Home made sump. Will this work?

[CEverii]

So I went into my LFS and a guy told me how to build your own sump. seems pretty easy, and i found a few youtube vids about it. Will this actually work out for my 75gal FOWLR tank? I'd be buying an overflow box, not the awesome one this guy made lol.

YouTube - DIY sump for less then $40

 

[partypalooza5]

Should work fine, I would say replace the pot scrubbers with live rock rubble or maybe even nothing at all. And it's good your getting an overflow, that overflow in the video is a little scary in my opinion. (I'm all for DIY, but it's worth spending a little money on something that could save my floor from flooding)

 

[ezy33]

Anyone else see a flood in the making? First, a overflow box has a box on the outside of the tank, designed to hold the siphon when the water flow stops. This will restart when the water flow restarts. I suspect your system won't, causing your tank to fill until the sump runs dry. Your output needs a anti-siphon hole just below the water line when running to stop the water in the tank from running back into the sump and flooding. Please check out a real overflow box. I made my first from a $8.00 specimen box and PVC pipe, hardly any flooding.

 

[CEverii]

Anyone else see a flood in the making? First, a overflow box has a box on the outside of the tank, designed to hold the siphon when the water flow stops. This will restart when the water flow restarts. I suspect your system won't, causing your tank to fill until the sump runs dry. Your output needs a anti-siphon hole just below the water line when running to stop the water in the tank from running back into the sump and flooding. Please check out a real overflow box. I made my first from a $8.00 specimen box and PVC pipe, hardly any flooding.

I stated above that i would be buying a real overflow box lol

 

[partypalooza5]

I made my first from a $8.00 specimen box and PVC pipe, hardly any flooding.

xD hardly any flooding.

Edit: I don't know if it would help, but this is the sump I have on my 75G.

Basically it's an open sump with a filter sock and algae infested rocks with a light on 24/7 (I call it a "redneck refugium")

 

[ccCapt]

That DIY overflow is a disaster waiting to happen. IMO, there is no way you will ever match the rate the water is SIPHONED out of that overflow with how much water the pump is returning to the tank. A real overflow box only drains as much as the pump pushes, but that's not the case with that DIY thing. That setup will keep draining the same rate regardless of how much water is returned into the tank by the pump.