How to pick an overflow box

[Water Dog]

Yep, the whole weir assembly is removable for maintenance on the Modular Marine, hence it sits the thickness of a bulkhead flange, proud of the inside glass of the tank. I must say, dialing in the MM overflow is an absolute breeze. The overflow itself and my plumbing into the sump is absolutely silent, the only noise being the slight trickle of water from the sock compartment of my Trigger 26 sump. After owning both the MM and Synergy Reef Shadow, I much prefer the sturdier acrylic construction of the MM over the flexy feel of the injection molded Shadow. And as Simon reiterated, the equal height interior and exterior box goes a long way towards the ease of adjusting your overflow to make it silent.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

If you do get the fiji I can help if you have questions. Will is fantastic with customer service as well.

The inside is removeable for cleaning.

I have to second the Fiji as well. I have one installed on a jbj45 that was drilled and then plumbed into a sump shared with a 90. Works great and dead silent.

 

[cvrle1]

General question about overflow sizes. One thing that Beananimal thread always talked about is surface skimming. Pics show coast to coast overflow, and all that makes sense. Looking at all of these overflows, majority of them are not even 1/2 the size of my tank (4 feet). Most are between 12" and 16". Fiji Cube 2000GPH is 20 inches, which is one of the reasons I was thinking about getting it, but it looks like massive overkill for 120G tank. This is also one of the reasons I am thinking about doing a DIY glass coast to coast overflow as well. What is everyone's thought about surface skimming that you get with these smaller boxes?

 

[dantimdad]

General question about overflow sizes. One thing that Beananimal thread always talked about is surface skimming. Pics show coast to coast overflow, and all that makes sense. Looking at all of these overflows, majority of them are not even 1/2 the size of my tank (4 feet). Most are between 12" and 16". Fiji Cube 2000GPH is 20 inches, which is one of the reasons I was thinking about getting it, but it looks like massive overkill for 120G tank. This is also one of the reasons I am thinking about doing a DIY glass coast to coast overflow as well. What is everyone's thought about surface skimming that you get with these smaller boxes?

I think if you have adequate surface agitation, it makes up for lack of surface skimming area.

Mine works just fine but, I have a ton of agitation.

 

[sstanley223]

Yep, the whole weir assembly is removable for maintenance on the Modular Marine, hence it sits the thickness of a bulkhead flange, proud of the inside glass of the tank. I must say, dialing in the MM overflow is an absolute breeze. The overflow itself and my plumbing into the sump is absolutely silent, the only noise being the slight trickle of water from the sock compartment of my Trigger 26 sump. After owning both the MM and Synergy Reef Shadow, I much prefer the sturdier acrylic construction of the MM over the flexy feel of the injection molded Shadow. And as Simon reiterated, the equal height interior and exterior box goes a long way towards the ease of adjusting your overflow to make it silent.

I've gotta say modular marine also! Very well built and the outside box is notched to fit around the rim of a standard tank! Dead silent after tuning!

 

[Water Dog]

That 20” Fiji has 1.5” drains... see if they can make you one with 1” drains or you can always reduce the plumbing down from 1.5” to 1”. Exotic Marine Systems has 20” and 32” weir boxes that have 1” drains, which will be more appropriate for a 120 gallon tank. Also, Modular Marine (when they finish catching up) will customize whatever you need. Originally, my 12” weir set up set up only had 3/4” drains. He custom made me a wider rear box with 1” drains. And again, I can’t reiterate this enough, equal weir and external box heights will make it easier to adjust your system to make it silent!

 

[FishyFish]

Thanks again everyone for your replies, you've given me a lot to think about and I'm beginning to understand overflows a lot better.

If you do get the fiji I can help if you have questions. Will is fantastic with customer service as well.

The inside is removeable for cleaning.

Thanks! I might take you up on that. I guess my biggest concern is installation. Are they easy to install on rimmed tanks? I heard that the template doesn't work on rimmed tanks, how do you get around this?

Is the weir magnetic for cleaning like some of the others?

 

[dantimdad]

My tank has a rimmed I custom welded up for it.

You can cut the template shorter I would imagine or notch the trim. I notched mine but realized, when I was done I didn't need to.

 

[sstanley223]

Thanks again everyone for your replies, you've given me a lot to think about and I'm beginning to understand overflows a lot better.



Thanks! I might take you up on that. I guess my biggest concern is installation. Are they easy to install on rimmed tanks? I heard that the template doesn't work on rimmed tanks, how do you get around this?

Is the weir magnetic for cleaning like some of the others?

The modular marine comes with the drill bit and template!

 

[FishyFish]

Sorry I haven't replied in a few days, work kept me super busy and I didn't have enough time to finish researching.

