Overflow box.

Randys

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Nov 3, 2015
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Traverse City, Michigan
I'm planning on drilling my new glass 125 and building an acrylic sump. I've been looking at the overflow boxes available and was wondering if I could get some feedback from you folks.
I see Fiji Cube makes a nice bean animal model that will run 1,600 GPH. It's kind of expensive but it DOES come with the glass drill bit also. One feature I find appealing is the inside overflow is held in the bulkheads with o-rings that makes it easy to pull out to clean.
Are there any others I should be looking at?
Thanks.
 

ragin_cajun

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The shadow overflow system. At “synergy reef”. It’s been kinda popular for a couple years now.
 

duanes

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If you are going to drill, there ia no need for an over flow box, unless of course you want to have weirs to prevent small fish from ending in the sump (or if you drill the bottom.
On my current 180, the bulkheads (drilled a couple inches from the rim) are left as is and work fine that way, and they are basically invisible .
6790A2E3-383B-4874-9A76-51156CD5A693_1_201_a.jpeg
Of course if you drill the holes too low into the tank an upturned, $0.89 cent PVC elbow can can be slipped or screwed in.
1610800869434.png
in tanks with small fish, you can easily carve weirs into PVC
1610800945799.png
If you have plants, any overflow, box or not...can get plugged.
With the overflow bow I had below, I added egg crate to prevent floating plants from easily gumming up the weirs.
1610801091746.png
so regular checking to make sure overflows are near of debris is a normal everyday task for me to prevent over flows to the floor.
1610801194324.png
I ream out my overflows every morning with a flexible bottle brush every morning.
All it takes is a snail to get lodged in, then, for plant shreds to dam it up.
4E5529A3-958C-49FB-9095-5C5B4E085A28_1_201_a.jpeg
 

twentyleagues

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Eshopps eclipse overflow box's work well and are held in with the bulk heads. I have a L series on a 75g. It's also on the end of my tank. Price wise it was a good decision.
 

Randys

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Nov 3, 2015
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Traverse City, Michigan
Thanks for all the input gang.

I ordered the 1,200 GPH Fiji Cube today.

For those of you who may be in the market here’s what I learned and how I decided.

The Shadow is the only one that’s injection molded which is ok (did I tell you I build plastic injection molds for a living?) but one thing that worried me was how the pvc down pipe connections were molded into the case instead of using separate bulkheads. I could imagine my clumsy self getting a pipe stuck in the hole and cracking the case. I’ve managed to break the case of an Aqua Clear HOB or two. Those are injection molded also.

The Eshopps was similar to the Fiji. They were about the same price and both made of acrylic. What I liked about the Fiji over the Eshopps was the way the internal box was connected. The Eshopps sandwiches the glass between the internal and external box with nuts inside the external box. On the Fiji, the external box is attached to the glass with bulkheads and nuts inside the box. THEN the internal box is slipped into the bulkheads using o-rings around the diameters for a friction fit. This allows the internal box to be removed by just pulling it out of the slip-fit bulkheads. For an anal neat freak like myself being able to easily clean the internal box and weir was big.

Thanks again.
 
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