IYHO who makes the better overflow box for 20g

[fish daddy]

I'm stepping up and adding the neccessary hardware to the kids 20g LRFO tank. Will reef (soft coral, lps, medium light animals)and gobies, and interesting shrimp. Adding Florida live sand and Florida live rock and all of the usual cool hitchikers. (I know of the undesireables, but the cool stuff outweights the stones and gorilla crabs) While they are small, and I catch them, I make anenome food out of them.

Adding a sump, sump bound skimmer, cheato, overflow. It is up and running now, so no teardown to drill anything. Will prob. go with a 10g sump, unless something else fits better.

So... since most of you are like me, bought this, learned, bought that, learned, then figured out which one I should have purchased first.....

Overflow- ? eshopps? I'm clueless, DIY would have to be a clean looking setup.

Skimmer- will go reef oct., or bubble magus

Thanks reefers!

Kevin

[myjohnson]

The cleanest would have to be the mame overflow....

Other than that they are all the same.

There some DYI PVC pipes that copy cats the mame which looks kinda cool.

[cu0ngsayz]

cant beat a DIY pvc overflow. just make sure you add a plastic screen so in case the fish decides to take a jump in the pvc it cant

[SunnyHouTX]

If it were me, I would drill the back glass for two bulkheads. One for the overflow and one for the return. That will let you have less bulk inside the tank and more water and space for your livestock.

[Vigilante]

I also recommend drilling the tank. If that is not something that you are interested in doing, consider an Aquaclear HOB filter. I realize that a sump will increase water volume, but if it's built correctly a 10 gallon tank will only give you approx 5-6 gallons more water volume. The problem with an overflow box is that you are counting on it not malfunctioning and overflowing that extra 5-6 gallons onto the floor. The Aquaclear HOB filters have a large chamber that would allow you to make a mini refugium in it. Or you could put a nano skimmer in it. If you really get creative you could put baffles in it just like a sump to have a refugium and a skimmer. Of course if your trying to do separate chambers you would have to buy the biggest Aquaclear. I have had all 3 of these setups and by far the best would be a drilled tank, next would be a HOB, and last would be the overflow. That is my experience and opinion. Hope this helps.

[ometh]

FYI gl*******s.com makes some pretty good overflow kits. Check theme out

[ometh]

Ewwwwww blocked well it's glass holes.com

[SunnyHouTX]

Please put the hyphen in www.glass-holes.com

If you forget, what you see will overwhelm some people

[myjohnson]

It is up and running now, so no teardown to drill anything.

See above....

[SunnyHouTX]

Dang, missed that key bit of info. Sorry OP.

[fish daddy]

I'll look at some drilled options. It's only got about half load of rock and sand. I could minimize into the sump while the operation takes place.

I laugh at the hyphen comment, remembering that if you used to misspell "white house" like the the prez. dwells in, you got a site that would shut down most company screen walls. Poor grade school kids by the thousands must have found that.

Are you speaking about drilling the tank, then gluing a black overflow box to the back wall to keep the gooey critters from getting sucker hickies?

I'll go find the above mentioned web site.

Internal powerhead with hydor flow deflector will provide interior agitation. Might put that on a timer to provide lulls every couple of hours.

Thanks collective all!

[SunnyHouTX]

You could just use a strainer on the overflow bulkhead and quieten it by tee-ing off the outside like a Durso. Then you can use some loc-line on the return bulkhead as the return. Very little hardware intrusion inside the tank. Kinda like how the LFS have their tanks set up.

[myjohnson]

For sure the cleanest set up would be to drill the back for input and output.

Use a thin black overflow boxed glued to the back wall and use a black background.

Can't drill glass without water so you are going to need to dump all of the LR and sand out.

[fish daddy]

Thanks everyone!

I went with glass holes, and I will store the tank in buckets, or its sump while I drill and paint the back. Got glass holes 1500 coming for my about to be purchased 75 too. I didn't want to drill, but it does seem to be the best option.

Thanks for the input. Now to find the super duper skimmer and start glueing the sump dividers.

[makatak123]

PVC I the way to go. I saved loads of money on mine. Only spend 20$$ toatal.