reef to freshwater tank??

[mia2]

This is a weird question, due to a change in current preference, i am thinking about changing my saltwater, reef-ready tank (drilled) to a fresh water tank.  One of the question is, is it possible?  since the tank has a built in overflow, could i use it to connect to the cannister filter?  The problem i see is that the overflow is used to skim the top of the water, but in fresh water, most of the intakes are located either middle or the bottom of the tank.  should i seal off the overflow, or buy a new tank?  
thanks in advance;

[eklikewhoa]

Re: reef to freshwater tank??

I would clean it and use it like its set up now!

I have a few FW tanks with overflows and I love it!

[mia2]

Re: reef to freshwater tank??

thanks,
so its ok to use overflow box? it it going to be effecient?  i am discarding my sump and connecting it to a cannister.  but would the cannister work better if its siphing the intake in the mid or bottom section of the tank water instead of skimming from the top?

[Ramius]

Re: reef to freshwater tank??

My personal opinion is... as long as you are keeping a regular water change day and you are cleaning the bottom of the tank on this day instead of just changing the water out.. then I wouldn't worry about the location of the intake too much.

However, if it were me, I would keep the sump hooked up, to hide my heaters and junk in, and I would also run a cannister filter also.

Truth be told... thats exactly what I am doing (as are others: Eklikewhoa for one)

If you haven't dumped the sump yet, and have already bought a cannister I'd go that route.

[JLawson]

Re: reef to freshwater tank??

Has anyone ever used an overflow box as input to a canister filter?  It seems that the canister's pump may not receive an adequate water flow that way.  Comments?

[Ramius]

Re: reef to freshwater tank??

It would work, a can filter moves less water than a sump filter (generally speaking) so you would be going on the principle that water would be exchanged at the rate of the slowest piece of equipment (your pump in the can).

To physically be possible you'd need to stick some reducer couplings on the bottom of the overflow box (at least in the case of my dinky can lines you would)

I cant really see an advantage to it though.. since most of the time an overflow costs as much as a nice filter :)

If you already had one though, it could work... say you had an overflow box and two can filters, you could set one up to suck from the bottom and another one up to use to overflow to skim the top.


Or, if you wanted to get really creative, get a dual pipe overflow to feed two can pumps... ooOOoo!

[eklikewhoa]

Re: reef to freshwater tank??

Like Ramius stated the filter will just draw from the overflow section but honestly I don't see how a canister is going to be more efficient then a sump. I would trade my canisters for a sump any day!