Cant figure out what overflow to get.

[slythy]

I have a 180Gal and want to setup a bean animal.

I was originally looking at Synergy Reef but reading there were a decent amount of unhappy people.

So my options are

Synergy Reef
Fiji Cube
Modular Marine
Exotic Marine
Eshopps

any others? I am a little worried about the ones that use the removeable inside overflow part because if water can get passed the overflow inserts then if power goes out I could see it draining 5" of water in my tank which is around 40G which I dont think my sump can support

Thanks,

 

[JumboShrimp]

Your stated concern is EXACTLY what happened to me with the Fiji Lo Pro 2400. I wrote a Bad review for BRS and mysteriously it never saw the light of day. Fiji just said, ‘Oh yeah, sometimes things are out-of-round and you can’t get a tight fit.’ I ended up having to ‘silicone’ the whole thing up... defeating the purpose of having an overflow unit that boasts ‘easy disassembly.’

That all said, for a 180 I think you would really appreciate a 24” weir.

 

[Onewolf]

I had decided to get a Modular Marine 1200 for a 40B system I was thinking about building.

But then I decided to buy a Waterbox 230.6 instead.

 

[howaboutme]

Your stated concern is EXACTLY what happened to me with the Fiji Lo Pro 2400. I wrote a Bad review for BRS and mysteriously it never saw the light of day. Fiji just said, ‘Oh yeah, sometimes things are out-of-round and you can’t get a tight fit.’ I ended up having to ‘silicone’ the whole thing up... defeating the purpose of having an overflow unit that boasts ‘easy disassembly.’

That all said, for a 180 I think you would really appreciate a 24” weir.

Can you explain this a bit more? Are you talking about the water line between the weir opening and the bulkhead when return pump is shut down?

 

[jdiefenbaugh]

I use a synergy on my 300, and it works well, but is cheaply made for the price point. I wouldn't buy another.

 

[slythy]

@jdiefenbaugh

What would you go with. Im not sure anyone else sandwiches the bulkhead anymore.

 

[vtecintegra]

I would get one where the rear box is as high as possible. Most of the rear boxes are low, which results in noise, and how high the emergency can be set. I ended up making my own.

 

[dhnguyen]

I have a marinedepot clone of the eshopps eclipse overflow and it works well and was easy to install.

Marine Depot Elite OverFlow Box w/ Holesaw Drill Bit – Small In Stock – SoCal Coral Reef

Ready to upgrade your filtration? The Elite Overflow Box will open up a whole new world of filtration for your glass or acrylic aquarium. The Marine Depot Elite Overflow Box is a high quality and economical overflow box that allows you to easily add a sump, refugium or wet/dry filter to your...

socalcoralreef.com

 

[JumboShrimp]

@howaboutme, I’ll try my best. The Fiji Lo Pro has two ‘tubes’ that are “supposed to” press tightly into the bulkheads that run through the back glass on your tank. (The tubes have O-rings.) If things worked properly— meaning the tube-within-a-tube system was NOT out-of-round, and the O-rings could do their job, then when the power to your pump system was turned off or went out in a storm, water could only continue to flow from your tank into your sump to a minimal degree. (See the purple line.) What happened to me was, I found water continued to drain from my tank all the way to the bottom of the failed tube/bulkhead interface— see the yellow line. Water from the tank simply would not stop trickling into the outer overflow box and down into the sump before my 150-gallon tank was expected to drain about an extra 3” or so of water— see the difference shown in red. Virtually no one plans for such a massive amount of ‘extra’ sump space. So I ended up having to smother the tube/bulkhead connection with silicone; now it’s more or less permanent. So why pay for the ‘convenience’’ of detachability? I hope I explained the problem sensibly.

 

[howaboutme]

@howaboutme, I’ll try my best. The Fiji Lo Pro has two ‘tubes’ that are “supposed to” press tightly into the bulkheads that run through the back glass on your tank. (The tubes have O-rings.) If things worked properly— meaning the tube-within-a-tube system was NOT out-of-round, and the O-rings could do their job, then when the power to your pump system was turned off or went out in a storm, water could only continue to flow from your tank into your sump to a minimal degree. (See the purple line.) What happened to me was, I found water continued to drain from my tank all the way to the bottom of the failed tube/bulkhead interface— see the yellow line. Water from the tank simply would not stop trickling into the outer overflow box and down into the sump before my 150-gallon tank was expected to drain about an extra 3” or so of water— see the difference shown in red. Virtually no one plans for such a massive amount of ‘extra’ sump space. So I ended up having to smother the tube/bulkhead connection with silicone; now it’s more or less permanent. So why pay for the ‘convenience’’ of detachability? I hope I explained the problem sensibly.

Thank you! I understand. I'm about to install the smaller version and will keep my eye on the area around the bulkhead. In my case, I'll have only one bulkhead to worry about.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Epilogue: (Lol)

The overflow moves a ton of water, and so if you understand ahead of time what you are possibly getting into, it’s not a bad item.

 

[slythy]

Epilogue: (Lol)

The overflow moves a ton of water, and so if you understand ahead of time what you are possibly getting into, it’s not a bad item.

which overflow? At this point im mainly considering modular marine or synergy

 

[JumboShrimp]

(Fiji Lo Pro 2400 gph)

 

[slythy]

Im pretty sure im going to go with a synergy. Most complaints are it seeming cheaper but an injection molded peice should be better long term.

 

[dhnguyen]

which overflow? At this point im mainly considering modular marine or synergy

isn't the modular marine overflow the same type of design as the fiji lo pro?

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Modular marine for the win. Thick acrylic very clean.

 

[slythy]

isn't the modular marine overflow the same type of design as the fiji lo pro?

yea, even MM said theres probably going to be a small leak.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Fiji gave me a ‘blow-off’ answer like, ‘Oh yeah, sometimes the bulkheads are out-of-round and the O-ringed tubes won’t fully seal.’ I for about $300+ call that a DESIGN FLAW, don’t you?

 

[slythy]

Fiji gave me a ‘blow-off’ answer like, ‘Oh yeah, sometimes the bulkheads are out-of-round and the O-ringed tubes won’t fully seal.’ I for about $300+ I call that a DESIGN FLAW, don’t you?

Sounds like i’ll take the “risk” and get a reef synergy

 

[madlos123]

I went with Exotic Marine Overflow. It's dead silent since I can raise the water level in the external box to match the water height of my display tank. Also It moves a lot of water since there are no teeth of the weir. It also does not increase the water height as much since there is no teeth. The nice thing is when I turn off my flow of my return pump I actually get less water in the sump due to less water height increase without the teeth.