Who Sells Nice Overflow Boxes?

Seth Ward · Jun 30, 2015

Anyone familiar with life reef? Their design hob overflow is claimed to be the safest product of the kind on the market. Does anyone know if this is true and if so, what makes theirs more safe then others?

steve&mari · Jun 30, 2015

Seth Ward said:
Anyone familiar with life reef? Their design hob overflow is claimed to be the safest product of the kind on the market. Does anyone know if this is true and if so, what makes theirs more safe then others?

Suppose to be really good from what I've read. Think it's got a fitting for a aqua lifter pump to keep flow running smoothly. The CPR has this air fitting also and I was very happy with the CPR 3 years no floods lost power few times. The aqua lifter restarts the flow when powers lost n restarts keeps from trapping air that's what stops flow.

reefwiser · Jun 30, 2015

I have had or installed glass holes overflows they can be tough to dial into the quite mode. Bean animal is super silent. I do a lot overflow installs for club members. Thursday I have 4 tanks that need to be drilled.

ronnie · Jun 30, 2015

Synergy. It's worth every penny. You'll never own a tank with a different overflow system after having one.

Shep · Jun 30, 2015

reefwiser said:
I have had or installed glass holes overflows they can be tough to dial into the quite mode. Bean animal is super silent. I do a lot overflow installs for club members. Thursday I have 4 tanks that need to be drilled.

Haha want to fly out and drill my tank?

ronnie · Jun 30, 2015

steve&mari said:
Suppose to be really good from what I've read. Think it's got a fitting for a aqua lifter pump to keep flow running smoothly. The CPR has this air fitting also and I was very happy with the CPR 3 years no floods lost power few times. The aqua lifter restarts the flow when powers lost n restarts keeps from trapping air that's what stops flow.

IMO, any piece of vital equipment like an overflow that requires another piece of equipment to operate optimally is not operationally sound. Too much risk relying on an air pump when you're on vacation to not flood your tank.

reefwiser · Jun 30, 2015

Shep said:
Haha want to fly out and drill my tank?

Sure, Shep you pay I will fly. Just another tank hole drilled. Did my first tank 25 years ago.

steve&mari · Jun 30, 2015

ronnie said:
IMO, any piece of vital equipment like an overflow that requires another piece of equipment to operate optimally is not operationally sound. Too much risk relying on an air pump when you're on vacation to not flood your tank.

It's better than the hob that don't have the safety feature and it was a reply to a question asked. I already stated before we now use a glass holes and how we got it running quietly. Without doubt a built-in overflow is better but isn't only way it's done by everyone. I'd rather someone use a hob with the feature than without and airs trapped causing a flood.

Seth Ward · Jun 30, 2015

Actually, the life reef website claims that it does not use a pump to maintain flow and uses the phrase "no syphon lost in 26 years". http://www.lifereef.com/siphon.html

ronnie · Jun 30, 2015

Correct - I've used the life reef style and never had syphon issues. The CPR has this issue because it isn't a true tube - ie design flaw.

reefwiser · Jul 1, 2015

The syphon tube style does have the flaw of the air building up in the tube. This style was popular years ago when the first wet/dry filters came out. As everyone had tanks set up without hole drilled in the side of the tank. It was common to see tanks with this style and using an air pump to place suction at the top of the overflow tube does keep the air bubble from increasing in size and reducing the flow of water thru the overflow.

dmort · Jul 1, 2015

FYI, the eshopps overflows are very similar to the life reefs and cost a lot less. At the same time, drilling is better.

Seth Ward · Jul 1, 2015

I drilling is preferable, is this simply do to the comfort of not having the concern of losing syphon or are there other benefits?

Broadwave · Jul 2, 2015

Just buy the Lifereef Overflow box. No air pumps needed and they just work every time.

http://www.lifereef.com/siphon.html

Harold Green · Jul 3, 2015

We're fortunate today to have such a wide variety of equipment available. Early in the hobby it was often necessary to build your own. Pair of large hang-on collection containers. Cut slots on the one going into the tank. Raised drain on the outside one to maintain siphon. You'd drill a hole in the top of the siphon tube and glue in a one way valve. Run airline from the valve down into the vertical drain line to eliminate air in the siphon tube. Lot of work but you did what you had to do to run a sump on a non-drilled tank. Needless I prefer the drilled tank. It eliminates a lot of problems.

d2mini · Jul 3, 2015

Broadwave said:
Just buy the Lifereef Overflow box. No air pumps needed and they just work every time.

http://www.lifereef.com/siphon.html

If you don't want to drill and want to go the HOB overflow route, I can highly recommend these.
I have two. One on the frag tank and one on the mangrove tank, all tied into the main system which utilizes a Bean Animal on the main display tank.
They always start up and there is no need for an aqualifter pump or anything like that.

If you are able to drill, I highly recommend the Bean Animal not only for it's quiet operation, but also it's ultimate safety features. It's basically impossible for it to overflow and flood your house when set up as designed.

austx · Jul 3, 2015

Life reef for an hob for sure, quality and reliable.

joshbbert · Jul 3, 2015

Glass holes is awesome, even get a fun dip for after words

usctrack · Jul 17, 2015

I had never seen the h2overflow but liked that idea. Anyone running one?

Breakthecycle2 · Jul 17, 2015

I have the the bigger glass holes overflow. 2" drains and 1" returns. Its pretty silent for the most part. I notice it gets noisy when the silent deadening material needs to be cleaned.