Overflow box plumbing

[Blacksteel]

use ehiem tubing,its green which helps prevent algae growth.Your overflow looks like an eshopps800.Dont put any valves on your drain unless you are splitting it to 2 sections,any valve on a standard drain can cause overflows if the valve gets blocked!!!

Thanks for the advice. I'm not sure what it is bc I got it off craigslist with 2 sumps for only 50. But that looks like what it is.

 

[needmorecowbell]

Just 350 gph. I just said it because of quality. I have a pump that my dad uses for clearing the top of our pool of water. I read the box and it was 400 gph. I twisted off the hose output and put on a 1/2" PVC thread. I now have a free sump pump

 

[David S]

Here is the sump itself. It goes In the top right corner and out on the far left rectangle. Tip for the plumbing: You will want a ball valve on each line.

Are you not using a skimmer in here,I dont see any baffles??

 

[needmorecowbell]

Well my stepfather is very handy so I'm sure one of the eight saws he has in the garage will cut it haha. But what did you use?

I used a hacksaw because it i am not allowed to use power tools lol. It didn't cut straight though.. A saw is sooo much better though

 

[needmorecowbell]

Are you not using a skimmer in here,I dont see any baffles??

Nope no skimmer. It's only 10 gallons :/

 

[Blacksteel]

Yeah not really worried about cutting the PVC b/c i have plenty of power saws in the garage. This might sound like a dumb question but how do you plumb the return pump b/c the nozzle on the return pump is very small compared to 1" PVC?

 

[David S]

Thanks for the advice. I'm not sure what it is bc I got it off craigslist with 2 sumps for only 50. But that looks like what it is.

This is what I use,it will handle up to 800gph so you can go to a larger pump than the 350,also once you are all setup if you get any gargling noise just pm me and I'll tell you how to make it totally silent.

 

[David S]

Yeah not really worried about cutting the PVC b/c i have plenty of power saws in the garage. This might sound like a dumb question but how do you plumb the return pump b/c the nozzle on the return pump is very small compared to 1" PVC?

dont use 1" on the return pipe,if you look in the manual for the pump you use it will tell you what size hose to use,it will probably be 1/2 or 3/4".I would reccommend using hose as using pvc will restrict the flow becuse of any bends being used which in turn drops the gph,What size tank have you got?

 

[Blacksteel]

My tank is a 20 gallon long. And ok that makes mire sense haha

 

[David S]

My tank is a 20 gallon long. And ok that makes mire sense haha

Ok,the mag 350 is more than enough for your tank but may not be enough for your overflow.Basically you need to match the flowrate of your pump to your overflow(the U pipe)if you dont the flow going through the U pipe may not be enough to move any bubbles through it which then can cause an air break and a flood,I would try to change the U pipe to 1/2" if you can

 

[needmorecowbell]

The reasons I used PVC were, 1; because it's cheap and I don't have much money, and 2; I really like having the pleasure of being able to change the waterflow to my needs. I originally wanted to do flex tubing but I didn't find enough or the right size.

 

[David S]

Nope no skimmer. It's only 10 gallons :/

Cool

Are you putting chaeto in there?

 

[needmorecowbell]

Cool

Are you putting chaeto in there?

Yep and in the bottom right corner I will have lr rubble, and maybe some different filter pads in one.the middle is my refugium/ cheato

 

[David S]

don't forget to have a small cheap low wattage light over the chaeto

 

[Blacksteel]

Ok ya I could easily change the overflow to 1/2" with some extra tubing I have. I'm guessing that this would be enough for a mag 350?

 

[needmorecowbell]

don't forget to have a small cheap low wattage light over the chaeto

Yep I got that covered.

 

[David S]

Ok ya I could easily change the overflow to 1/2" with some extra tubing I have. I'm guessing that this would be enough for a mag 350?

1/2" equates to 420gph,will be spot on!!

 

[needmorecowbell]

here are the pictures... the left is the where it pumps out and the right is where it comes in. also i have an endcap on the one piece... that piece has holes in it and i have another piece with bigger holes in it and no endccap.

 

[David S]

I really would again advise against a valve in the drain pipe(blue)there is no reason to throttle this down unless you have a 'T' before the valve and then also routing to another section of the sump.
If you use this setup and throttle the drain(overflow box pipe) down,it can backup and flood,it only takes some crap from the tank or algae which was floating around to block it.
Is that overflow box made by you?

 

[needmorecowbell]

It is already glued but can I just not use it? And the overflow wasn't made by me but I wanted to. I just didn't have the equipment. I did make the sump design and plumbing though. Thank you for the warning, I didn't know that was possible.