How reliable are eshops overflow boxes

[jhw1126]

Drilling is not an option since it's stocked and running it would be way too much of a hassle.

I've used smaller shops overflow on a 75 years ago but I wasn't so concernedly because there wasn't much flow and never had an issue.

I saw that the 1200 has 2 U tubes but thought maybe if I added a third it might help if one breaks syphon?... would you recommend that?.... I had an aqua lifter pump around the house somewhere maybe make the third U tube out of PVC and drill a hole on top for the aqua lifter pump to at least guarantee 1 tube with full syphon?

My sump is gonna be a ghetto makeshift large storage container of some sort. So if syphon fails there shouldn't be a ton of water for the pump to use to pump back up into the tank if syphon fails.... it will prob run dry.

I'm using a storage bin only to pack in media, not for more water volume and also so I can drill it and use the drain in the sump to drain the excess wastewater from my drip system.

First things first it is possible to drill a tank with livestock in it. Trust me it is not hard at all. Look into King of DIY on youtube

Second no I don't recommend adding another utube from 2 reason
1) I don't believe there is room for another one, since both ends of each tube needs to be submerged, the clear side of the overflow box where the bulkhead is located, the middle section is always filled so the siphon won't break, it is sized for 2 utube.

2) even if it fits, the more utube there is, the more flow you will need to push out any air bubbles that gets into the tube by accident. Or else it will trap air and potentially cause the siphon to break. You are having a higher risk having a third utube because you are trying to minimize risk, that's counterproductive

Aqua lifter can get the job done. I can't find any around me since they are discontinued.

And yeah you could drill your sump and drip water into your tank to achieve auto water change. I have done it before works like a charm. But I personally moved on using a water reservoir and pump water from it instead. Due to an accident with my city doing some work on its water piping and some contaminants got into it, it wiped out one of my tank's livestock since I was out of town for a few days. That being said the chance of this happening to you is very very low.

I didn't drill my tanks is simply because my tanks are tempered. Or I would have definitely drill them, and I would highly recommend anyone who has non-tempered tank to drill their tank as well.

Btw besides using traditional bio media, please look into the anoxic filter by dr Kevin Novak. Its abilities to filter amazed me and it doesn't use a lot of space. The only issues will be locating the raw materials( they are dirt cheap just hard to find the right kind depending on where you live)

 

[SandNukka15]

First things first it is possible to drill a tank with livestock in it. Trust me it is not hard at all. Look into King of DIY on youtube

Second no I don't recommend adding another utube from 2 reason
1) I don't believe there is room for another one, since both ends of each tube needs to be submerged, the clear side of the overflow box where the bulkhead is located, the middle section is always filled so the siphon won't break, it is sized for 2 utube.

2) even if it fits, the more utube there is, the more flow you will need to push out any air bubbles that gets into the tube by accident. Or else it will trap air and potentially cause the siphon to break. You are having a higher risk having a third utube because you are trying to minimize risk, that's counterproductive

Aqua lifter can get the job done. I can't find any around me since they are discontinued.

And yeah you could drill your sump and drip water into your tank to achieve auto water change. I have done it before works like a charm. But I personally moved on using a water reservoir and pump water from it instead. Due to an accident with my city doing some work on its water piping and some contaminants got into it, it wiped out one of my tank's livestock since I was out of town for a few days. That being said the chance of this happening to you is very very low.

I didn't drill my tanks is simply because my tanks are tempered. Or I would have definitely drill them, and I would highly recommend anyone who has non-tempered tank to drill their tank as well.

Btw besides using traditional bio media, please look into the anoxic filter by dr Kevin Novak. Its abilities to filter amazed me and it doesn't use a lot of space. The only issues will be locating the raw materials( they are dirt cheap just hard to find the right kind depending on where you live)

Gotcha.. yea so prob would have to stick with the 2 tubes provided.

I have an older carbon drip system I purchased from the filter guys years ago but I'd be out of luck as well if the town had an incident with something contaminating the water that the carbon drip couldn't prevent.

Only reason I wanted to switch to a sump/drip system was so I wouldnt have to manually do water changes. I had a drip on my old 600 and I loved how maintenance free it was.

