Blog Comments

As always, I appreciate all your input Midnight. With the combined knowledge available on this site and you guys helping me to check every angle, I'm sure I'll get a nice tank put together and have a blog that may be helpful to others somewhere down the line.

Blake, nice update and great details. The point of the the site is to share all of our experiences. Whether it be good or bad and with what ever products or vendors we happen to work with. That way we can all save some time and gain some experience through other peoples success or sometimes mishaps. I think you will be ok with the heaters, I only run 2x250s with about 180 gallons and I have my controller set so the heaters are not constantly on and off. I have my temperature probe in the skimmer section of the sump and the heaters are in the return section. This setup has worked well for me for the last two years.

I believe what James meant about using 45's was rather than running pipes straight down into the sump from the 90's screwed into the bulkheads, use 45's to "zigzag" the overflow pipes down to the sump.

Don't know if that helps explain it any better or not, but I'll be plumbing my overflows hopefully this week or next weekend and will have pictures of my plumbing up as soon as I get the plumbing finished.

Other than loving my overflows from this company I do have the problem of it being noisy. The vendor suggested I place a piece of material normally used in skimmers to create bubbles (can't recall the name, starts with an E) to break up the water.

This works great but collects trash from the water, raises the water level, and then floods (only once, but I learned.) I am now putting up with the noise until I can do something else.

Writing because I wondered about the comment about the 45's. Could someone elaborate on how they did that? TIA

Looks good!

The stand does look great!

Matt, those punks would not stand a chance living next to me!! After I'd have a talk with them they would wish I'd called the police instead!

I live next to some meth heads who are awake for days on end and are constantly doing this crap. Being on the other side of this law... it sounds great to me! They've run chainsaws at 2am... their car alarm gets set off at least twice a week overnight. The constant power tools & compressor sounds drive me absolutely insane. Not to mention that their "projects" look terrible and are lowering the value of their house (and mine) every day. :-( I'm going to start calling the cops on these guys... after two years it's just getting old!

Good news... the stand looks awesome! Hahahaha. :-)

Unfortunately, pretty much all the municipalities in the "greater Olympia metropolitan area" (if you can call it that) have these kind of ordinances.

I've heard Tacoma used to be pretty rough. Glad they've reduced the crime there. My wife and I enjoy going to the museums downtown and to the walking area down by the waterfront in old town.

Yes, that would warrant a move from me. I don't have time or desire for big brother to tell me what I can't do if it is in reason. So that means that you can't run a generator if the power goes out. I grew up in Tacoma, if you couldn't be heard over the gunshots you were alright.

Not too loud for the neighborhood, too loud for the City of Tumwater Municipal Code.

"8.08.030 Unnecessary noises described.
G. Any construction activity, including excavation and land clearing work, or erection, demolition, alteration, repair, or relocation of any building or structure, which uses powered equipment such as backhoes, trucks, tractors, earth moving equipment, compressors, motorized or power hand tools, or equipment of a similar nature at any location which produces noise clearly audible from another location in a residential district or at a dwelling in any district, other than between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on weekdays, or between 9:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on Saturdays, or between 9:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. for minor repair or remodeling work done by residents at their dwelling on Sundays. The community development department may, in writing, grant exceptions to these provisions when the work is of urgent necessity in the interest of public safety and convenience;
8.08.070 Violation – Penalty.
Any person, firm or corporation violating any of the provisions of this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor."

No reason to go see a Judge and pay a fine or go to jail for running a skill saw ;-0 and I was out of screws, so work done for the night.

Oh, by the way, I have been warned before. A few years ago I was trying to get the brakes done on my 1ton so I could go help a friend clear some land for his Christmas tree farm. Anyway, long story short, the air compressor kicked on around 10pm and within a half hour a cop was knocking on my garage door. I explained why I was still working on the truck after 8pm and he said, "Keep the garage door shut and turn off the compressor(the door was shut until he showed up). Any noise that can be heard from the street is not allowed."

Working in your garage is too loud for the neighborhood? Don'think I could live there, especially since its the weekend. I live in a pretty uppity neighborhood and we don't have too many complaints about block parties.

That's two votes for covering part of the teeth to raise the water level. Once I actually have the plumbing all hooked up and can tell how much I need to raise the water level, I'll glue in a piece of acrylic.

Thanks for following along and for all the help guys.

oh, those teeth are huge, you can definitely cover part of them up to raise the water level.

This is as high as I can raise the overflow and still cover the chip out. Hard to tell, but if the water level runs half way up the teeth, looks like the water level will still be just below the bottom of the upper trim. Oh well chalk it up as a learning experience I guess.

Midnight - I guess I could check into having Mark build me a taller overflow, but I hate to throw out a perfectly good overflow just because I drilled the holes in the wrong place.

Thanks Floggin, you're right, it was a bit nerve racking, and I don't mind saying I'm glad I decided against the close loop. I'd have turned myself into a nervous reck by the end of turning the back of the tank into swiss cheese ;-)

I had a little trouble drilling my holes the first time around as well. I started out at an angle and slowly levelled the hole saw on the glass all at a low speed to start out. Once I was levelled I drilled through at full speed on the drill with the lowest chuck setting. Also placed a piece of wood behind the glass and that really helped to make a clean cut. Congrats on cutting the hole successfully though, its a bit nerve racking if you have never drilled glass before.

The water level can also be fixed by making a new overflow. Slightly larger than the original one.

