The Shadow™ Overflow from Synergy Reef has arrived!

GoldeneyeRet

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My shadow is the loudest overflow I have ever heard. The only way I found to silence it is to replace it, which is what I am doing.

Good luck
 

cracker

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I had to experiment with the drain heights. I got the top of the trickle drain right at top of the bulkheads that come from the tank . Creepy silent , every once I'll hear a woosh sound. I like them Have the 16 inch on the 75 & the 20" on the 180.
 
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Waterlife

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@Reefercorey Here is a quick mock up so you can see how we would do a standard setup.
KJV7qq6l.jpg
Does it matter much if my gate valves were placed high as opposed to being as low to the sump as possible?
 

cracker

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@ waterlife I wouldn't think so. Place it where it's easy to get to it. I like the make up. the lengths of pvc leaves plenty of pipe to reuse if you make changes in the future.
 

ReefguyEric

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I’ve been running a Shadow overflow on a 180 gallon tank, with a vectra L1 full speed for a year now, and it is super quiet no problems with it at all.
 

Waterlife

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I’ve been running a Shadow overflow on a 180 gallon tank, with a vectra L1 full speed for a year now, and it is super quiet no problems with it at all.

Do you think you can help me figure out what I'm doing wrong? Like now for instance, there's a constant trading off, an ebb n flow if you will, between the primary drain and the second drain. The water level in the overflow raises up and then down constantly. Each time it does that, it trades the water back and forth between the two drains. And only one overflow does it for some reason. Both sides appear to be identical. And there's so much gurgling and what sounds like a lot of doves cooing. That sound seems to be coming through the hole of the primary U-tube.
 
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DCR

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If the siphon is oversized, having the gate valve high can cause problems. Air can de-gas from the water with the negative pressure just below the gate valve, and build up in the siphon, causing noise and instability. I think it is better to have the gate valve low so there is less negative pressure and it is more difficult for air to accumulate.
 

fishead

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I have the latest version. Very happy with it. Tank is about 120 gallons and running an RD3 50w return pump. Guessing at around 850 gph real time. The tank is drilled so that the very top side of the internal box cover sits a quarter inch or so below the tank top edge. Just did it that way so a net cover will sit about flush with the top of the rimless glass top edge.
With this return flow the water level sits 1 1/4" from the top of the tank. Just right for me. Don't get any water coming out with general maintenance if i'm no too careless. The 1" gate valve that I used for the full syphon - which is the only one that I could source in Australia - has like an internal bend in it and is a bit restrictive. Even at wide open I have to tune the syphon by very slightly restricting my return flow at a ball valve. If it had a more straight through flow I'm sure of course it would handle more flow.
It's dead silent with the water level in the rear section at about half way up.
Did have a few months wait on it. And still waiting on a small fish safe overflow slot thing. But other than that am very happy. Nice low profile inside the DT and great build quality.
 

Waterlife

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If the siphon is oversized, having the gate valve high can cause problems. Air can de-gas from the water with the negative pressure just below the gate valve, and build up in the siphon, causing noise and instability. I think it is better to have the gate valve low so there is less negative pressure and it is more difficult for air to accumulate.
Anyone second this opinion? To make this change, I'll have to drain nearly 500 gallons of water and then get people over again to try move the tank away from the wall to work on it. I'll have to order new schedule 80 unions from Synergy Reef so that I can lower the gate valves. That's a lot of work.
 
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fishead

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Not sure on that one Waterlife. But could maybe test it with another gate valve dry fitted to the bottom of the pipe and the top valve opened right up.
If all goes well just glue it in and rock on.
 

DCR

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Not sure on that one Waterlife. But could maybe test it with another gate valve dry fitted to the bottom of the pipe and the top valve opened right up.
If all goes well just glue it in and rock on.
. I agree with this. You can leave the old valves in place. That is a lot of elevation difference and having two 1" siphon makes it worse. I do suspect that air is backing into your siphon, maybe all the way up to the u-bend such that it is just an internal overflow. I don't think there is anyhing inherent in the Synergy overflow that would make it noisy.
 

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Heres one that's easy to miss ,I did. the drain end of the full syphon has to be under water in the sump At least an inch or so. I went 2 inches . sorry if this has been mentioned already . This just poped into my head.
 

mixer911

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Do you think you can help me figure out what I'm doing wrong? Like now for instance, there's a constant trading off, an ebb n flow if you will, between the primary drain and the second drain. The water level in the overflow raises up and then down constantly. Each time it does that, it trades the water back and forth between the two drains. And only one overflow does it for some reason. Both sides appear to be identical. And there's so much gurgling and what sounds like a lot of doves cooing. That sound seems to be coming through the hole of the primary U-tube.

