Cutting tank to share chiller and filter

**shrimp** · 21st Mar 2006, 12:42 PM

I have successfully made the over flower. If anyone is interested in knowing how to build, do let me know.

**crandf** · 21st Mar 2006, 01:59 PM

How much did it cost? What size of pipes you used? Do you run into situations where the overflow cannot keep up easily with the pump rate below? Pics!

**shrimp** · 21st Mar 2006, 03:33 PM

Originally Posted by crandf

How much did it cost? What size of pipes you used? Do you run into situations where the overflow cannot keep up easily with the pump rate below? Pics!

7 elbows (70cents each) = S$4.90
pipe 8 meters (80cents per meter) = S$6.40
White Tape to secure the pipes together = S$1.00

The total cost is about S$12.

I think thats very cheap as compare to the commercial flow devices which may cost more hundred over bucks. The only down side is that is dont look very presentable -"fix-able"

.

The pipes are 10 mm in diameter and it is more then enough to keep up with the flow rate of a jebao 838 canister filter.

**crandf** · 21st Mar 2006, 09:21 PM

How did you manage to use up 8m of pipes?

**silane** · 21st Mar 2006, 10:50 PM

Something I dont get it... how did you guys get the water start to flow from top to bottom?

**gr81** · 21st Mar 2006, 11:39 PM

cover hole and suck

**discuz** · 22nd Mar 2006, 07:45 AM

Hi,

just to share, did something like this before.

having problem because my sump tank (bottom tank) is too small.
(best is to use both tank of same size, then you can do away with the calculation. haha). i using it as filter system.

- The overflow rate of the siphon must be higher than the pump to ensure the bottom tank is alway filled with enough water so as not to let the pump run dry.

- the 'stop' level of the siphon must set so that it stop before overflow at bottom tank. (cos pump flow rate is slower).

thing to note is that if you are keeping fish/shrimp on both tank. you can see the water level change quite a bit and you can never have both tank filled with water at the level (like 3 inches off the top) you normally have.

like other user mentioned earlier, pipe size play a part. but i'm not too sure how. i notice my siphon flow rate changes as i set them at different level.

hope it helps.
mk

**Nickel** · 22nd Mar 2006, 08:02 AM

My experience is that, the flow rate (aka overflow rate, rate through pipes, etc) is determined by the return pump and same throughout water flow loop in pipes, assuming the pipes are big enough in diameter to support flow rate.

This is because the water flow is actually a single closed loop. If you fill up the main tank till water starts to overflow and the level of the sump tank, then when you power on the pump, besides the water level in sump tank drops a little due to some water flowing into the pipe/overflow box's space, the water flow rate will remained constant depending on the pump. If pump stopped, then no water will overflow from main tank as no return water from pump and sump tank will not overflow. No need to worry about flow rate as it is actually a single loop and flow rate is same throughout.

This is same concept as in marine aquarium as most of them typically use overflow approach in filtering.

I had designed and built a single large marine tank supported by 2 sump tanks in parallel and using the concept of 'water finds its own level' to balance water in both sump tanks just purely by gravity while they are connected via a hose.

It works.

**shrimp** · 22nd Mar 2006, 10:35 AM

Originally Posted by fruitpie

Something I dont get it... how did you guys get the water start to flow from top to bottom?

Actually its quite simple, but I had some problems at the start too because when I have everything fixed up but the water just cant flow through. Then got got irritated and thre the part in RED into the water. It started to fill up but when I remove it from the tank to connect the remain portion, the water flowed back and the suction fail again. Then I covered the hole as selected in blue before moving it out of the tank and the water level remain, then I connected the remain portion and the system started to work.

In a normal working condition the water in the pipes should be as shown in diagram, drawn in paint.

Summary
To file the pipe with water
1) Remove the portion selected in RED from the pipe.
2) Fill the portion select in RED with water.
3) Cover the hole selected in BLUE before removing the pipe from the tank.
4) Slowly remove the pipe from the tank with hole covered.
5) Connect the pipes together again.

When you increase the water level in the top tank now the water will flow out from the pipes.

**shrimp** · 22nd Mar 2006, 10:58 AM

Originally Posted by discuz

Hi,

just to share, did something like this before.

having problem because my sump tank (bottom tank) is too small.
(best is to use both tank of same size, then you can do away with the calculation. haha). i using it as filter system.

- The overflow rate of the siphon must be higher than the pump to ensure the bottom tank is alway filled with enough water so as not to let the pump run dry.

- the 'stop' level of the siphon must set so that it stop before overflow at bottom tank. (cos pump flow rate is slower).

thing to note is that if you are keeping fish/shrimp on both tank. you can see the water level change quite a bit and you can never have both tank filled with water at the level (like 3 inches off the top) you normally have.

like other user mentioned earlier, pipe size play a part. but i'm not too sure how. i notice my siphon flow rate changes as i set them at different level.

hope it helps.
mk

So far I have tried with two different flow rate, slow and fast, by adjusting the flow rate of the canister filter. To stress test the the pipes I added an over header filter pump together with the canister to pump and the pipes are able to cater to the flow rate!

heehee