overflow drain size?

[cary Henderson]

Made my own overflow from acylic
now question is how big should hole for drain to sump tank be..
started with a 3/4 inch hole just to test ..........
thinking sqwd is 3/4 inch line...
pump uses 3/4 inch..line
reef tank is 35 gallon with .. 20 gallon sump tank
is 3/4 inch okay or should I go 1 1/2 to stop overflow chances..
really want to test this out and have it close the first time...

[Invigor]

chances are with a 1.5" hole you're going to have loud overflow and a 3/4" drain might be too small...depending on your target flow.

from my limited experience, a 1" drain should yeild you around 800-900gph with 3/4" being significantly lower flow(around 400gph). 1.5" should get you around 1400gph

what some people have done is put a ball valve on the end of the pipe from the overflow and just "fine tune" it that way so you get the optimum flow thru your overflow so it's not sucking air.

[cary Henderson]

target flow meaning what??

[Invigor]

how much water do you plan on putting thru your overflow :)

[cary Henderson]

thats where i'm stuck ? how do I fugure that out...

[Invigor]

what pump are you planning to use for a return pump

[cary Henderson]

ocean runner 2500 ..

[Stasher]

Don't make the mistake of trying to put too much flow through the overflow. What size of tank do you have? I have a 125g but only run about 500gph through my sump, I ran 1000gph through it at the start but was horrendously loud. It now runs better than it ever did. Make up for the extra tank flow with powerheads or a closed loop.

[cary Henderson]

well i finally received my lifereef overflow(600gph)..comes with standard 1 inch drain hose..(guess that solves my question)..love it!!!!!
unplugged few times to make sure it restarts on own.. awesome...everytime..
threw my homemade job in garage.. always leaked..epoxy not best glue for plexy..!!

[Cutter]

Are you having troubles with your overflow being noisy at all. My brother has the big lifereef and the thing is so loud I can't stand it. We have made stockman standpipes and all of the "fixes" but its still loud.

Hopefully you don't have this issue.

We will get it figured out eventually...I hope.

Paul

[Invigor]

Make up for the extra tank flow with powerheads or a closed loop.

that's an awesome idea!

[cary Henderson]

the noise is very minimal...have a cover on drain side..as well as a filter over the drian tube..that seems to quite it the most .. if you want pic..to follow..

[cowfish1]

i just ordered a lifereef it should be here mon next week let me know how yours works out and if there is noise probs