Our sump tanks are drilled on the bottom. We use durso standpipes and weirs. Some might not like the loss of real estate using a weir, does not bother us a bit and works brilliantly.
overflows vs. lower drains
- Thread starter greengiant
- Start date
ok I think some don't know what a durso standpipe is. lol so one says they would prefer to have a drilled tank but don't want to risk poking holes. surface skimming is a goodargument for overflows and detris removal is a good argument for drilled. the durso removes the worry of the flood. thanks for the advice on the dual pumps. I am not worried about a disease spreading throughout all the tanks as much as I am about having filters fail because there are so many and I travel leaving things in the hands of my roomates. as for a brand of pump whats best?
Based on the responses it sounds like most people didn't really understand what you were suggesting with the low overflow. I think what you're getting at is a skimmer-less overflow with low bulkheads. If so, I think the main difference between that and a traditional overflow is really whether you want surface skimming or not.
One reason people don't use them is because they don't like drilling their tanks, but even among the people who do drill bulkheads I think the main reason they don't use them is because many of the ideas of overflows and sumps were adopted from the reefers and surface skimming is very important for them. For freshwater setups, particular planted tanks with CO2 where you want to minimize surface agitation I think low bulkhead overflows make perfect sense. If you set up all your plumbing on the outside of your tank it takes up zero real estate inside the tank and looks really sleek.
One thing to consider is that it's probably easier for something clog a single bulkhead than a large skimming overflow box, so if you do plan to use low overflows you should probably have a couple for redundancy.
Incidentally, I think TheFishGuy used mid-water level bulkheads for the overflows on his big tank so you might want to look that up.
I'm planning on including multi-level bulkheads with no skimmer box for the overflows on my next tank. I was going to post a thread about it tomorrow. Need to draw up some pictures to clarify things.
Regarding pumps, do you want it submersed in your sump or external? If you're looking for energy efficiency, an advantage of submersible pumps is that residual heat from the pump can contribute to your water heating.
One reason people don't use them is because they don't like drilling their tanks, but even among the people who do drill bulkheads I think the main reason they don't use them is because many of the ideas of overflows and sumps were adopted from the reefers and surface skimming is very important for them. For freshwater setups, particular planted tanks with CO2 where you want to minimize surface agitation I think low bulkhead overflows make perfect sense. If you set up all your plumbing on the outside of your tank it takes up zero real estate inside the tank and looks really sleek.
One thing to consider is that it's probably easier for something clog a single bulkhead than a large skimming overflow box, so if you do plan to use low overflows you should probably have a couple for redundancy.
Incidentally, I think TheFishGuy used mid-water level bulkheads for the overflows on his big tank so you might want to look that up.
I'm planning on including multi-level bulkheads with no skimmer box for the overflows on my next tank. I was going to post a thread about it tomorrow. Need to draw up some pictures to clarify things.
Regarding pumps, do you want it submersed in your sump or external? If you're looking for energy efficiency, an advantage of submersible pumps is that residual heat from the pump can contribute to your water heating.
thanks Deeb. so if i did a couple submerged overflows and added a skimmer a as a backup it would be a built in safety right? so heres my idea. 2 submerged overflows at one end of the tank and a skimmer at the same end. I would hav the returns entering at the opposite end lowwith a syphon break on the top. add in a check valveand we have redundancy as well as the bestofboth worlds. wit alittle valving on the submerged overflows I can used theskimmer when needed as well as it being a safety. make sense? comments? I like submergedpumpsfor the simplicity of it. what is the recomendation?
Just to clarify, you're saying you'll have submerged bulkheads that you will use primarily, and a backup skimmer box that will normally be above the water level, but can be used if you dial down the flow on your submerged overflows with a valve? That's a nice idea - seems like it should work fine. I guess it means you won't be able to have the tank filled right to the top during normal operation.
You might want to use gate valves rather than ball valves on your submerged overflows to get better control of your flow.
For submersible pumps I've had good luck with Mag-Drives, but I've never had to move as much water as you're planning to. They do give off a fair amount of heat, but since they're submersible I feel like it just contributes to tank heating. To get 4500gph at 6' head you'd need 3 Mag 24s or 2 Mag 36s.
You might want to use gate valves rather than ball valves on your submerged overflows to get better control of your flow.
For submersible pumps I've had good luck with Mag-Drives, but I've never had to move as much water as you're planning to. They do give off a fair amount of heat, but since they're submersible I feel like it just contributes to tank heating. To get 4500gph at 6' head you'd need 3 Mag 24s or 2 Mag 36s.
I use both, a skimmer/overflow device from Glass-holes.com to take the surface water and two more holes lower to get the mid-level and lower level water. The system works great but holes need to be drilled. This is all on my 360 thread I'm setting up right now.
The tricky part is setting the level of the water with the lower holes. I set up the overflow unit first and then tried to match this with the plumbing of the lower holes. There was a lot of tweaking involved to get everything set up correctly.
I think I might add one more hole almost at the bottom. I need a little more drain capacity for a 2 gallon an hour drip system and I noticed the drain slows when I have the strainers installed to keep the fish out. When I was doing my testing, no fish were in the tank and the lower pipes were not restricted. Duh! Simple miss on my part.
Also I like to run my pumps wide open. I'm paying for the electricity so I don't want to restrict the flow of my pumps in anyway. The extra drain capacity is simply another hole in the back of the tank.
The tricky part is setting the level of the water with the lower holes. I set up the overflow unit first and then tried to match this with the plumbing of the lower holes. There was a lot of tweaking involved to get everything set up correctly.
I think I might add one more hole almost at the bottom. I need a little more drain capacity for a 2 gallon an hour drip system and I noticed the drain slows when I have the strainers installed to keep the fish out. When I was doing my testing, no fish were in the tank and the lower pipes were not restricted. Duh! Simple miss on my part.
Also I like to run my pumps wide open. I'm paying for the electricity so I don't want to restrict the flow of my pumps in anyway. The extra drain capacity is simply another hole in the back of the tank.
nes999;4041949; said:
This is the basic idea. I just plumbed to the side of my tank not the bottom.
You can look to my 360 thread for connecting the overflows. Basically the 1.5" holes/plumbing go to a 2" T fitting then the 2" line is plumbed to the "Bio-Tower" and that drains into my sump. The Glass-holes overflow is also a 1.5 inch line and that goes directly to the "Bio-Tower" also.
