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Here's a recent photo of my syphon box to illustrate some of the points discussed. as you can see I keep my h1 value high, and the water level in the skimmer cup is high. In actual fact because the "U tube" for this syphon box is so large in cross sectional area the water level difference...

Then a good way to achieve that is to do the main tank and sump arrangement IN REVERSE. This is the trick used on the Eheim wet/dry filter. Except they DON'T use control on the pump output. What they do is to have a float that BLOCKS the input hole for the pump when it gets near to it. When...

It ain't my design. I've never had my own design of overflow boxes, just modified what was out there. What are you trying to do? Make waves? Or want to drain and then fill at regular intervals like a tidal pool? Do you want the water level in the tank to fluctuate over time? If the water level...

As an additional note I want to mention Amano's Personal Tank: He's running a sump filter too with a corner overflow box. It's a 60cm box with holes drilled for the three down flow pipes, so no U tubes used. Now looking at some photos of the overflow box in an old ADA 2006 catalogue, I would...

So having said all this we'll go over what Tom Barr did with his setups. Firstly I will state that I got nothing against Tom Barr. I never met him, nor corresponded with him in forums or email. I'm just pointing out the contradiction in the advice he and his "polite" experts (or rather self...

So last diagram is of the overflow box what I'm using. Basically in this design the bracket that connects the skimmer cup and syphon box is the U tube itself. It makes for a neat looking syphon box but is has some drawbacks that we'll get into later on. One of the disadvantages is that it's...

I wouldn't use excel if I were you. Yes it will kill certain algae but I rather fix the problem than treat the symptoms. I don't like it because it's toxic stuff and doesn't need to be in the tank. It's also marketed as a alternative carbon source. Blackout usually only work for BGA and won't do...

Float valve with pressure solenoid as used in under sink units. That's the easiest way to do it and literally idiot proof. Why did you do a black out? Was it for BGA?

It's not a question of changing your mind. I'm trying to tell you what the issues are and how unusual it is for someone to contemplate running a 800 gpd RO system. I have no experience in doing such a thing but would guess that there might be a lower quality of RO water produced since it's going...

If you're running a window cleaning or a car wash business I would say go for it. 800 gpd is phenomenal!!! It really is. Hardly any fish keeper would want such a powerful unit unless he's running a 2000+ litre tank and needs to change the water really quickly!! Also if you're going to run DI...

It's only affected if your water pipe completely freezes! I don't understand why you're spending so much money on an RO unit that does 800 gpd!!! That's a lot of water which you'll never use regularly, so what happens is your unit starts and stops at long intervals, hardly a good thing for an RO...

Now is when things get a little complicated . . . So in 6 we see a more realistic arrangement to illustrate how water level differences work. U tube is plumbed linking the aquarium and the syphon box. We've removed the skimmer cup here to simplify things a little - it's an added complication...

That RO unit is complete overkill. It makes 800 gpd!!! Why do you need to do that? Can't you get something like this? 4 stage RO much cheaper and if you get the 50 gpd one it would suit you. How much water do you want to make a day anyway? I'm running an 50 gpd under sink system! I just plumb...

It won't get rid of them all. Which is why I recommend using a post DI filter also. If I don't use DI after my RO I can induce brown diatom algae in my tank. That's how important it is. When discussing traces the reason why most people overdose is because commercially fertilisers got the...

I'll discuss about water flow now in gradual stages. There is hardly anything on this in the main fishkeeping literature, so here goes (I don't have a CAD program so you'll have to make do with my awful drawings). As I mentioned before in the "sump vs canister filter" thread, syphon boxes...

For your tank I'd keep it that way. Even better get it down to 1 bubble every TWO seconds, that is 30 bpm (bubbles per minute. You really don't need that much, despite what the common consensus by other self appointed "experts" say. Most recent books are wrong about this too. I'm running 1.5...

We'll talk about syphon box arrangements now in two parts. First a view of the sump some months ago. I run my tank at 25 degrees celsius even though most advise 23 for planted tanks. The room is about 20 degrees so there is a fair amount of condensation building up. Because the sump is mainly...

I am reluctant to add Congo tetras to a tank with rummy nose tetras for fear of fin nipping. What's your experience with them so far? and fan shrimp are quite fun to have.

60 litre tank using 25mm acrylic sheets would be easy - you have a lot of leeway for "errors". Because of excessive wall thickness to tank size you can afford to make mistakes. I recommend doing what they did in that video. Bevel cut one edge to be glued, pour the Weld On 40 mixed glue in, and...

I don't factor in rainy/cloudy/thundery days, they are random occurrences. I just take the sunrise and sunset times from the locality in question and program that into my lighting schedule, so for example here is my times for this month: 3,1,7:17,19:19 3,2,7:16,19:19 3,3,7:16,19:19...

You have to practice on some scrap materials first. Also look at the Acrifix documentations in regards how they want you to use Acrifix 190, there's some videos on that too. What you do is bevel the edge of one of the pieces to be glued then set the two pieces together (mostly with clamps), and...

RO/DI means you have a deioniser stage AFTER the RO output. This will get rid of the remaining contaminants. The TDS out of the RO will be about 10 or so, after the DI it should be about 0 - 2 at the most. But you got to be careful, since RO output water is high in CO2 this can exhaust the DI...

Why are you gluing 25mm panels? Unless you are doing something really big it's not worth it. Also capillary gluing on 25mm panels is problematic if it's not dead square and flat when the pieces touch, for this reason Weld On 40 is used for gluing together larger pieces. 25mm acrylic is also...

Eheim 2217 was temporary. It just had some sponges with filter floss in it. BTW gluing acrylic is difficult and needs a LOT of practice. Most will be using Weld-On 3 or 4, capillary gluing technique, which is what I did. I used the Tensol 70 to fill the corners to strengthen the welds...