First Build - Best Overflow? Coast to coast?

[MjOB]

Hello everyone, after several freshwater tanks and months of saving up and research I’m finally looking to start my first saltwater tank. I am planning on diving head-first and doing a 96x30x30 acrylic mixed reef tank for my home office.

The first area I’m having difficulty finding in my research is with the overflow box. The tank is going to be custom made, so I should be able to place it/them wherever.

Here’s a phenomenal MS Paint drawing of my office.

As shown, I plan to have the tank in the corner. (I want it to be visible from the hallway leading into the office / remainder of the basement)

Everything I find on overflows tends to be “It depends” and “It’s a preference thing.” In regards to the best type of overflow to get. I like the idea of maximizing my tank space, so would prefer an external. I assume I shouldn’t do a dual overflow since I won’t be able to access to corner area in case something ever was to happen.

Would a bean animal external coast-to-coast overflow be a good idea? With the 3 pipes coming down on the side closest to the desk, so it’d be within arms reach from the visible/open side if I were to ever need to do any modifications?

 

[lapin]

Yes

 

[MjOB]

I talked to my LFS, but wanted to confirm what they're recommending. I mentioned of doing the coast-to-coast as such:


The two problems brought up were
1. With a bean animal, I'd only be able to reach the Primary Drain
2. If only doing 1 primary drain to support ~360 gallon tank, the drain would have to be huge and would be very noisy

Instead they recommended going with two 20" Synergy Reef Overflows and configure it on the far left wall, and the back left end as such: In all of the "dual vs single overflow" threads I've encountered, it seems the dual setup would be more like:

Spoiler: Image

or

What I am not sure on - is having the drains on opposite ends to help better distribution of pulling organics / keep the tank cleaner, or is it incidental?

Would having 2 drains (Likely two 20" Synergy Reef Overflow" which each can handle "up to 2500 GPH") the same end perpendicular to each other be fine in an 8' tank? Or since it's 8', should I really have an overflow on each side of the tank? (So, effectively - does location of the overflow matter? Or is it all about how much flow you get into the overflow, so location doesn't matter?)

 

[homer1475]

While I have never plumed a large tank like that, my thinking is:

On both corners, the duals would actually act like a single as everything would be pushed to that corner flow wise.

If they were separate(one on the end, and the other on the opposite back), it would be hard to push flow in both directions.

I don;t think anyone has an issue with them both being on the back?

IDK to be honest, just my thoughts.

 

[MjOB]

Are you saying having them both in the same corner and perpendicular (as my LFS suggested) could be helpful in having the tank flow all go in 1 direction? (the direction of that side)?

The concern I've heard with having them like such

is being able to access the one in the corner if ever a plumbing issue arises.

Or are plumbing issues from the overflow-bulkhead interface rare and not something I should actually be worried about?

 

[MjOB]

Hmm, it appears the images disappeared within the "spoiler" tags. I'll repost, both to see if anyone else has insight, as well as to have the images not within spoilers still be visible in the thread.

It seems to me most threads talking about dual overflows have them:

or more often

If I have return pumps on both sides of the tank, is that better? Or would doing what my LFS recommended be sufficient? Which is:

Their recommendation comes from me being worried about not being able to reach the bulkheads with external overflows.

Do I even need to be worried about being able to reach the overflow-bulkhead interface though? Am I concerning myself with something that doesn't "really" matter?

 

[Stang67]

Following as I am facing the same concern with my 180g build. I want external but wont be able to reach the plumbing if I place it centrally as it will be a 6 ft in a corner as well. Only way would be to come up from underneath. Please let us know what you go with.

 

[Reefing102]

I have an incredibly limited experience with overflows, but would one on each end work? You would still have one partially in a corner but I would imagine should be able to reach pretty easily if on the opposite end. The only issue may be sump layout?

 

[MjOB]

By not placing an overflow on the backwall, I can actually add to the width of my tank, so am going to make it 32" (so 8' long, 32" wide, 30" tall), so I then can put 2 overflows (two 16" synergyreef) on the edge and thus be accessible if a leak or anything ever happens.
The LFS owner assures me if I have enough flow coming from the opposite end towards the overflows I will be good and don't need an overflow in the middle or on both ends of the tank. For a ~385 gallon tank with the two 16" overflow I'll be able to get well over 4000gph if I want to go that high.

 

[MjOB]

Well, the LFS owner decided to not honor what he told me on the phone and was going to charge me $500 more than stated for the 32". So, I am back to having the 30" and am back to not being sure what to do.

 

[MjOB]

I have an incredibly limited experience with overflows, but would one on each end work? You would still have one partially in a corner but I would imagine should be able to reach pretty easily if on the opposite end. The only issue may be sump layout?

To respond to this - I could do one on each end. However, the end I'm not placing the overflow on is going to be the side that is visible from the family room, so I am not wanting to put an overflow there. I can if needed, but I am trying to not.