DIY Box and Pipings

[blue1288]

Hey hi all just want to share how i made a overflow box and my entire tanks' pipings all by myself....hope u guys give some suggestions...

[blue1288]

First Up...My overflow box for my tank with no drilled holes....Note that it is just three pieces of acrylic....Two sides and one base....All from one bloody big piece of acrylic my father got for me from his many lobangs....

So i used a saw to cut out the desired shape i want after marking out the measurements....note the teeths are pretty jagged... My lousy workmanship...Then used a normal silicone to adhere the sides together and then to the tank itself...

[blue1288]

Another view...

Anyway the teeths do not matter as i would later buy teeths from BOA where they sell just the teeths alone...very nice ones ...haha...and stick it using epoxy after i have set up...

Haha note also that i broke a teeth when sawing and glued it back using silicon...

[blue1288]

Fast Track abit lah cos this box i did like a fortnight ago...so here is the final product....in my tank...working nicely for a week already....note teeths not acquired yet...

Lousy job on the silicon too but its not very obvious in the tank itself....measurements of the box shd really be up to u....mine is 6'' all sides...

[jem]

wohoo..looking good bro..

*wondering*

how ya manage to get the water to flow into the pipe man..

[blue1288]

U mean how i started the siphon? Oh brother thats a good question...i actualy started the siphon and got everything running first before siliconing the box into the tank.... hehe...so guess everytime the siphon stops then i will have to tear downn the box and fix it up again lo....any suggestions others?

[jem]

hmmm..

then what is the use of the box for?..

control the flowrate?..

[blue1288]

Basically it has two uses according to me:

1.Its helps as way to stop the siphon when there is power failure therefore cutting out the chance of any water flooding out of my sump... When the pump fails....the water that returns to the tank reduces significantly till the water level is lower than that of the teeths level....then water stops overflowing into the box and the siphon stops ######...thus the tank would not flood even when power failure

2.The overflow box's teeths sort of serve as a surface skimmer...that is it filters away that layer of oil that builds up on the surface of the water overtime. Hence, it serves also as a means of filtration.

[hotlemond]

U mean how i started the siphon? Oh brother thats a good question...i actualy started the siphon and got everything running first before siliconing the box into the tank.... hehe...so guess everytime the siphon stops then i will have to tear downn the box and fix it up again lo....any suggestions others?

did you had a small tubing at the top to start a siphon?

like this:

[blue1288]

Nope....my design is super different from that in the pic...first mines is the water just flow into the box and the pipe leads all the way down to the sump....no external box...as i have said...i started the siphon without the box in the tank....started and got it going and then putting the box in and siliconing it when it has alsready started siphoning for a few days....my inlet pipes in the box and both 13mm pipes...

[hotlemond]

so at the end of the pipe to the sump its touching the water rite? otherwise you will loose the siphon when it breaks.

[ervine]

be VERY careful with siphon breaks.. one possible way to minimise such a disaster is to have a small hole at the top of the U tube which is attached to an air tubing which is then attached via venturi to a pump running in your tank...

Should air enter the tubing it will (hopefully) be sucked back out via venturi effect by the pump...

I can't remember if this method as worked for me before but I believe so... been many years since I dumped the U tube coz of frequent siphon breaking problems

[blue1288]

so at the end of the pipe to the sump its touching the water rite? otherwise you will loose the siphon when it breaks.

Yeap its inside water...actually did an experiment and found out myself...actually did all these myself...

[blue1288]

be VERY careful with siphon breaks.. one possible way to minimise such a disaster is to have a small hole at the top of the U tube which is attached to an air tubing which is then attached via venturi to a pump running in your tank...

Should air enter the tubing it will (hopefully) be sucked back out via venturi effect by the pump...

I can't remember if this method as worked for me before but I believe so... been many years since I dumped the U tube coz of frequent siphon breaking problems

Dun really understand wat u are saying but think u want me to put a hole at the u-bend and attach it to a venturi rite...anyway as mine is diy, i used two albows and piping as a substitution for the u bend...it still works though....

Anyway may i find out how often is ur often that u break siphon?

[ervine]

Dun really understand wat u are saying but think u want me to put a hole at the u-bend and attach it to a venturi rite...anyway as mine is diy, i used two albows and piping as a substitution for the u bend...it still works though....

Anyway may i find out how often is ur often that u break siphon?

not really break.. more like slow down... coz micro/mini bubbles enter the tube and get trapped... over time the water slows down...

i think abt once in 2 weeks I'll notice the difference..

[blue1288]

Really? Is it a serious problem? Would it one day stop the entire siphon? My tank now running for ard close to 3 weeks alr...

[hotlemond]

Really? Is it a serious problem? Would it one day stop the entire siphon? My tank now running for ard close to 3 weeks alr...

you will never meet the bubble suck in problem cos your overflow box isn't skimming the surface at all.

if its running, there should be downpour.

[blue1288]

Oh okay thank you brother hotlemond for reassuring me ...by the way no bubbles enter the overflow box as the water flow in at relatively slow speeds and do plunge down....

[blue1288]

Slight change of plans...decided to keep the teeths as it is and not buy the teeths from Boa although it is cheap....cos the new teeths will reduce the the flow of water into the box....so to prevent particles that are too big from entering the box and thus the piping, i decided to use nettings to around the teeths....will post pics soon...

[blue1288]

Haha haven get a suitable net yet....but another old pic of the box which i haven post yet....taken from above...

[Skipper32]

pretty impressed by ur design...i did my overflow pipe from designs from kakis....have been running pretty well except for the slow flow of water.... want to reduce the mm of my pipe to see whther can achieve faster flow rate....

it can't work might try ur design when got time....

[blue1288]

For me, i initially used 2 25mm pipes for overflow....but it proved too much for my rio 14hf to pump back into the tanl....so i reduced the mm....got 2 13mm ones instead...now its working perfectly....so i got the 25mm pipes left now...so if u need tell me lo...can give u...got all the tees and elbows...

Haha if u want to do my design veri easy one lah....i got this super long piece of acrylic...remainder from this little box...so if u need help when u do...can approach me.....

Wah just saw u got the same size tank as me...must be very difficult live rock placement for u also la?

[Skipper32]

yaya...was pretty confused a few weeks back on water quality...used a test kit and found that nitrate was super high.... then used another brand of test kit and found water was Fine... more confused now... .. anyway.. will be getting some 20mm pipes later for a new pipe....

[blue1288]

Kk for me i got all my pipings super cheap from a lobang of my father...by the way just some advice pls use the glue in the pic...sure wont leak one....

Also u can see my ball valve which i assembled to my sump tank outlet......pretty solid stuff....