Diy pvc overflow. How can I get a little more gph out of it?

[Gregpetro]

Hello all,

I made a diy pvc overflow see picture below and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to get a little more gph out of it. I'm currently running a inovative marine 25 lagoon aio with 2 returns. Totally water vol is about 17g after rock and sand. I was planning on running 2 of these pvc overflows one on each overflow of the tank. After some testing at the hight of my tank I am getting about 120-130 gph out of each. So between both im looking at 250 gph which is about 10x turnover when I add in the 10g sump I'm adding (will actually hold around 7 ish when full) my current return pump is rated at 600 gpm with head hight to the tank is should be running at max speed around 250 300 gpm so it actually should work. My real issue is this leaves absolutely no room for error. It one of these slows or gets clogged I'll end flooding my tank with fresh ro water from my auto top off. I could add a 3rd in the middle chamber as a safety but I prefer to not do that. Drilling my tank is not an option and a hotb overflow also is not an option the way the tank is made. Any ideas how I could crank this up a bit or maybe a different design. I'm using 2 vinal pips currently to add flow as they the id adds up to a little over 1.2 inches. A one inch vinal pip kinks when I try to use it so I went with 2 smaller pips. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Llyod276]

Make it bigger diameter. Or eliminate air in the line. That will also silence it.

 

[Gregpetro]

Make it bigger diameter. Or eliminate air in the line. That will also silence it.

Thank you for the quick response. I'm about as big as I can go and still able to fit it in the return chamber. Also the lines had no air bubbles during testing.

 

[Llyod276]

Then all you can do is put a pump in the tank to force water through faster. Faster than gravity. You are limited by gravity in the amount of water you can move. And if im not mistaken 1"pvc should be able to move 936gph in a complete syphon.

 

[Gregpetro]

Then all you can do is put a pump in the tank to force water through faster. Faster than gravity. You are limited by gravity in the amount of water you can move. And if im not mistaken 1"pvc should be able to move 936gph in a complete syphon.

Pumping water out of my tank sounds kinda risky. It's especially like having a full siphoned and praying you don't loose power

 

[Llyod276]

Exactly. And with 2 inch (2x 1" syphons). Something is not right. You should be drawingwater so fast that your little 600gph pump won't ever keep up.

 

[Llyod276]

What size pipe is that???

 

[Llyod276]

It's been about four years since I did a diy over flow, and it didn't have the tubing on top. So if it lost siphon, well, I had to keep a relay on the pump to keep it off so the tank wouldn't flood. Ask me how I know.

My head height was 4.5 ft tops. With a magnum pump(ac pump) it kept up fine one nice thing was that it was silent with a full siphon. Something that drilled tanks have a hard time achieving and there always tuning involved. Hob doesn't really have that issue.

 

[Gregpetro]

So the real question is what do you suggest and how would I implement it

It's been about four years since I did a diy over flow, and it didn't have the tubing on top. So if it lost siphon, well, I had to keep a relay on the pump to keep it off so the tank wouldn't flood. Ask me how I know.

My head height was 4.5 ft tops. With a magnum pump(ac pump) it kept up fine one nice thing was that it was silent with a full siphon. Something that drilled tanks have a hard time achieving and there always tuning involved. Hob doesn't really have that issu

 

[Gregpetro]

What size pipe is that???

1.25 inch pipe

 

[Llyod276]

First show me your tank please.

 

[BryanM]

Do you have in tank powerheads, or are these returns solely responsible for your in tank flow?

If you have in tank powerhead(s) you do not need 10x sump-> tank turnover. I run 2.5.

 

[Gregpetro]

Do you have in tank powerheads, or are these returns solely responsible for your in tank flow?

If you have in tank powerhead(s) you do not need 10x sump-> tank turnover. I run 2.5.

I have a powerhead for flow. So I'm not relying on the return for flow

 

[Gregpetro]

For reference here is my tank amd where I plan on putting the diy overflow

 

[Gregpetro]

 

[RocketEngineer]

Couldn’t tell you where I saved this from but the sizes make a lot more sense vs what you showed above.

 

[BryanM]

I don’t think you need a ton of return pump flow with a power head in the tank

 

[Llyod276]

Ah that's the issue!!! This an aoi that your converting to a traditional sump set up.... yes I understand. So it makes sense in a way of what your trying to do. It is a similar project to the one i did, where it's a tube inside a tube.

The advice I'll give is don't go down this bunny hole. This conundrum is why I drilled my tank. Cause in the end a drilled tank is easier to hook up to a sump.

 

[Llyod276]

Search this thread on reef2reef:

Adding a sump to an AIO​

Hope this helps.

 

[Gregpetro]

Couldn’t tell you where I saved this from but the sizes make a lot more sense vs what you showed above.

That's the other design type. Do u have any experience with it.