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

[Gregpetro]

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.

Yeah i completely understand what your saying. I have a successful tank up a few years now but I want to add more livestock i currently have 2 fish. The issue is I'm currently harvesting my cheato like every day to keep up with my feeding habits. I was hoping I could come up with something. I'm not 100% sold on doing my plan. This is why I posted see if other people may have tried this and see what they did.

 

[RocketEngineer]

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

I used it many years ago on my very first tank. I found using a syringe on the check valve made it easy to pull the air out. It does need watching though as I had the valve go bad at one point. The syringe staying on the tubing prevented a mess.

 

[Gregpetro]

Do you by chance remember what flow you got out of it

I used it many years ago on my very first tank. I found using a syringe on the check valve made it easy to pull the air out. It does need watching though as I had the valve go bad at one point. The syringe staying on the tubing prevented a mess.

 

[RocketEngineer]

Do you by chance remember what flow you got out of it

Not a huge amount. It was enough for my 10g sump with skimmer and chaeto. I was using an MD5 and had to throttle it some. Maybe 200gph. For my 30g tank, that’s actually plenty of flow.

 

[Gregpetro]

Do you by chance reme

I used it many years ago on my very first tank. I found using a syringe on the check valve made it easy to pull the air out. It does need watching though as I had the valve go bad at one point. The syringe staying on the tubing prevented a mess.

Not a huge amount. It was enough for my 10g sump with skimmer and chaeto. I was using an MD5 and had to throttle it some. Maybe 200gph. For my 30g tank, that’s actually plenty of flow.

My tank is a 25 aio. Only holds like 17 ish after rock and sand so my goal is honestly 200 gpm. So your saying you were able to achieve 200 gpm with that design

 

[Llyod276]

Try one of these. See what your actually getting. It's 20 bucks.

 

[Gregpetro]

Not a huge amount. It was enough for my 10g sump with skimmer and chaeto. I was using an MD5 and had to throttle it some. Maybe 200gph. For my 30g tank, that’s actually plenty of flow.

Long story short im looking for 10x turnover. I'll have a 10g sump that will actually end up holding 6-7 ish gallons so my total water vol should be around 23 to 25g. So 200gpm would be sufficient as it's essentially going to be a giant cheato tank and a place to hide everything sticking out of the back of my tank. My idea is if I can get 200gpm out of one unit and I have one on each overflow then if one fails I'm not sol.

 

[Gregpetro]

There are 3 scenarios that could be a problem and only one really worries me.

1. The pump fails. Not that big of a deal as the sump will have way more than enough room to take the water.

2. Both siphon fail. Also not that terrible yes my ato will dump about a gallon of water into my tank before it shuts off from its safely but that's already happening on my aio and everything tolerated the swing it wasn't that bad of a swing.

3. Only one siphon fails. This is the nightmare scenario. Because water will still be flowing into the sump but not at the speed needed and the ato will shut on and off over and over dumping at wort 5 gallons of fresh ro water into my tank. Atho this actually probably wouldn't flood my house as the rear chamber of my aio will be empty and holds 2 gallons of water. And the safety overflow cut out built into the top of my tank to dump water from the rear sump back into the tank also would take about 2.5 3 ish gallons of water to fill my tank to the brim. I may get some water on the floor but it's more about what adding 5g of ro watter to a 20g system would do to the salt levels.

This is why i may try your idea of different design. If I can get 200 ish out of one and 200 ish out of the other if one fails it's not a problem. I feel like 200gpm with a one inch pipe siphon is not a pipe dream and should be activable.

 

[Gregpetro]

Try one of these. See what your actually getting. It's 20 bucks.

Just got that lol. Thank u

 

[Llyod276]

Plan for what happens when you lose both syphons and your pump turns back on. That is worst case.

The answer to that is a relay to keep the pump off. Flow is flow.

 

[Gregpetro]

Plan for what happens when you lose both syphons and your pump turns back on. That is worst case.

The answer to that is a relay to keep the pump off. Flow is flow.

Because of the size of my return pump area and the way my all in one tank is set up that's actually not a problem at all. The tank could easily handle the water in the return area if they both fail. If both fail it's actually a blessing as of only one fails the ato will not safety stop as it will keep clicking on and off.

 

[Gregpetro]

This is why I am just looking for a design or guidance on a biy pvc overflow with a 200gpm output. So if one fails it's not the end of the world