Two Little Fishes Overflow Box

[MrGisonni]

So I had this overflow box installed on my 30 gallon IM Aquarium, and I am still impressed. It sounds funny to be impressed by something as simple as an overflow, but this one is great. It has an extremely small footprint and connected easily to a standard drain tube. The best part is the return. For some design reason, the return flow is randomized, both in direction and flow. It surges, and flows wide to narrow, left and right. Now, it isn't as intense as an add on flow randomizer, but still noticable in the movement of my corals. I love this product. I highly recommend it for a small to nano reef tank.

 

[TX_REEF]

Cool to hear your corals enjoy it, I've always wondered why it was so poorly reviewed as two little fishies is a wonderful company owned by a serious veteran enthusiast

 

[piranhaman00]

Do you need to drill two holes? What size?

 

[MrGisonni]

Julian Sprung, literally wrote the book on reef aquariums, a few actually. His engineer on the overflow I believe is German, so that also speaks volumes.

 

[MrGisonni]

Two holes, I think the return is 1/2 inch and the drain is 1 inch. They can be drilled and mounted next to each other or separated

 

[MrGisonni]

I think they just lucked into the randomization as a product of the design. Sprung explained it in a video at a trade show once.

 

[MrGisonni]

It takes a little tuning and will slurp in the sump if not going into a sock, but hey that's how you know it's working

 

[duganderson]

Strongly considering this for a 39 gallon mixed reef that is 36"x19"x14".

Do folks worry about not having a backup drain if the main gets clogged? The drain is 1.5" so maybe that too big to clog.

Also, if the power goes out, how much does your water drop (in order to ensure the sump can handle the water in a power outage).?

Thanks! Doug

 

[piranhaman00]

The backup is really for the main drain clogging because of the gate valve. With this you can’t use a gate valve so you should be okay without E drain.

 

[MrGisonni]

You can adjust the prefilter box to raise or lower your display level and your sump level is really determined from there with adjustment. Turn off the power and see how high it rises. I did glue a piece of plastic to the backside of the drain cap to raise my display a little more. I love this setup.

 

[duganderson]

The backup is really for the main drain clogging because of the gate valve. With this you can’t use a gate valve so you should be okay without E drain.

This was really helpful to clarify. Thank you!

 

[duganderson]

You can adjust the prefilter box to raise or lower your display level and your sump level is really determined from there with adjustment. Turn off the power and see how high it rises. I did glue a piece of plastic to the backside of the drain cap to raise my display a little more. I love this setup.

GREAT idea! Can you adjust it to lower the water level OR is the only option to reduce the power of the return pump (or doesn't that really do it?)?

 

[MrGisonni]

Your sump level is really up to you, and dependant on power off overflow, and the levels needed for your media and skimmer.

 

[duganderson]

Your sump level is really up to you, and dependant on power off overflow, and the levels needed for your media and skimmer.

to clarify......I was asking about level in the display.

 

[MrGisonni]

The prefilter box has a grate that you can raise or lower to adjust the level in the display a bit

 

[duganderson]

The prefilter box has a grate that you can raise or lower to adjust the level in the display a bit

I did not realize you could raise or lower the grate on the Two Little Fishies Xaqua. Nice feature!