Need help witth DIY overflow..

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eyft23

Gambusia
MFK Member
Dec 2, 2007
222
0
16
on a rock
hi.. i think i am doing this right, but i dont seem to be getting a lot of flow from this type of overflow...i am using 1" pvc this time with the same quiet one 4000 pump i had with about 3' of head...
my original design was using 1 1/4" pvc and with the intake on the top... i wanted to redesign the intake by being able to take in water from the bottom, along with all of the doodoo my pleco's make...
can someone help me out with this and tell me what i did wrong this time?
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Are you sure you got all the air out?
 
yeah i think so, because when i start the overflow and then i suck out all of the air from the check valve until i get water coming out from the check vavle. this should work like the first type of DIY overflow that chompers put out last year. i made one of those already and it worked great, but this one doesn't at all.
 
http://www.aquariumlife.net/projects/diy-overflow/120.asp
This is what I built, looks very similar. The only problem I ran into at first was getting all the air out. From then on, worked fine.
A little noisy, but worked fine.
Sump001.jpg


Might be the length of the water chamber, the long “U”.
If that does not get it going, then I`m stumped.
 
after some reading (actually alot)... i think that the horizontal overflow doesn't give as much flow as a vertical overflow... so i am still going to use this overflow, but i will add a 90, a tee, and 2 pvc tubes that go down and up.. then i should be getting way better flow because it will now be a traditional vertical overflow.... i hope...

if anyone can chime i and help.... please do... thanks...
 
Good luck,
The failure of your first pretzel still bothers me.
Before going off in another direction, if it were me, I would sure try to get my first attempt going.
I would hate to have a pile of plastic beat me.
 
The Quiet One 4000 at three feet is going to pump about 720 gph. One inch pipe with horizontal gravitational flow is only going to flow 375 gph max. Vertically it will flow up to 600 gph.

As you already found out, that design doesn't flow very well. The pipes have to be oversized to keep up with a decent pump. When you prime it, close your valve and then shut off the pump. This will allow any trapped air to rise to the check valve. Otherwise, the downward flow of the water can trap air bubbles in the pipe.
 
I was gonna say the same as chompers. you need bigger pipe to keep up with the pumpand to have the system shut down when you prime it. lowering the Tee won't help it will just lower your water level. I'm sure Chomper Can be alot more accurate than me but I am running the same pump and am using 1 1/2" pipe. keep the safety factor in there. better to be a couple sizes to big than 1 to small.
 
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