Overflow Idea

[malkier22]

As we all know, a thin layer of organic matter forms on the surface of our tanks. To "skim" off this layer we use overflows. But overflow boxes take up a lot of real estate in our tanks. In comes a novel idea I had and I would like your opinions on it.

This is the idea, take a piece of 1" black pvc piping roughly half the length of the tank. Cut the pipe, length wise, in half and then in half again. Make .25" slits at some consistent interval along the half moon pvc. Silicone the cut half moon pvc so that the bottom of the slits are "just" below the desired water height. The ends of the pvc pipe must be capped or siliconed. Cut 2 half moon shapes in the overflow and silicone the half moon pvc pipes on to it.

This design would limit how large the overflow box had to be and provide an even removal of film from the water's surface.

Your thoughts on the matter are greatly appreciated. Constructive criticism is what I am looking for as to why the idea is bad or not necessary.

[SWINGRRRR]

LIke this.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1257783


Its been done. Search "Coast to Coast" as well.

[RocketEngineer]

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=473152&perpage=25&pagenumber=18

Flyyyguy's post, #4 on the above page and linked in the thread SWINGRRRR noted.

A piece of PVC pipe with a slot in it. I tried a 1/8", 1/4", and finally settled on 1/2" wide slot on mine. It pulls water in a very laminar ribbon about 1/4" high from the surface of my tank. The length of the slot plus the slot width determines the flow rate but it does pull from just the surface of the water. The flow in mine is very gentle enough that my snails routinely crawl along the edge eating the hair algae that grows in the overflow pipe.