I finally decided to go with the Exotic Marine Systems overflow, mainly because more people use them so information is a lot easier to come by and everyone who has one seems to love it. They also have a lot of features that are important based on what you guys told me (easy to clean, same water level for noise reduction, etc). I would have gone with Modular Marine but they aren't taking new orders. If they had an estimated date to start taking orders I might have waited but with no way of knowing how long it might take, they unfortunately weren't really an option.

Now I just need to figure out how to plumb this thing and I'll be all set. Thanks again for everyone who gave their advice and recommendations!!

 

[dadnjesse]

Modular Marine is not taking orders https://modularmarine.com/password

 

[ReefWithCare]

Hi There,

I have have used both Modular Marine 1200 GPH Bean Animal and Fiji Cube Overflow so I can speak to my experiences of both. Modular Marine construction quality is great, but they seem to go in and out of production as the owner gets overwhelmed with orders. I had a post a while back that talked about my issues with mine leaking that was not resolved until I doubled up on the gaskets. As long as you use dual gaskets, it shouldn't be a problem. I like their lids a lot more than everyone else because it's a clean fit that doesn't get any salt creep.

I have a Fiji Cube 600 GPH overflow box on a 40B. It is a wonderful box as well and actually cheaper than the Eshopp boxes (this along with the box sitting higher and being crazy silent was the other reason why I picked it over the Eshopps). The things I didn't like with the Fiji Cube box is that they are designed for rimless tanks, as the box does not have a lip like the MM ones do. This means in order for you to have the water line above the plastic rim of your rimmed tank, you will need to have the box fit halfway on the plastic rim of the tank. In order to keep it from leaking, this will require you to create a custom gasket with rubber material that you can get on amazon. The good thing is the place I got the overflow box let me know all about this upfront (I got mine here - https://aquariumstoredepot.com/products/fiji-cube-overflow-boxes-low-profile). It was still cheaper than the MM and I was going to do a custom gasket anyway because another buddy I knew did made a gasket for his MM that solved his leak issues. If the MM box was available when I got the Fiji Cube, I would have make the custom gasket anyway. I really didn't want to go with an EShopps for my 40 build so I took the chance on the Fiji Cube since MM wasn't available.

Here is the link to the rubber gasket material I used (I ended up using 1/2") - https://www.amazon.com/Neoprene-Sheet-Purpose-Rubber-1-5mm/dp/B076DKHRFM/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=gasket+rubber+sheet+1/2"&qid=1555971092&s=gateway&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1

Yeah, the gasket is crazy thick, but it forces the box flush to the tank and I have no leaks! — see the pic [emoji28]. No worries - I touched up my paint job on the back when I was done leak testing.

I cut the gasket holes with a Xacto knife. Super EZ to do . I put the gasket on, got the box in, and hand tightened the gaskets. I did a little 1/4" turn with a wrech afterwards. I did go with a durso setup instead of a bean animal for the 40B setup. I felt that the bean animal size was just way too big for the 40B. The tank is crazy silent with this durso box from Fiji Cube and I really couldn't be happier. I do wish that Fiji Cube would update their boxes for rimmed tanks and I did relay that over to the dude I got it from. He did say that is a common issue he's run into with Fiji overflows regarding glass rimmed tanks.

You can't go wrong with either MM or Fiji Cube. Both are waaaaaaaay better than the EShopp boxes and cheaper than the Synergy (except when BRS has big sales on them).

 

[mrpizzaface]

Hi There,

I have have used both Modular Marine 1200 GPH Bean Animal and Fiji Cube Overflow so I can speak to my experiences of both. Modular Marine construction quality is great, but they seem to go in and out of production as the owner gets overwhelmed with orders. I had a post a while back that talked about my issues with mine leaking that was not resolved until I doubled up on the gaskets. As long as you use dual gaskets, it shouldn't be a problem. I like their lids a lot more than everyone else because it's a clean fit that doesn't get any salt creep.

I have a Fiji Cube 600 GPH overflow box on a 40B. It is a wonderful box as well and actually cheaper than the Eshopp boxes (this along with the box sitting higher and being crazy silent was the other reason why I picked it over the Eshopps). The things I didn't like with the Fiji Cube box is that they are designed for rimless tanks, as the box does not have a lip like the MM ones do. This means in order for you to have the water line above the plastic rim of your rimmed tank, you will need to have the box fit halfway on the plastic rim of the tank. In order to keep it from leaking, this will require you to create a custom gasket with rubber material that you can get on amazon. The good thing is the place I got the overflow box let me know all about this upfront (I got mine here - https://aquariumstoredepot.com/products/fiji-cube-overflow-boxes-low-profile). It was still cheaper than the MM and I was going to do a custom gasket anyway because another buddy I knew did made a gasket for his MM that solved his leak issues. If the MM box was available when I got the Fiji Cube, I would have make the custom gasket anyway. I really didn't want to go with an EShopps for my 40 build so I took the chance on the Fiji Cube since MM wasn't available.

