tank overflows

[TheClaw]

hi all

i plan to have twin overflows on my next 4ft.

Q: can i put a valve on one overflow and reduce the flow to a trickle (to feed a refugium for a reef tank) without causing any flooding?

i guess the flow over both the outlets would equilise, with the other end having a greater throughput.

your thoughts?

[chimera]

dont see why you need twin overflows on a 4 foot tank. too small - unless you are only doing this for redundancy. but if the first blocks up, you'll have more troubles than this. imo, twin overflows only need doing in 6ft and larger tanks UNLESS your water turnover is MASSIVE.

however, you should be able to reduce flow through one overflow without it overflowing. if you put in a durso standpipe, you could adjust the water level in the overflows that way and adjust the flow rate my using a ball valve on the piping outside the tank. too finicky and open for error though IMO!

I even took a photo for you

I dont bother adjusting mine as I want it fast as possible! If it were on your setup, you would simply turn the blue tap to adjust flow rate.

[dan_from_nz]

You could run a ball valve that vias off into a T so that only a trickle runs off into your ref and the rest that into your sump this would mean you would at least have one overflow workig if one gets blocked

in saying all this i am only an amature and would advise you talk to chem, pies, reef or brian they seem to be the ones that have given me the most advice (sorry if i maissed any ones name)

and as they said to me if you can see someones set up it makes things a whole lot easier

[AW]

If you really mean trickle , then you'll find most likely that the bulkhead would be full of water up to the level of the main tank.

One option may be to raise the bulkhead level of the one you want a trickle from. Although to do this, will require some tweaking as you are playing with equalising/ balancing the water levels and water pressures/flows through the pipes.

I suppose I'm saying what your proposing is do-able, just tricky.

Bear in mind that you be cutting down tank volume to form the second bulkhead too.

As the above post suggested, it will be easier to tee off the main outlet and regulate that to a trickle.

Cheers

Andrew

[Doc Holiday]

Having a second overflow solely for the purpose of feeding the refugium is a bit excessive for a 4foot tank, my suggestion would be to run a ball valve on a T section from the return pump or existing overflow.

[Pies]

Q: can i put a valve on one overflow and reduce the flow to a trickle (to feed a refugium for a reef tank) without causing any flooding?

Yes you could do this. I do agree with the others, only have one overflow, will look nicer if nothing else. If you want a seperate feed for the refugium (I do the exact same thing) then as suggested above, just use a T joint under the overflow.

Good luck

Pie