Drain setup: General Questions

[Faithinc]

So I've set up a pseudo-Herbie/Beananimal drain system for my 55g. My concern was: When I was setting up my tank, I could not find a glass shop/acrylic shop that could cut a proper over-flow box for the top of my tank. What this has left me with, as you can see from my awesome MS-paint drawing, is a Herbie over-flow system without a box. I've added some grate to the top & bottom pipes to prevent any fish getting into the system... but I am wondering if this system will fail/not accomplish what it should.

So far the system is whisper quite, the loudest noise coming from the hum of the return pump. The single 3/4 full siphon drain sucks about 450-500gph, and my return pumps max 550gph. So far the system is balanced with a good flow (around 500gph circulating)--but its just cycling at the moment with no real bioload outside of the LR/LS.

My primary concern is that I don't have a surface puller dragging water off the top like how an over-flow box would. Because the drain pipe is submerged, and the other is about 3/4" above the water level--the only thing disturbing the top of the water is the power head.

Is this set up ok? or should I drain and see if I can't find an over-flow box. As it stands, I still haven't received call backs from any of the acrylic cutting places I've called for quotes

Addition: I went with Acylic because Crystal Glass quoted me 150-200$ to cut the 7x7" box. The tank is Glas

[The Grizz]

Did you try Wilson Glass Products? He would have cut whatever you needed.

[wingedfish]

I can't really understand your picture but if you have no overflow and your main drain is underwater, then in the case of a power outage, it must drain down to the pipe level. If your sump is large enough, then your good.

[George]

It's good to have an overflow box, but it's not a must. The worst could happen is that the bulkhead fails, you will loose water up to the bulkhead level. Can you sleep with that? If you have an overflow box, you only loose water in the box, up to the bulkhead level. You may loose some surface skimming capabilities also, but it's hard to say how much.
Acrylic will not bond to glass well. I suggest you stick to glass.

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

I cannot understand your photo to.
if you are running a system without an over flow box then one drain pipe should be slightly lower than you second (emergency) drain pipe.Simply like wingedfish said when a power outage happens your tank water will drain to the end line of opening in the pipe.
This setup will remove surface water but will create allot of noise.An actual picture of the setup would give us a better overview of what you have.Bottom line is best to get an overflow box going.

[Madmak]

A pic would definitely be helpful but for the price of having an overflow built it is well worth the advantages.

I just had a 5" X 5" X 48" internal overflow box with 1/2" glass and 2 rows of black eggcrate built for $100.

Surface skimming is a huge benefit as it is thought that this water contains the highest levels of DOCs.

[Faithinc]

The biggest problem was the notched/grooved teeth at the top of the glass. Most places said they either refused to cut the glass (something about compensating the integrity/possibility of breaking), or that I'd have to pay a ton extra to have the glass formed like that. Grizz set me up with the contact info for Neil Wilson. I'll give this a shot next to see if he can do. The only part that sucks now is that I'll have to drain the top 6 " to install the box. Guess that's what I get for rushing the construction!

[reefwars]

Have the glass cut square and use either eggcrate for the teeth or a pieces of thin acrylic and cut your own notches

[Madmak]

Originally Posted by reefwars

Have the glass cut square and use either eggcrate for the teeth or a pieces of thin acrylic and cut your own notches

Here is an example of the eggcrate, works well.

[The Grizz]

Or black acrylic like this wrapped around a glass box. In your case it would be on the inside of the OF box.