I was wondering if there is a safe way to drain water from the tank to the sump without having to drill holes. Mose other ways i have come up with, if the power turns off i would be up s@%t creek. <
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>I thought I have heard some one talking about some sort of a skimmer box????<
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>Any info would be great.<
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>cheers<
>ben<
>
I have seen a syphon style setup from tank to sump and if the power goes off a small hole that is in the pipe about 2inches under the surface of the water, when it is exposed the syphoning stops, but the only problem would be that when the power comes back on, the pump will run dry and if you arent around when that happens...........some one must have come up with something to prevent this happening but I dont know - sorry Cheers<
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>Ash.....<
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>My fish ATM<
><
>2x thorichthys meeki<
>2x aequidans pulcher<
>4x geophagus <
>surinamensis<
>2x copora nicaraguense<
>4x steatocranus casuarius<
>2x gold plec<
>1x common plec<
>3x clown loach
ben,<
> the short answer is no, well not succesfully.<
>ive heard of some guys running two pumps, one from the tank to the sump and one from the sump to the tank, but what if one of them dies.?? either way you will have water going everywhere.<
>the other way is the wier set up but that means cutting a rectangle piece of glass out of the side of your tank where the water over flow out into a catchment area and then piped down to the sump, filtered and pumped back to the tank.<
>in the 2nd idea you only need the bottom of the cut to 1cm below the water level and it will flow continuously but can be noisy from the water going over the falls, but can be fixed by puting some sponge in the bottom to catch the water.<
><
>the only thing you have to watch is how much water the sump can hold verse the amount of water that will still run from the tank when the powers off.<
>if A=B than you dont have a prob, if A being the water that will run from the tank, is larger than B capasity of the sump<
>you will have water going every where. in this case you could have a small hole drilled in the sump about 50mm from the top with a hose attached and run out side to the garden or drain.<
><
><
> <
>the way to fix the prob of the sump running dry is to have one of the toilet fittings that shut of when the water gets to a certain height, you have it mounted at the height that you want the water level to be. when the power comes back on it will only fill to that level. <
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>next prob!!!!!!<
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>
you can buy overflows form the aquarium shops, but they are expensive, they hang over the edge of the tank and kinda syphon out into the box but the syphon never stops, or
eaks so power outs are no probs. but as mentioned when water flows into water , it makes noise. <
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>but no need to have holes drilled (hole are the wayy easier and quicker, and cheaper option)<
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>Toilet cysterns do not flow anywere near enough to have as part of the regular plumbing of a tank,they also require high pressure to function correctly. float valves( unless you get a really big one) dont work either, and well i would not trust them. Mick, Rockhampton<
>seeneym(at)hotmail.com<
>Tanganyikan pics here<
><
>
Ben,<
>Have a REALLY good read of this article.<
>I am sure it explains how to do what you want.<
>The way it is made the syphon never
eaks and if the power goes out all will be good once it comes back on again.<
>Great Overflow Article<
>Hope it helps<
> Phil<
><
>Beaudesert<
>debphil@ozemail.com.au<
><
>I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.
any reason you dont want your tank drilled???? AQUARIUMS ALIVE<
>7/1 Tibbing st Nerang.<
>0755273545<
>sales@aquariumsalive.com.au<
>www.aquariumsalive.com.au<
>Visit www.aquariumsalive.com.au , register your details and be entered into our monthly draw - great prizes to be won
Im pretty sure someone was selling an ''aks'' overflow thingy in the trader section a little while back, might still be there....... Cheers<
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>Ash.....<
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>
It can be done,check out this article, it explains it very well.............<
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>www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-01/gt/<
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>Michael
Thanks for all the info . I will check out the links that have been posted and see what ideas are out there. <
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>I was trying to get out of drilling for a few reasons. <
>* If i decided that i wanted to run the tank with out the sump later (for what ever reason) i would not have the problem of having a big hole in the back of my tank.<
>*I cant drill the hole my self & i would be a bit worried about any jo blo taking to my tank with a drill.<
>*And i am having trouble finding any one that (A) will come out to rosewood to drill the tank, an (B) someone that can drill a hole big enogh.<
><
>cheers<
>ben<
>
mick,<
> RE; your comment about the over flows, you said they syphon out and theres no prob if the power go''s out, where does the water go when its syphoned out and how do you get the water back into the tank???<
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not being a smartarse, but did you look at mick vicks link, the animated diagrams and explanations are very clear........ Cheers<
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>Ash.....<
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>
I''ve used something like this in the past rather than skimmer boxes etc<
><
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>works fine,,, and here''s an article about it.<
><
>ARTICLE<
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>Matt
Hey Wayne yep i did word that a bit badely, in a hurry as usuall, <
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> when the water level drops to the heiht of th eover flow~ 1-2cm lower it stops, bu the syphon potential remains, once the tank starts filling up again and again eneters the overflow box it again starts to flow. <
><
