Plumbing

I have a few questions pertaining to overflow mechanics. Ive decided on a 45g cube with an external overflow, however, I'm uncertain of what's best.

1. Do Durso overflows rely on siphon? I'd like to avoid any kind of suction and go with something that "drains" based off of the return pump's output.

2. I see lots of 6 drain-line complex plumbing mumbo jumbo setups around. Is this necessary? I was planning on just having a 500gph dual 1" overflow setup ...

There's nothing more I love than a practical DIY on the cheap. Actually, what I think I love more is putting all the odds and ends saved from where ever to good use. And over the years, not saving odds and ends from various projects or broken equipment usually leads to a trip to a hardware store. In my basement, I'll admit to a couple of coolers full of PVC fittings, a broken protein skimmer, odd lengths of airline, scraps of plexi-glass and I don't want to know how many linear feet of pipe and ...

This is a great way to conceal an overflow and return line where space is a premium. I built this setup for a friend 4 years ago this spring. It is setup as a FOWLER tank and can be completely concealed with rock. It runs very silent.

Well I have the baffles in and water flowing in the tank. I have to let the dust settle a bit before I do anything else. You can see it's quite cloudy. I have my cheep lighting on just so I can get a true measure of clarity. I've scrapped the in tank refgu. I'm going to use a 5g above the tank that I'll get to at a later date.

You can see all the temporary plumbing and filter sock that I'm using to clear the haze.


...

Plumbing

The last thing I thought I would ever want to talk about was plumbing, but never say never. After my first couple of setups it became apparent that the plumbing department...was lagging. Thankfully, I stumbled across a local club with a very active forum that had tons of simple, practical information that demystified reefkeeping. Plumbing ...