# Coast To Coast Overflow



## input80 (Oct 9, 2012)

Hey there all, has anyone ever set up a coast to coast overflow ? I am planning on getting a 4ft 120 gal reef tank & would possibly want to run one on it. What kind of cost might I be looking at ? One tank I am looking at only has on hole drilled at the overflow. I just want to ensure silent operation & be able to run any amount of flow (turn over) without any volume handling issues. Some opinions are stating that just one hole would not be enough for this size of tank ? Other opinions/views are very welcome. Please remember that I am kind of "skill" limited.
Hoping I am asking the correct questions here ?


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## GaryR (Sep 16, 2012)

input80 said:


> Hey there all, has anyone ever set up a coast to coast overflow ? I am planning on getting a 4ft 120 gal reef tank & would possibly want to run one on it. What kind of cost might I be looking at ? One tank I am looking at only has on hole drilled at the overflow. I just want to ensure silent operation & be able to run any amount of flow (turn over) without any volume handling issues. Some opinions are stating that just one hole would not be enough for this size of tank ? Other opinions/views are very welcome. Please remember that I am kind of "skill" limited.
> Hoping I am asking the correct questions here ?


I recently plumbed a 120g (4x2x2) tank. It was a corner overflow, but I lucked out: it had 4 holes drilled (3x 1", 1x 1.5")! I have 2x 900gph pumps running. I suspect with head pressure I get about 600gph out of each.

I battled with a noisy durso for weeks trying to get it silent. I ended up running a "herbie" method. It's silent, but requires tweaking the gate valve every couple of days. I have the returns running through two of the 1" holes, the syphon running through the other 1" and my emergency overflow in the 1.5.

My experienced opinion: I wouldn't run any tank without two drains for redundancy. If you tighten the gate just too tight you could have a flood 8 hours later. The level behind the weir changes so slowly and you wouldn't know you were above equilibrium until it was much too late.

My inexperienced opinion: I'm guessing a coast to coast overflow is going to be a pain to tune for noise. Most of the noise of the system is the crashing water from the tank into the overflow box if the water level isn't high enough. You have so much more surface area in a long tank and so much more surface area of water crashing if your overflow level drops.

Finally, only push as much water through your sump as you need to. I think that was my problem with the durso: I was trying to move too much water through the sump. Use powerheads for flow in the tank for anything over 600gph (I just made that last number up, but I'm sure there's some actual rule of thumb).

Good luck!


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## Dietmar (Dec 15, 2011)

google beananimal overflow


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## input80 (Oct 9, 2012)

Dietmar said:


> google beananimal overflow


Are you offering to help, Dietmar ? lol


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## target (Apr 21, 2010)

Beananimal was going to be my suggestion as well.


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## Dietmar (Dec 15, 2011)

input80 said:


> Are you offering to help, Dietmar ? lol


Lol
I have not built this before, but if you need help, let me know.


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