Radical box less overflow?

[the_shindogg]

Simple question-
why is the acryic box needed for an internal o/v design? why not just put the Durso right in your tank with no box? surely some type of grating in the inlet of the pipe will serve as a guard to sucking up animals into the drain?

Advantages:
more tank space
easier to construct (less 1 diy internal box to build)
cleaner looking

Disadvanages: ???

Questions:
Will the durso work (ie be silent) in this config?
are there any general flaws in this design?
signifigant deawbacks?

I'm wary that this idea seems to simple someone must have thought of before and there must be a reason it is not more commonly implementd.

any comments would be welcome.
thx
Chris

hereis a pic of what i mean

http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/the_shindogg ... %26.view=t

 

[Chucker]

3 disadvantages -

It'll clog easier as it is drawing on much less surface area.

It won't draw from the surface

and most importantly......
If the tank drains faster than the return pump, or there is a power outage, there will be no box to keep a pool of water under the siphon tube. Any drop in tank level below the input side will cause a siphon loss.

 

[the_shindogg]

thanks for the reply.

what about this design
http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/the_shindogg ... %26.view=t

since the o/v bod does not go all the way down, we save valuable tank space while fixing all the pitfalls you describe above?

 

[Chucker]

Sorry, but the 2nd set of images isn't as clear as the first. Not quite sure what I'm looking at.

 

[Fredfish]

Yes, you could put a durso in without a box and it would work. You would have to have more room in your sump for overflow from the tank for when there is a power failure or you shut your pump off for maintenance.

The other dissadvantages suggested above do apply.

The design with the small surface level box will work and will eliminate all the disadvantages of your first suggestion.

Fred.

 

[GLD]

Instead of devoting tank space to the durso and its container, why not cut some slots in the back of the tank near the top of the tank and then build an oveflow container onto the back of the tank. This container could be identical to the ones that are built into the corner of the reef ready acquariums, except that they are appended to the back of the tank rather than using up precious tank space. ANd water would enter it thru the slots cut into the tank in the same manner as water currently spills over the top of the reef ready durso compartments except that the water would be flowing out the back of the tank.

Has anybody tried such a design?

 

[Chucker]

GLD - Sanjay Joshi previously did exactly that iirc.

 

[GLD]

Shindog asked about installing a short overflow box in the upper 1/4 to 1/3rd of the tank, rather than devoting an entire corner from top to bottom to an overflow. This makes sense, but there is no need to have the outlet of the overflow box come out of the bottom of that box as depicted in his drawing. As Bobby (I don't know his last name but want to give him credit for his idea) so eloquently described to me yesterday in Tulsa, you could drain such a short box out the back of the tank, thereby recapturing all of the space beneath that box.