyFox
Community Member
I just purchased a new UNS 90U rimless aquarium to setup my first salt water / reef aquarium with, and I'm trying to figure out what to do about setting up an overflow for it. The tank is 68 gallons (36"x22"x22"). I originally purchased a Fiji Cube LoPro 2000GPH external overflow for a 125 gallon tank before realizing the seams on it were trashed and I was going to have to take it apart to rebuild it, which isn't going to happen anytime soon, and I'm way past the return period to send the overflow back.
I was thinking about possibly using it on this new UNS tank, which is maybe a bit more than overkill, but wanted to run it by the community first to see if this would be a good / bad idea. The concerns I have with it are that the (3) drain bulkheads on it are all for 1.5" pipe, which I'm assuming I'll need to step down to either 3/4" or 1" for this size of aquarium to match a reasonable flow rate through it (somewhere in the 400GPH - 1000GPH range?).
The tank is most likely going to go into a corner of my bedroom, so I could either put the overflow on the short side of the tank (for a peninsula style), or on the back. The issue I have with putting it on the back, is that it would prevent me from using the universal mount I got with the ReefLED 90 light I have. If I mount the overflow on the side, I could then mount the light on the back. I'd also paint both the back and side of the tank black since it would be going into the corner of the room. The overflow is 20" wide, so it would take up almost the entire side of the tank, which could be a good thing for surface skimming, but also means I'll likely need to have the return from the sump come in from over the back of the tank.
I also liked the idea of having it on the side of the tank so I can keep the back of the tank much closer to the wall due to space constraints. I'll post a couple pics of where I'm planning to put the tank at, along with where I'd be placing the overflow at for comparison.
If this is a bad idea, then my fallback plan would be to buy either a smaller external overflow, or maybe even consider going the internal overflow route, but not sure how much I like that idea.
TL;DR; Have an unused Fiji Cube LoPro 2000 GPH overflow collecting dust, and was thinking of mounting it on the side of a 68 gallon tank. Good idea or Bad idea?
I was thinking about possibly using it on this new UNS tank, which is maybe a bit more than overkill, but wanted to run it by the community first to see if this would be a good / bad idea. The concerns I have with it are that the (3) drain bulkheads on it are all for 1.5" pipe, which I'm assuming I'll need to step down to either 3/4" or 1" for this size of aquarium to match a reasonable flow rate through it (somewhere in the 400GPH - 1000GPH range?).
The tank is most likely going to go into a corner of my bedroom, so I could either put the overflow on the short side of the tank (for a peninsula style), or on the back. The issue I have with putting it on the back, is that it would prevent me from using the universal mount I got with the ReefLED 90 light I have. If I mount the overflow on the side, I could then mount the light on the back. I'd also paint both the back and side of the tank black since it would be going into the corner of the room. The overflow is 20" wide, so it would take up almost the entire side of the tank, which could be a good thing for surface skimming, but also means I'll likely need to have the return from the sump come in from over the back of the tank.
I also liked the idea of having it on the side of the tank so I can keep the back of the tank much closer to the wall due to space constraints. I'll post a couple pics of where I'm planning to put the tank at, along with where I'd be placing the overflow at for comparison.
If this is a bad idea, then my fallback plan would be to buy either a smaller external overflow, or maybe even consider going the internal overflow route, but not sure how much I like that idea.
TL;DR; Have an unused Fiji Cube LoPro 2000 GPH overflow collecting dust, and was thinking of mounting it on the side of a 68 gallon tank. Good idea or Bad idea?