Do you have air holes on top of both of the U pipes. From the photos it looks like the U pipes are made of standard PVC fittings. Make sure that you have holes drilled on top of both the primary and secondary drains or you will get an airlock in the secondary as air rises back up the drain lines. Just a guess as without knowing the details of the install it's hard to say.
 

mixer911

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I’ve been running a Shadow overflow on a 180 gallon tank, with a vectra L1 full speed for a year now, and it is super quiet no problems with it at all.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing! Post some photos if you get a chance. We love to see them!

I have the latest version. Very happy with it. Tank is about 120 gallons and running an RD3 50w return pump. Guessing at around 850 gph real time. The tank is drilled so that the very top side of the internal box cover sits a quarter inch or so below the tank top edge. Just did it that way so a net cover will sit about flush with the top of the rimless glass top edge.
With this return flow the water level sits 1 1/4" from the top of the tank. Just right for me. Don't get any water coming out with general maintenance if i'm no too careless. The 1" gate valve that I used for the full syphon - which is the only one that I could source in Australia - has like an internal bend in it and is a bit restrictive. Even at wide open I have to tune the syphon by very slightly restricting my return flow at a ball valve. If it had a more straight through flow I'm sure of course it would handle more flow.
It's dead silent with the water level in the rear section at about half way up.
Did have a few months wait on it. And still waiting on a small fish safe overflow slot thing. But other than that am very happy. Nice low profile inside the DT and great build quality.

Love hearing from our international customers! Happy to hear your feedback! For the small fish, if it's available in AU, you can use a small strip of enkamat inside the front box. They make it for ponds here in the states.
 

ShaunB

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Excited to get my 16" Shadow Overflow plumbed into my new build. Couple of questions:

1, does the secondary drain need to terminate under water like the primary? I know the emergency should be left short so splashing alerts to something wrong.

2, my tank is eurobraced so has a pretty wide lip around the top edge. Does the front cover of the overflow come off for cleaning? I have tried to gently remove it but don't want to break it. If it does come off to enable cleaning it's going to be pretty tight to get down in there and clean.

3, I have watched the install video and tried to read the template. I must be having a brain fart because I cannot figure out quite where I'm supposed to position the template. I want the water level in the tank to be as high as possible, this tank has no banding around it to hide the water line. Instead its covered by some upper cabinet doors that overhang the front face of the tank approx 1":

IMG_7109.JPG


IMG_7110.jpg
 

mixer911

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Excited to get my 16" Shadow Overflow plumbed into my new build. Couple of questions:

1, does the secondary drain need to terminate under water like the primary? I know the emergency should be left short so splashing alerts to something wrong.

2, my tank is eurobraced so has a pretty wide lip around the top edge. Does the front cover of the overflow come off for cleaning? I have tried to gently remove it but don't want to break it. If it does come off to enable cleaning it's going to be pretty tight to get down in there and clean.

3, I have watched the install video and tried to read the template. I must be having a brain fart because I cannot figure out quite where I'm supposed to position the template. I want the water level in the tank to be as high as possible, this tank has no banding around it to hide the water line. Instead its covered by some upper cabinet doors that overhang the front face of the tank approx 1":

@ShaunB Awesome!

1. Yes, it helps keep splashing down.

2. Yes the front weir was designed for zero clearance and comes off and pulls forward. You use the included "key" (black tab taped in the rear box for shipping) to remove the weir. Here is a quick video showing how to remove it.

3. The video that I did for the installation is mainly for plastic trimmed tanks. With a euro braced tank like yours you will need to put the template inside the tank facing up and leave about 1/16"-1/8" gap between the template and the inside brace. Then mark your holes. If it is a glass tank then line up the template on the outside of the tank with the holes you just marked. Tape the template in place and then drill. If it is acrylic you have to make sure that you can still use the template, but make sure that you get the drill bit pilot exactly center of the holes so they line up correctly. Eurobraced tanks are pretty easy to line up and drill.
 

ShaunB

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Thank you for the informative and very fast reply!

So the secondary drain has water coming through it, needs to be underwater. I only have 1 input on my sump to run the main drain through the filter sock. Can the secondary dump into the skimmer chamber or return chamber? I'm thinking skimmer would be better than return for obvious reasons but that will be tight.

IMG_7120.jpg
 

mixer911

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Thank you for the informative and very fast reply!

So the secondary drain has water coming through it, needs to be underwater. I only have 1 input on my sump to run the main drain through the filter sock. Can the secondary dump into the skimmer chamber or return chamber? I'm thinking skimmer would be better than return for obvious reasons but that will be tight.

IMG_7120.jpg

Yea with that you will need to just dump the secondary into the skimmer section, not ideal but will work. You may see some excessive bubbles in there. do not do it in the return or you will have never ending bubbles as the secondary produces a lot of bubbles. That looks like only 1 " so reducing it down will lower the flow rate also.
 

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