>that article explains it pretty well... Mick, Rockhampton<
>seeneym(at)hotmail.com<
>Tanganyikan pics here<
><
>
Go Fast<
>You say you have used this type of overflow?<
>How well did it work? and how did you start the syphon?<
>It just seems to easy, it would be very easy to make and also very cheap. If this works well i can''t see why any body would drill there tanks??<
><
>ben<
>
the only drawback from my understanding of the article is that there is not alot of "syphon power" removing the water from the tank.........so that would mean a slow turnover of tank water per hour I would imagine.... Cheers<
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>Ash.....<
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>
What if you where to drill the holes a bit bigger and have one at either end of the tank???<
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>or if the length of the pipe was shorter???<
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>Do you think that would give you more/enough syphon???<
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>what do you think???<
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>ben<
>
the amount of syphoning depends on how low the outlet of the pipe is eg like when you siphon clean your tank the lower you hold the end of the pipe, the more water pressure and the higher you hold it the slower it goes.if you hold it higher than the water level it will stop.You can try this yourself to see what I mean, from the picture you can see that the outlet that it would only be a couple of inches below the tank water, thus a very slow syphon rate,maybe a few modifications and it could work really well..........HTH<
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>oh yeah here is the link to that aks overflow box if you couldnt find it.<
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>p089.ezboard.com/fqldchiclidsfrm7.showMessage?topicID=8264.topic Cheers<
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>Ash.....<
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>
ash<
>i know what you mean about the height of the out let. I didn''t think about it that way. This problem would be consistant with all of the ideas that have already been posted would it not???<
><
>thanks for the link i will check it out.<
><
>ben<
>
Hi havent been able to get in contact with you sorry, am unable to buy the
ichardi.<
><
>Thanks
the only way to have more water going to the sump would be to have say 5 of these pipes with a larger diameter going from the tank to the sump, more pipes = more water flow, but they would not be the prettiest thing to have hanging on the side of your tank, if you have the time and money you could play around and see what the different size pipes would do with regards to waterflow volume, but personaly I would either get a hole drilled or buy an overflow box, at least then you know its going to do the job you want it to do........and its not an eyesore............good luck with it which ever way you go.... Cheers<
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>Ash.....<
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>
Well after all of that it seems that getting my tank drilled might just be the better option. By the time i stuff around making all these things and testing them i could have a hole in my tank and have it set up.<
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>Thanks every one for your idea''s it has convinced me that there is no better way.<
><
>That
ings me to my next question, ''Does anybody know any one or any where that is reliable that could come out to rosewood to drill my tank???<
><
>Thanks again guys<
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>ben<
>
ps the only other option I can think of would be to have the sump above tha tank to be filtered and have one pump pumping up into the sump and let gravity do the rest, and if its set up correctly you wouldnt have a worry if the power went out, not the most practicle idea but would work well... Cheers<
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>Ash.....<
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>
I have one of these overflows and it works great, if you need more flow then you just need a larger diameter pipe going from inside the overflow box and a larger diameter U shaped pipe between the box and the tank. <
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>I only have 40mm pipe and the main overflow body is just a 100mm pipe with a 100:40 converter piece at the bottom end (I had to file out the lip so I could push the pipe right up to the desired water level though)<
>It is fine to switch the power on and off and it restarts no sweat. The only real drama is because I haven''t sealed up the elbows that make the U shape they can draw in some air so it needs a ''burp'' every couple of weeks to maintain flow.<
>It''d be easy enough to seal them up with some plumbers joining glue though, I''m just too lazy to bother.<
>
hey flash heart, did you have any dramas with the return pump? as in - not getting one that was too quick or too slow in returning water to the tank for the overflow box? ie what size pump (Lph) do you use and on what size tank/s<
>just curious........ Cheers<
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>Ash.....<
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>
No drama''s<
>Should get comparitive rates to a bulkhead of the same diameter. Edited by: FlashHeart73 at: 25/7/05 18:41<
>
what Lph pump do you use use?<
> Cheers<
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>Ash.....<
><
>
I only have about 2000lph running through it but it could take heaps more at those pipe sizes. If you''re real worried make it from a bit of 250 diameter and the pipes out of 100, you could push 10,000lph throu that pretty easy.
thanks for sharing Cheers<
><
>Ash.....<
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>
Flash<
>So you dont have an over flow box on the inside of the tank, just the u shape pipe??<
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>do you have a pic of the tank/system. I would love to see it!<
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>ben<
>
I was thinking of a way of not drilling holes in your tank is just use one pump in your tank<
>Pump it up in to a sump higher than the tank and just gravity<
>feed it back to the tank <
>Simpel??
erm........has allready been suggested Cheers<
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>Ash.....<
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>