I'd still have to drill into my living room floor as well to drain the water down into the basement drain.

My thought process was if the larger overflow boxes are too risky I wouldnt bother with the sump idea and just stick with my manual water changes while still using canisters. I currently age my water in a stock tank and do 50% water changes with a Laguna max flo 2400.

Just looking at options so I can cut out doing water changes and so I dont have a 100 gallon stock tank chilling in my laundry room lol

 

[jhw1126]

Gotcha.. yea so prob would have to stick with the 2 tubes provided.

I have an older carbon drip system I purchased from the filter guys years ago but I'd be out of luck as well if the town had an incident with something contaminating the water that the carbon drip couldn't prevent.

Only reason I wanted to switch to a sump/drip system was so I wouldnt have to manually do water changes. I had a drip on my old 600 and I loved how maintenance free it was.

I'd still have to drill into my living room floor as well to drain the water down into the basement drain.

My thought process was if the larger overflow boxes are too risky I wouldnt bother with the sump idea and just stick with my manual water changes while still using canisters. I currently age my water in a stock tank and do 50% water changes with a Laguna max flo 2400.

Just looking at options so I can cut out doing water changes and so I dont have a 100 gallon stock tank chilling in my laundry room lol

In that case look into fulidized sand filters. It is a very effective filter. Cheap to build easy to apply, most importantly low risk. It like a modified version of canister filters. With proper environment( flowrate, substrates height, dimensions of the container)it can grow anaerobic bacteria and achieved denitrification.
I also have one on my 120 lmao ? (i use this tank to put all of my thought into experiment) This could potentially reduce you water change. And there are other options such as upflow alge scrubber( i tried for a while didn't work out for me but there are people who love it) or grow plant ( grow pothos for q few months, didn't like how it looked)

There are tons of idea out there for us lazy fish keeper. Everyone has their own preferences, you just need to find the right one

 

[SandNukka15]

In that case look into fulidized sand filters. It is a very effective filter. Cheap to build easy to apply, most importantly low risk. It like a modified version of canister filters. With proper environment( flowrate, substrates height, dimensions of the container)it can grow anaerobic bacteria and achieved denitrification.
I also have one on my 120 lmao ? (i use this tank to put all of my thought into experiment) This could potentially reduce you water change. And there are other options such as upflow alge scrubber( i tried for a while didn't work out for me but there are people who love it) or grow plant ( grow pothos for q few months, didn't like how it looked)

There are tons of idea out there for us lazy fish keeper. Everyone has their own preferences, you just need to find the right one

I do have pothos on the tank atm. The sand filter wouldnt help me bc no matter what I'd still have to do water changes... nitrate will build up eventually

 

[TheWolfman]

You don't need a sump to run a drip.. if that's your only goal then you can simply use the overflow box to drain to your sewer. I ran a diy overflow for 2 years on my 220 for my drip system.

 

[SandNukka15]

You don't need a sump to run a drip.. if that's your only goal then you can simply use the overflow box to drain to your sewer. I ran a diy overflow for 2 years on my 220 for my drip system.

Wouldnt Overflow boxes only work when there is a steady flow?... a slow 2 gph drip from a drip system wouldnt hold the flow for the overflow and cause the tank to overflow?

 

[TheWolfman]

Wouldnt Overflow boxes only work when there is a steady flow?... a slow 2 gph drip from a drip system wouldnt hold the flow for the overflow and cause the tank to overflow?

Not at all quite the opposite, since there is only a small amount of flow there's less likely to be a syphon brake. I actually turned off my drip due to a flood caused by the air line tubing braking that supply the drip. The overflow held prime until I decommissioned that tank.

 

[SandNukka15]

Not at all quite the opposite, since there is only a small amount of flow there's less likely to be a syphon brake. I actually turned off my drip due to a flood caused by the air line tubing braking that supply the drip. The overflow held prime until I decommissioned that tank.

So if I were to get a small overflow for my 180 just for a drops system I could go for a lower flow but what's the smallest model of overflow that could fit over the trim?

 

[SandNukka15]

Also can anyone else contest to this working? Would appreciate multiple "advanced" aquarist opinions

 

[SandNukka15]

Bump