Overflow as bio tower?

[DaveB]

I'm sure that there is a reason that this idea has been ruled out, or else more people would do it. But if I have a center overflow that is roughly 12" x 6" what makes it a bad idea to stuff it full of biomedia with some sponge mech filtration at the top and let it drain out the bottom rather than setting up a standpipe of some sort?

This tank is going in a living room so noise is definitely a factor. So if that's a reason not to do it, that's good enough for me. But if I had a canopy over the tank and covered the area over the overflow, would it even make that much noise?

 

[polish]

The main issue I can think of is the media clogging which would either lead to the tank over flowing if the sump has enough water in it or the pump running dry. If the sump is big enough and it clogged the pump would keep filling the tank until it started to over flow since the media was clogged and couldn't keep up. If the tank is big enough to hold all the sump water without over flowing then the pump would simply empty the sump until it ran dry, then as a little water made it through the clogged media it would pump it right back out and run dry again. Good idea but there would have to be a fail safe where the water could overflow and bypass the media if it got clogged.

 

[DaveB]

Excellent point and a good example of why two heads are better than one. I wouldn't have thought of that. Seems like it'd take an awful lot for that to ever overflow, but still, it could happen.

 

[fish_master2000]

to fix all that just use a coarse foam, like those scrubbers use for dishes. or the foam media used in hagen aqua filters. but dont fill it up to the top in sponges. i would say stuff it up to 3" 4" inches below the water intake. so the weight of the water will force water through it.

 

[Ali1]

I don't see any advantage in having the bio media in the intake rather than in the sump.

 

[Ali1]

As for the fail safe method for this particular matter, you can add an extra PVC overflow a tad higher than the first overflow(stuffed with sponge). This way if the first overflow gets clogged, the water level will rise until it reaches the second overflow(no sponges)

 

[fish_master2000]