Hang On Back Overflow Box

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo

Roger Mcfish

Piranha
MFK Member
Dec 2, 2023
331
398
77
42
None of my tanks are drilled and I've never dealt or set up a sump. I was looking to experiment with one of those eshopps hob overflow boxes. They look easy enough to setup.

My question is, would I be required to drill holes above the outlet nozzle in case of a power outage? Does that break the siphon to keep the sump from overflowing in a power outage?
If so, how far above the outlet nozzle do I drill holes?
 
  • Like
Reactions: tlindsey
Thx brother. This would be my "first sump". I have a few smaller tanks I can experiment with and play around. One of them id like to try a power outage scenario
 
  • Like
Reactions: tlindsey
1747929309841.png
Once the water level drops a little, siphon will break on its own, I've never had to drill ports, in Utubes
In fact the most common problem I've had is "random siphon breaks", where air gets trapped inside Utubes, and break siphon it when I was not around,
and where the pump keeps pumping spilling water on the floor until the sump is drained
(one of the reasons I learned to drill to avoid random siphon breaks.
I also tried this over flow tpye that needed suction pumps to maintain continuous siphon.
1747929983815.png
On the one above, I used a power head venturi port to assure siphon wasn't upset.
To me drilling close enough to near the tank rim is the only to manage the siphon break induced stress.
In that way, if a power outage occurs, the tank will only drain to the overflow port, and no lower.
IMG_3593.jpeg
Even though I run my sumps close to full, it usually will not overflow if the sump/tank holds enough volume.
To me this means a tiny sump is pretty much useless.
When I first bought a tank here in Panama, it come with 2 tiny sumps.
IMG_1885.jpeg
They each held only about 20 gallons, but since they were outside sitting on the grass, I didn't worry about random overflow.
IMG_7452.jpeg
So I ran them close to the tipping point.
But one of the main points in having a sump, is expanding water volume, and having enough space to add lots of plants that consume nitrate.
To me just ammonia/nitrite reduction is only a small portion of what I expect a sump to do,
once a tank is cycled the most important factor is reducing nitrate between water changes with heavy plantings.
I quicky found a 125 gal tank to use as a sump, and ditched those wimpy plastic do dad that were poor excluses for sumps IMO.
IMG_6829.jpeg
It reglarly rains enough to overflow the sump here, but I use a continuous PVC overflow to drain off excess rain to te garden,
IMG_0922.jpeg
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com