I should add, all in all I think these are well made, thought out and put together kits. There was a sticker on the bottom of the overflow box and since I'm not sure what the sticker would leach into my tank (if anything) I removed the sticker and cleaned the remainder of the glue off with rubbing alcohol, but overall it's a nice kit.

My posts are mainly just my observations of the process from someone who's never cut glass (or tile for that matter) with a hole saw, and some of the things I ran into during the install. My observations are intended to provide information that I didn't come across during my research. Hopefully my observations will be helpful to others.

Thanks James. The only drill I have is a 1/2" Milwaukee Heavy Duty version. It has a variable speed trigger (the more you pull the faster it goes). Only problem is, the slowest I could get it to go was still just a little too fast to keep the hole saw from dancing around. When I say the holes are uneven, I'm talking about 1/16". The difference in the size of the bullkheads and the size of the hole in the overflow box easily covers the difference so I can make the overflow level. I was just unhappy with myself for not getting the holes level. I'm an engineer and a perfectionist. (Remember, I was going to cut the silicone seams out a second time because the egdes were sloppy when I replaced the silicone the first time.)

Part of the box placement was my fault for not thinking about how low the teeth are cut. I was trying to set the box so that I could get the top on and off without interfering with the top trim or silicone. So I set the box about a 1/2" below the silicone seam which holds the top trim on. Then I lost another 1/4"+/- because the template is larger than the hole saw and the rotation of the hole saw sucked it to the bottom of the template. Then I lost another 1/8" or so because I have to put the bulkhead as low as possible in the hole so the gasket covers the "chip out". End result is the top of the overflow is about 1/8" below the bottom of the top trim. Then I'll loose another 1/2" or so to the teeth. I may look into placing a small strip of acrylic behind the teeth to raise the level some. Have to wait and see what it looks like when it's running.

Thanks for the advice about adding a couple of 45's. I did plan to run the overflows straight down, now I'll rethink that.

Good discussion and thanks again for the advice.

Nice post, Blake. I have overflows from glassholes on three of my tanks. Drilling holes definitely takes a little practice. I found the key to starting holes is to try and use the lowest speed possible on the drill to help keep them from dancing around. I don't recall having a problem with my holes being uneven on the bigger overflow, but I believe there is just enough "play" with the bulkhead in the hole that there is a little room to make the box level.

Are you sure you drilled too low? The water will be 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up on the teeth. If that is not high enough, you might consider attaching a narrow strip of acrylic on the inside of the teeth to help raise the water level. I believe melev had to do that on his tank with he factory made overflow.

Another piece of advice with this brand overflow, DO NOT have your pipes go straight down... they can be quite noisy. Use 45 degree angles and zig zag down if you need to. Other than that, I like these overflows because the look good and are quite small.

-James

Yes, minor losses aren't so minor in a system like the one described.

So let's start with the desired flow at the highest point in the system. I want approximately 5x the display tank's volume through the sump. 78 gallons x 5 = 390 GPH at the return. There's about 6 feet of 1 1/2" pipe (twice the size of the output on the Mag 12), a 1 1/2" union @ 7 LF equivalent length of 1 1/2" pipe, a 1 1/2" Tee (flow side) @ 1.5 LF equivalent length of 1 1/2" pipe, and (3) 90 degree bends @ 2.4 LF equivalent length of 1 1/2" pipe each. So the hydraulic total length of 1 1/2" pipe is approximately 22 LF. If I want approximately 400 GPH through this 22 LF of pipe I'm going to have approximately 0.4 feet of head loss. So 0.4 feet head loss plus the 5 feet of lift reduces the 1200 GPH out put from the pump to 1035 GPH.

So now I have 635 GPH flow to push through the reactors and back into the sump.

I've already accounted for the lift to get to the tee at the manifold so I don't need to account for it again. The manifold is about 1.5 total of 1 1/2" pipe, a 1 1/2" tee (branch side) @ 5.2 LF equivalent length, another 1 1/2" tee both flow side and branch side @ 8.0 LF equivalent length, (2) ball valves @ 1.0 LF equivalent length each, and a reducer/hose barb @ 10 LF equivalent length. So the hydraulic total length of 1 1/2" pipe is approximately 27 LF. Using 600 GPH through this 27 LF of pipe I'll have approximately 0.7ish feet of head loss.

Now we have to do several itterations to determine the total available flow. 5.5 feet of head loss for the return into the tank and 0.7 feet of head loss in the manifold equals a total head loss of 6.2 feet. @ 6 feet of head the Mag 12 can deliver 950. I want 400 into the tank so that leaves 550 through the manifold. The head loss for 27 LF of 1 1/2" pipe with 550 GPH is about 0.6 feet. Which is close enough to the 0.7 feet used for the first itteration so I'll call it close enough.

I understand that this is an approximation and it could be dialed in much closer but with these calculations, I can get 400 GPH turnover through the display, feed the reactors with 350 GPH and still have 200 GPH running into the cheato section. With that both 1 1/2" overflow pipes can run straight down into the skimmer section.

Anyway that's what I was thinking. Hopefully if anyone reads this, they can see Midnight's point that "minor losses" should be considered rather than just vertical head like I emplied in my earlier response.

Thanks again Midnight, with your help and making me look at all the angles maybe when I actually get the parts all together the tank will run as desired.

PS I went ahead and ordered the 1500 GPH overflow today.