overflow box

[beanyboy1982]

just settintg up a sump tank with a non drilled tank done all the pipe work do i have to have a small box inside the tank or can i get away with just the pipe with a thing on it to stop the fish going up the pipe

[jsoong]

You can do without a skimmer box in the tank IF:
your siphon u-tube is deep enough in the tank that it will NEVER lose siphon, AND
you have a baffle / standpipe in your external overflow box that will stop the water flow at the correct level so you don't drain down your entire tank.

I ran a system like that for a couple years without problems. However, this is inherently more risky than using a skimmer box.

[Ziggy953]

I agree with Jsoong.

I would opt for the skimmer box. There is a lot less chance of failure with it then without.

[OldMan]

Forgive me if this sounds stupid but I have never had a sump. It would seem quite simple to me to use a large diameter siphon to move water from inside the tank to a box on the back. From the back box, use a standpipe at the minimum level that you would tolerate in the main tank to limit any water level drops. If the siphon extended well below the level of the standpipe on both sides of the tank wall, the siphon would not need priming after a power loss and power recovery since it would stay full of water when the standpipe was reached and stopped all water flow. Maybe I'm missing something here because I have never used a sump.

Let me try to show what I mean by a simple diagram.

[Ziggy953]

No you arent missing anything the idea is sound and will work. There are a few problems though. Something could easily get sucked up into that U-tube and cause a flood. Your working water level is going to drop until it is equalized on both sides of the U-tube so you need to keep that in mind when planning the size of your sump.

For my sanity I would just buy an overflow box. I hope it works out for you.

[fijiwigi]

I bought this one for like 65 dollars It came with tubing to the sump but I decided not to use it and piped a PVC drain instead

Note the little half wall inside the outside box that gives the U-tube water to prevent siphon loss when the power goes out The drain half of the outside box is just a bulkhead type fitting with eggcrate on top of it.

Even with this design I just had an overflow because my starfish crawled over the mesh and into my U-tube plugging it.

[CaPoNe]

I have a tidepool OVERFLOW BOX that comes with the Marineland Tidepool wet dry filter setup, note- I only have the overflow box not the whole setup. Im building a sump right now but ive tried to start this thing, and cant start if for crap it doesnt have a U tube persay, its something like one but flatter if someone that knows how to start these things could look at this picture and let me know how to do it? I tried air line tubing but just kept getting a mouth full of SW!! Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks. Heres the link- http://akamai.edeal.com/images/catal...2812827med.jpg

[jsoong]

The tidepool is a wier type overflow. To start the siphon, you can place an airline hose in the wier, tilt the overflow so the airline is at the highest point of the wier & suck out all the air.

From reading the forums, people have problem with air collecting in the wier type overflow because of low flow velocity. It is generally recommended to use a small PH or Venturi to continuously remove air & maintain siphon.