Drilled Tanks . . What did you do for your surface skimming

[Anonymous]

Getting ready to work on the plumbing for my 40. I have a 1" bulkhead and I need to make or buy a surface skimming box or some other idea. Anybody doing this and have pics? By the way, my bulkhead is on the back of the tank about 2" down from the top.

Thanks!

Ace

 

[wade1]

You can leave it with just a screen on it, but what happens is your water level is then visible from the front of the tank unless you build a hood that hangs low enough to cover it. (plug! http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=75867)

I would recommend a small, acrylic box that you can silicon in around the hole... but you still need to screen it to keep snails and things from plugging the hole. Not screening is a very bad idea!

 

[Anonymous]

You can leave it with just a screen on it, but what happens is your water level is then visible from the front of the tank unless you build a hood that hangs low enough to cover it. (plug! http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=75867)

I would recommend a small, acrylic box that you can silicon in around the hole... but you still need to screen it to keep snails and things from plugging the hole. Not screening is a very bad idea!

I found this on another site.

http://www.barraquatic.com/overflows.php

Thinking of just building something similar.

What do you think?

 

[Anonymous]

Instead of going vertical, you can run a horizontal box to skim more surface area, or even just build a small box around your bulkhead. Most aquariums have huge boxes for the overflow; wastes a lot of space.

 

[wade1]

Yes, I would agree with Dan... there's no point in wasting that volume/area to place things in the tank.

Do a 3 sided box (or 2 if its near a corner) with a bottom on it.. it only needs to be large enough to hold any screen you use. As for your link... I do not recommend people use the slots without tops. If you get an algae problem in the tank, those slots will plug and can cause the entire thing to overflow. If you have the slots that have no "roof" on them, they will just cause the water to flow over them if they plug.

 

[Anonymous]

I would put a downward facing elbow on the inside of the bulkhead. Will prevent a slurping sound if place a little durso tee on the outside portion.

 

[Anonymous]

OK, I only need a box big enough to fit the drain into it. Horizontal is better to save space. Now do you guys recommend the Durso style standpipe or is that not necessary? And what would you recommend for the box? Make it myself or retro some other product I may be able to buy off the shelf?

Thanks!

Ace

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Matt.

 

[wade1]

Yes, thats the big difference with having tanks drilled at the top.

I agree with Matt on that one... use the down elbow inside.

Outside, you have to create a slightly less effective durso style solution. Another altnerative is Stockman's newest little toy... you can msg me if you want his email address. Its a screen that can be used on the top of the standpipe that reduces noise/splash and works really well.

Here are pictures of my old tank:

Looking down from above, into the box:

Looking at it from the side... the top of the thing had a cap on it with airholes to regulate the noise... thats where Stockman's newest toy will help you out:

That worked just fine for years. Was even fairly low noise.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Wade.

Been doing some reading and it seems some people are making an overflow the whole length of the tank. Kind of a cool idea. I think I'll build the box out of glass. i can have it cut to size and will probably easier to find than acrylic.

Ace

 

[Anonymous]

Do they have smoked glass?

Black or blue acrylic is pretty darn easy to find at a TAP plastics....how do you plan on cutting teeth into glass?

 

[Anonymous]

Question: Why are the teeth necessary? I mean what if the water just overflowed over the edge? Of course with a screen on top ot keep critters out.

 

[Anonymous]

This is what I did to the top of my durso....the spot where you would have the PVC tee. The vinyl tubing goes down into the stand, where the noise is quieted considerably. I also put a small valve on the end to adjust the air flow.

 

[wade1]

Question: Why are the teeth necessary? I mean what if the water just overflowed over the edge? Of course with a screen on top ot keep critters out.

You certainly don't have to have teeth, but as you say, things will crawl into the box without them. My current tank has a smooth overflow, however, it has an eggcrate screen on the back side preventing things from entering (although its trapped more than its share of fish against the flow!).

Just make sure your screen on the hole is fitted well, and then you won't need to worry about the teeth at all. Also, you will find it 200x easier to silicon the glass to glass than acrylic.

IMO whole length overflows are a total waste of space/effort. If you have a 6'+ tank, you can use a single overflow if you place it well.

 

[Anonymous]

OK, thanks!

I'll have more questions as I get going on this.

 

[Anonymous]

Question: Why are the teeth necessary? I mean what if the water just overflowed over the edge? Of course with a screen on top ot keep critters out.

The only necessity of teeth is to keep fish and other critters like snails out (since they're not as willing to go out of the water as much). Thing is they really start to clog up over time reducing the flow a bit (I can take a picture of mine if you really want to see it ).

Personally my next overflow will be a box along the top, and with a little shelf on it (I believe this is coined as a "Calfo style" overflow) mostly because you can put corals that grow quickly on that shelf and benifit from nutrients like GSP or zoanthids etc. I think the reason though people have overflows go all the way to the bottom of the tank has to do with the buoyancy force that occurs if you don't do it that way, when it goes to the bottom the only forces are from the side which isn't an issue since it's usually filled with water, with a partial box on top the water doesn't go to the top of the overflow inside the box, yet outside it's higher leaving a net force upward, which means you need to secure the overflow well (ie a line of silicone will NOT do it).

 

[Anonymous]

Just started reading the Calfo stuff. The small box and wanting to float away because of buoyancy. How does one secure such a box well to the glass without this happening? Screws?

That was a joke.

Still, though, what do I need to do?

 

[wade1]

Good point about bouyancy. However, if you have a shallow box with an elbow aiming down, your water level will actually remain near the surface level of the tank. Add that and the weight of the glass and you have almost zero bouyancy at all.

My current smooth overflow actually has a nice patch of turf algae over a portion of it... its the only algae in the entire tank.

 

[Anonymous]

I use a standard surface skimmer box, you can order ones made to fit, or make your own


on one tank I have an internal duroso anti noise setup, on the other I use a small overflow box, and a bulkhead like you have setup, and an external duroso

either works well, just leave enough room so you can remove the duroso parts from the bulkhead, if the skimmer box is too small it'll be a real pain

 

[Anonymous]

Well depending what you make the skimmer box out of will say whether it's bouyant or not, as wade mentioned a glass one is heavier so you could be ok. What I have seen though, is a box that actually does have a back to it (instead of attaching it to the wall), then simply put a hole through the skimmer box for the bulkhead to attach to (make sure you have a washer in between) and that will keep the skimmer box from floating up, assuming you go the acrylic route.