toothless overflow..... Thoughts?

LooseHip · #1 11/09/2007, 05:19 PM

My 40 Gallon breeder is drilled on the bottom in the center of the tank. I have a hole for the drain, and a hole for the return (thanks miwoodar) I am getting ready to install a overflow and was debating whether or not to go with a toothless overflow. Curious on what people think of toothless overflows. Good idea? bad idea?

Also should I go with acrylic or glass? Only problem I forsee with a glass overflow is notching out a corner for the return line.

any info would be appreciated!

kgross · #2 11/09/2007, 05:41 PM

I do all of my overflows toothless anymore. You get better surface skimming with the toothless. To stop stuff from going over it I like to use gutter guard. A very open mesh that will not change the flow.

Kim

LooseHip · #3 11/09/2007, 06:06 PM

What is the height of your the overflow in relation to the top brace on the tank? if that makes sense!

kgross · #4 11/09/2007, 06:09 PM

I normally put my overflow at the bottom of the trim on the tank. So I would guess that it varies from 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch below the brace.

NanoReefWanabe · #5 11/09/2007, 08:27 PM

glass is fairly easy to notch and cut with a dremel and diamond bits...either that or you could just drill in another hole for the retun to go through and then either silicone it in or add a bulkhead..

Rosseau · #6 11/09/2007, 08:29 PM

I'm toothless, love it. A large amount of surface water is moved constantly.

jnarowe · #7 11/09/2007, 09:13 PM

I would end up with tons of fish and snails all hanging out in my overflow.

LooseHip · #8 11/09/2007, 09:18 PM

could you use eggcrate to cover the top!!!

jnarowe · #9 11/09/2007, 09:29 PM

A lot of people try to use egg crate but that just multiplies the algal growing surface seemingly exponentially. I guess if you want an algal scrubber, that would work out well!

loves saltwater · #10 11/09/2007, 10:13 PM

Both my overflows are toothless and I would not do it any other way !

jnarowe · #11 11/09/2007, 10:56 PM

show pictures guys!

pista01 · #12 11/10/2007, 10:35 AM

My overflow is toothless. The drains have gutter guard over the 90 degree elbows to keep the critters out of the drains.

Here is a cardboard template. Since I wanted to view the tank on the side, I didn't want to see the overflow, so I reduced the overflow profile on the ends. Can hardly see it.

Shows the inside braces. This is mostly to have a larger contact surface for the silicone.

Gluing it to the tank with silicone. There is a 90 elbow pointing down inside the overflow. Outside is a T with a john guest valve on top to control the air flow. The overflows are dead silent.

jnarowe · #13 11/10/2007, 10:50 AM

that's cool!

808-340 · #14 11/10/2007, 03:14 PM

Cool! How long is your overflow? How long have you had it running in your tank? Any problems w/ adhesion of the silicone on glass?

I'm building a Calfo design overflow out of glass but it's kinda heavy and I'm nervous about the whole overflow falling in my tank if the silicone fails...

Thanks!

NanoReefWanabe · #15 11/10/2007, 03:42 PM

the weight of the water IN the tank will keep your overflow at bay...generally your overflow will be less then half full of water anyway..the chances of silicone pulling off are less likely then water in the tank pushing the overflow out of the tank..and that isnt very likely either...

silicone will adhere to glass very well...that is all the tanks are put together with and they hold more water then an overflow would..

pista01 · #16 11/10/2007, 04:52 PM

The tank is 4' wide. The overflow is 1/4" acrylic. I added extra acrylic to the braces to increase the contact area for the silicone. This tank has been running for about 8 months. My previous tank also had an overflow siliconed to the glass. It ran for a couple years (soon to be a QT tank). I have absolutely NO fear of the silicone giving way. I siliconed a small overflow temporarily to a 20L once. I had to cut the silicone to get it off. It wouldn't pop off.

808-340 · #17 11/10/2007, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by NanoReefWanabe
the weight of the water IN the tank will keep your overflow at bay...generally your overflow will be less then half full of water anyway..the chances of silicone pulling off are less likely then water in the tank pushing the overflow out of the tank..and that isnt very likely either...

silicone will adhere to glass very well...that is all the tanks are put together with and they hold more water then an overflow would..

yes thanks... i understand that the overflow will be "half full" but it just makes me nervous... i know it's similar to a boat in the water that allows it to float... but still...lol
thanks pista01 for the info!

justinpsmith · #18 11/10/2007, 06:44 PM

Mine...Have not tried it out yet but from what I have seen in person, toothless are pretty nice! My only regret and its driving me NUTS is not using black silicone!

pista01 · #19 11/10/2007, 07:01 PM

Did you use silicone to glue the acrylic pieces together? Weldon is the thing to use there, then silicone the whole box to the glass.

My last tank, I glued pieces of green star polyps across the overflow. Within a few months, the entire overflow was covered. Did the same with my new tank, but they haven't grown together yet.

justinpsmith · #20 11/10/2007, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by pista01
Did you use silicone to glue the acrylic pieces together? Weldon is the thing to use there, then silicone the whole box to the glass.

My last tank, I glued pieces of green star polyps across the overflow. Within a few months, the entire overflow was covered. Did the same with my new tank, but they haven't grown together yet.

Well if you are asking about mine, its all glass, so no weldon just silicone.

pista01 · #21 11/10/2007, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by justinpsmith
Well if you are asking about mine, its all glass, so no weldon just silicone.

Glass, even better than acrylic. I had a few angles and didn't want to screw around with trying to cut the glass. I've never been successful cutting glass, just breaking it

justinpsmith · #22 11/10/2007, 08:11 PM

Yeah I have no angles, so I just had a glass shop cut a few pieces to size for me. It was only $10 for all the 1/4" pieces and cutting. Not too bad.

bonerfortuna · #23 11/10/2007, 08:37 PM

pista01, do you have a picture of the outside of your setup, with the tees and elbows and the john guest valve, maybe some documentation. I am right here in my rebuild and am extremely interested in your setup. It looks great. Thanks

pista01 · #24 11/10/2007, 09:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bonerfortuna
pista01, do you have a picture of the outside of your setup, with the tees and elbows and the john guest valve, maybe some documentation. I am right here in my rebuild and am extremely interested in your setup. It looks great. Thanks

I don't have any recent pics of the outside. This one is pretty much how it looks now. The PVC caps on either side of the light lift currently has the john guest valves screwed into the top. The T you can see on the far side of the lift. The valves are adjustable to vary the amount of air entering the drains. It takes a few minutes to tweak the pair. My return pump is a Pan World 50PX-X, so there isn't a lot of flow. Makes for a very quite system.

Both drains feed the skimmer. This was taken months ago, but it's essentially the same now, except I have a larger skimmer cup and neck. The ball valve on the skimmer allows some water to bypass the skimmer, so I don't over feed it. The height of the skimmer drain is adjustable, and is current several inches higher than pictured.

pista01 · #25 11/11/2007, 12:27 PM

Here is a shot of the outside. The 90 degree elbow is inside the overflow.