hi all i have a 120 gallon plywood tank that i have had running for about a year that houses my western painted turtle and about 30 other fish mostly african cichlids. so i am at a loss for how to work my overflow to the sump. i have gone through 4 different designs trying to eliminate the problems of the turtle blocking the overflow and overflowing the tank to fish getting stuck to the overflow screens and getting stressed out then becoming lunch.
so i am looking for ideas of how to fix my overflow and prevent fish from getting stuck in it.
so my setup includes a quiet one 4000 pump that returns the water to the tank via a spray bar at the top and under gravel jets at the bottom. my overflow consists of a acrylic box inside the tank that is 8 inches by 2 inches by 2 inches that surrounds a rectangle opining that goes to the back of the tank where i have another box that has a regulated full siphon drain, an open drain, and an emergency overflow protection drain. this all drains into a Rubbermaid draw set bio tower and a 30 gallon heavy duty plastic tub.
i just added an egg crate cage over the top of the in tank box hopping that this will fix my problem but we will see
as of right now i have had 3 fish get stuck to my grate that covers the opening that goes through the tank wall to that back box the first fish became lunch for the turtle the second and third were rescued to my 45 gallon tank till they get back to normal and i can put them back in the main tank.
so does anyone have any ideas of how i can improve my overflow to prevent my issues of fish getting stuck?
here is a pic of my current setup. in the second pic the red line is the in tank overflow box
so i am looking for ideas of how to fix my overflow and prevent fish from getting stuck in it.
so my setup includes a quiet one 4000 pump that returns the water to the tank via a spray bar at the top and under gravel jets at the bottom. my overflow consists of a acrylic box inside the tank that is 8 inches by 2 inches by 2 inches that surrounds a rectangle opining that goes to the back of the tank where i have another box that has a regulated full siphon drain, an open drain, and an emergency overflow protection drain. this all drains into a Rubbermaid draw set bio tower and a 30 gallon heavy duty plastic tub.
i just added an egg crate cage over the top of the in tank box hopping that this will fix my problem but we will see
as of right now i have had 3 fish get stuck to my grate that covers the opening that goes through the tank wall to that back box the first fish became lunch for the turtle the second and third were rescued to my 45 gallon tank till they get back to normal and i can put them back in the main tank.
so does anyone have any ideas of how i can improve my overflow to prevent my issues of fish getting stuck?
here is a pic of my current setup. in the second pic the red line is the in tank overflow box
