Overflows 101
- Thread starter Mozby
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sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Ghost and Shadow are the same style, both are low profile pass through overflows, there are others who make similar styles e.g Modular Marine, but IMHO the Shadow one looks like garbage sure its all squirted out of a machine as one piece but the material is so flimsy. Traditional I guess is a fat box in the tank? in which case why not go with a slim profile?
Mozby
Guest
I love the idea of a slim profile, but would it be a challenge when you need to reach in there for something?
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sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Yes if you had to reach in there you probably couldnt. but thats why they have lids and teeth to prevent larger things from getting in there. If you did need to clean you could use a flexible brush and remove the lid or teeth(shafow and.ghost both havr removable teeth I believe). Everything else that gets through can presumably get through the bulkheads on the back of tank which are much bigger than the overfloe teeth, and then you could reach into that box or whatever tiny bits take a slide down to the sump.
The reality is other than maybe detritus and algae the only thing getting into that box are tiny baby snails, asterina starfish and pods.
The reality is other than maybe detritus and algae the only thing getting into that box are tiny baby snails, asterina starfish and pods.
Mozby
Guest
rygh
Guest
No. I was thinking of that way back, and there are pics out there, but I do not remember where.
I don't think it works well structurally with glass.
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
It can do well. My 120g glass tank I manually cut a notch for an overflow... probably not the smartest thing I've done, but it was a free tank and for some reason I felt me cutting a notch would be easier than drilling holes for an internal overflow
But it worked flawlessly ... that is until I pulled back on a pipe that was hanging from the box that was back there... and well lets just say I created a nice lever/fulcrum situation and the back glass snapped the entire length of it which was really dumb on my part... so says the physicist!There's a couple glass tank builders out that do this as well, I want to say AGE, or perhaps Miracles, but one of them has curved corner notch (or two) and then there's an acrylic insert that has teeth very neat design, however that sort of thing I would not put into the DIY category unless you're already very skillful with glass cutting and have the tools to do it. A quick google search and I found this
Now I also did this with my 4'x3'x2' acrylic tank, cut a small notch across the entire back of the tank about 4" shy of the sides. Now if that's all I did I would have basically removed all the strength of the bracing along the back wall, however gluing on the external box helps stiffen up that whole panel, and to be honest would do a similar thing with a glass tank as long as you used the proper silicone.