help with a DIY overflow box

[oceanhighz]

well, I have a 20 gallon tank on a stand over top of another 10 gallon tank, and was hoping to plumb the two together without drilling. Both tanks are currently running, and are glass, and I don't wanna take them down or cut the glass myself, so, I was hoping someone could help me out with this. All of th overflow boxes I have seen are for LARGE tanks 100 gallon and up..... I need one for a semi-nano. lol Can anyone help?

 

Brandon

[blufrogu]

make a HOB siphon overflow. use a J shaped tube, the shorter end goes to the tank (put a skim box over it) and the other end goes into a refugium behind the tank. the long end of the J tube needs to be baffled so that the water falls into another compartment from where it is drained into the sump. also the baffle needs to be set lower than the intended water level of the tank so that the direction of the flow is to the sump. I think a U tube will work too but basically the baffle has to be set lower than the surface skim box. when it's assembled fill the baffled refuge with some water and then use an airtube to suck water into the tube. run the return pump from the sump to the tank and the overflow should start working. cpr makes a self priming HOB overflow that should fit a nano, but the basic idea can be downscaled with some DIY parts. Imho drilling would be much more convenient and safer b/c you won't have to worry about priming in the case of an outtage then when the pumps come back and the siphon is broken you will have a flood.

 

here's the link for cpr's HOB overflow

http://www.cpraquatic.com/products/overflows.html

 

i think the first one is within reasonable size for a nano