Here is the link to the rubber gasket material I used (I ended up using 1/2") - https://www.amazon.com/Neoprene-Sheet-Purpose-Rubber-1-5mm/dp/B076DKHRFM/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=gasket+rubber+sheet+1/2"&qid=1555971092&s=gateway&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1

Yeah, the gasket is crazy thick, but it forces the box flush to the tank and I have no leaks! — see the pic [emoji28]. No worries - I touched up my paint job on the back when I was done leak testing.

I cut the gasket holes with a Xacto knife. Super EZ to do . I put the gasket on, got the box in, and hand tightened the gaskets. I did a little 1/4" turn with a wrech afterwards. I did go with a durso setup instead of a bean animal for the 40B setup. I felt that the bean animal size was just way too big for the 40B. The tank is crazy silent with this durso box from Fiji Cube and I really couldn't be happier. I do wish that Fiji Cube would update their boxes for rimmed tanks and I did relay that over to the dude I got it from. He did say that is a common issue he's run into with Fiji overflows regarding glass rimmed tanks.

You can't go wrong with either MM or Fiji Cube. Both are waaaaaaaay better than the EShopp boxes and cheaper than the Synergy (except when BRS has big sales on them).

So the only way to get this to work on a plastic rimmed tank is to create a custom gasket? Did your gasket compress a lot, it appears to be the same thickness as the acrylic? Did they construct these using 1/2” acrylic? Sorry for all the questions, have been wanting a modular marine, but unable to reach them. I think the Fiji cube overflows look great, great price, great size, but not psyched on making my own gasket.

 

[ReefWithCare]

So the only way to get this to work on a plastic rimmed tank is to create a custom gasket? Did your gasket compress a lot, it appears to be the same thickness as the acrylic? Did they construct these using 1/2” acrylic? Sorry for all the questions, have been wanting a modular marine, but unable to reach them. I think the Fiji cube overflows look great, great price, great size, but not psyched on making my own gasket.

Hi there. The gasket didnt compress at all. It’s very thick. Ya I’m fairly certain they used 1/2” acrylic on this box I got. I didn’t attempt with just the standard gaskets but since the box sits on the rim it would go flush and therefore leaks. The gasket needs to be thick enough so the box sits flush.

The gasket isn’t that bad. I would actually recommend making your own for any box you get as I think the standard gaskets are too think anyway [emoji28]. It wasn’t bad at all. I’d be happy to walk you through it via a video call if you want to know more.

 

[High ICP]

Thanks SO MUCH everyone for your help and advice!

I'm torn between Fiji and EMS, but leaning towards EMS. I love that Fiji gives you the diamond bit to drill the holes and includes some of the PVC parts that you need for the setup. That's seriously awesome of them and overall it would end up being like $60 cheaper. EMS doesn't give you those extras, but there seems to be a lot more information available from them. They have installation videos and guides that I haven't been able to find for the Fiji box and since this is my first time setting up a sump, information is critical. The main design difference as far as I can tell is that EMS uses horizontal slots for the weir instead of the teeth that most overflows use. They have a really great video posted that explains why this is better and some of the other benefits of their system, I found it really interesting and informative. Another downside to Fiji is that they say the proper size for my tank is the 800 GPH but it's only got 2 holes so I couldn't do the bean animal setup. Again, if I were more knowledgeable I might just go with the extra size up and adjust elsewhere but for my first time I'm hoping to keep the setup as close to standard as possible.

Ghost and Modular Marine also looked like good options but aren't available right now as far as I could find. The ghost overflow is out of stock on ReefSavvy.com, the only place that I could find it, and Modular Marine isn't taking orders right now, so unfortunately that rules both of them out.

In case anyone is curious, here's a list of all the other parts that I picked out for my build. Now I just need to figure out how to make sure that my pump and overflow will have the correct flow rates and I think I'll be set.

I really like that overflow

 

[mrpizzaface]

Hi there. The gasket didnt compress at all. It’s very thick. Ya I’m fairly certain they used 1/2” acrylic on this box I got. I didn’t attempt with just the standard gaskets but since the box sits on the rim it would go flush and therefore leaks. The gasket needs to be thick enough so the box sits flush.

The gasket isn’t that bad. I would actually recommend making your own for any box you get as I think the standard gaskets are too think anyway [emoji28]. It wasn’t bad at all. I’d be happy to walk you through it via a video call if you want to know more.

I appreciate your offer for help. I am gonna go with Fiji cube, for the price it seems hard to beat. I am sure I will be okay with the gasket, but will reach out if I run into trouble.

 

[dantimdad]

I really like mine. I notched the trim before I glued the trim on. My tank was a rebuild.