teflon Posted December 17, 2005 Share Posted December 17, 2005 I was just thinking to myself a few days ago and came up with an idea i think could work. The idea is to use the HOB filter as an overflow box all you would need to do is cut a small hole in the bottom of the resevoiur on the HOB, FIt a small bulkhead to it and then plumbing into your mini reef. I dont see why it wouldnt work if the litre output on both the HOB and return pump are almost the same. Can anybody think of a reason why it wouldn't work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ducksta Posted December 17, 2005 Share Posted December 17, 2005 Wouldn't work, you would and up running the HOB motor dry and blowing it up. If you used a standpipe in the HOB box to make sure the water level stayed above where it should, it would work - but be pretty pointless IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markus13 Posted December 17, 2005 Share Posted December 17, 2005 wouldnt work if either pump were just 1lph out, you may end up with a dry pump, or a flooded mini-reef. an overflow must be gravitational based on using 1 pump to control the flow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted December 19, 2005 Share Posted December 19, 2005 Actually, if it had a standpipe say 2cm below the spilway height & the HOB outflowed the return pump, won't the HOB just spill back into the tank as per normal? Problem is finding a HOB with the flow rate to make it worthwhile - I mean if you have your AC500 (that does almost 2000lph) why would you butcher it when it can do a fine job itself? So I think it may be possible, but it would also be impractical. However, if you hung a cheapie with the bulkhead & put a big powerhead to feed it rather than the original piddly pump, then so long as the powerhead (say 2000lph with 0 head) could outflow the return pump (say aim for 1800lph @ the required head) then the excess 200lph will just go over the spillway. Of course if the standpipe is too low, you could still outflow your return pump and if it's too high you'll run the return pump dry.... Nar, scratch that, it's a bad idea & ain't gunna work either way. It has to either work on a siphon or a conventional overflow - two pumps will mess it up - it can't self equalise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wui39 Posted December 19, 2005 Share Posted December 19, 2005 All you need is something to slow the flow on either and the whole system will come apart. Better to just build a stand alone overflow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D6C1 Posted December 19, 2005 Share Posted December 19, 2005 LOL! Now thats something I would like to see get working. At such little volume, they can be fairly sensitive esp when it comes to evaporation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patchy Posted December 20, 2005 Share Posted December 20, 2005 if you could get your return pump pumping more then the overflow box and attatch it with a water level switch then it would work (not sure where you get one though :/), just make the pump trigger at a curtain level and switch off at a curtain level. I guess it'll be a bit risky if the switch fails though, maybe buy 2 and wire it up so there is a back up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted December 21, 2005 Share Posted December 21, 2005 ...and that would cost more & be more complecated than just drilling the tank What about over-tank trickle filters? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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