Plumbing Noob With DIY Idea

[Gary S]

Good afternoon guys! I have been out of the hobby for a while after a series of unfortunate family events leading to the fall of my tank, but after a period away from it, I am now trying to get back into it!

Long story short, I've been trying to find an easier solution to an overflow. This design (crudely drawn) is what I have found to be the most simplistic way to have a sump tied into the tank. The problem is that I know nearly nothing about the plumbing in tanks as I've always purchased plug and play type equipment.

The basic idea is have an oversized bulkhead be the drain out, located at the desired waterline. Following the bulkhead would be a T junction open at the top to allow ample airflow to prevent a siphon, and tubing leading to the sump on the downward side.

What would be the problems with this design?

 

[Gary S]

Also forgot to mention this is just a hypothetical. I dont have any hard plans or stats for this (like total gallons, or return rate). Im more interested in the overflow design itself. Thanks!

 

[JoshH]

Honestly it can be done, but odds are it will be incredibly noisy. There is another member here with a similar setup and I think they changed it up.

Probably your best and easiest option would be to use a small external overflow like an eshopps eclipse S or Fiji cubes nano overflows.

Overflow Box

Fiji Cube offers innovative and economical solutions on saltwater reef aquariums and accessories for your saltwater reef set-up.

www.fijicube.com

Eclipse S Overflow Box (600 GPH)

Quiet, Slim, Plug & Play The Eclipse aquarium overflow system consists of a slim black box that is mounted inside of your tank and a clear external box that mounts outside of your tank, to transport water down to your sump with as little noise generated as possible. The DIY project only takes a...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

This will give you a completely silent overflow that can handle more than enough flow for your needs and still look nice on the end of your tank

Here's a tank with the Eclipse Overflow

Probably one of my favorite nano builds EVER!!! @YHSublime's Nano with the same Eshopps Eclipse Overflow.

Build Thread - YHSublime's Living Room Nano Peninsulla

Well, the story goes a little something like this. Started with a custom Pico reef (12.5 gallons) and didn't like the rockwork: I have a pretty sweet little Biocube 14 that I wanted to upgrade, and the above wasn't much of an upgrade! So a local club member was selling his Mr. Aqua 22...

www.reef2reef.com

And here is the link to the tank I mentioned earlier that has the same plumbing setup you are looking to implement...

Build Thread - 3 Foot Office Nano

Hey Reef2Reef I've been lurking here for a long time but never posted a build thread. I've done so on my local forum and on nano-reef. I figured people that might not visit either of those places might like to see what I've been doing too. The build started in the spring of 2012. The tank...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[WVNed]

What you can get by with depends on how much water you want to put through it quietly.
The only problem with your plan is you will have no control over it at all

I use a plain bulkhead in one of my tanks. I stick a 90 in it and then a standpipe so I can set the water level. It isnt pretty but it works.

 

[Gary S]

What you can get by with depends on how much water you want to put through it quietly.
The only problem with your plan is you will have no control over it at all

I use a plain bulkhead in one of my tanks. I stick a 90 in it and then a standpipe so I can set the water level. It isnt pretty but it works.

Ah, I didn't think of the advantage of a vertical standpipe! With my design wouldn't the level of the water remain between the bottom of the bulkhead and the middle (different of an inch with 2" dia bulkhead)?

 

[WVNed]

Ah, I didn't think of the advantage of a vertical standpipe! With my design wouldn't the level of the water remain between the bottom of the bulkhead and the middle (different of an inch with 2" dia bulkhead)?

I would think so. But you shouldnt drill a hole that close to the edge of the glass, so I think you would still end up with a low water level in the tank with no way to raise it.

 

[Biglew11]

You would also need a strainer of some sort to keep smaller fish from getting sucked down to the sump, one of the reasons for the wher on an overflow chamber.

 

[Gary S]

Thank you all for your input! It really feels great to get back into this hobby and interact with this wonderful friendly and helpful forum!

 

[RocketEngineer]

What you describe is how things were decades ago. Sure it worked, but there were drawbacks that more modern designs overcome. The high flow right next to the drain causes fish to get pulled in, any type of strainer can get clogged, surface skimming is poor, and it’s hard to get the water level correct. All these negatives can be countered simply by using a relatively long overflow box to spread out the flow, keep critters out, and take water from the surface instead of sub-surface. What you’re describing is the original Durso. A herbie is an upgrade to that, and a beananimal setup goes one step further. As someone whose tried several drain designs, the beananimal beats them all. GL