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View Full Version : Wow - accidents waiting to happen.....


fishgate
12/12/2014, 06:16 AM
Check out this product from an ebay seller. What a disaster waiting to happen. I sent him a message asking him if he would pay for any damage caused by the silicone not adhering to the acrylic and coming loose.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1800-GPH-AQUARIUM-OVERFLOW-BOX-SURFACE-SKIMMER-FOR-CORAL-SALTWATER-TANKS-/161265655773?pt=Fish_Filters&hash=item258c2e9fdd

EDIT: I tried to contact him but he refuses all contact. I suspect his inbox is full of people telling him his product is defective. I reported it to ebay instead, although that is a waste of time they are only interested in listing/final value fees.

johno4
12/12/2014, 07:01 AM
Most internal overflow boxes are acrylic and siliconed into place. Unless you plan on using this for something else it will function just like every other overflow box.

fishgate
12/12/2014, 07:10 AM
Mine are plastic.

johno4
12/12/2014, 07:21 AM
Acrylic is plastic, you probably owe this guy an apology. Just my opinion.

ryeguyy84
12/12/2014, 08:12 AM
Agree, I don't see anything wrong here.

fishgate
12/12/2014, 08:22 AM
I had a glass sump with acrylic baffles given to me and all of them broke free. This made it so most of my sump volume could be pumped (it never happened) into the tank since the return section was no longer isolated.

My fear on this design is the box would break free, fall off, and livestock would travel down the pipes clogging them and/or killing the livestock. Perhaps that might not be a big concern? At the minimum when it started to leak you'd lose efficiency of the surfacing skimming.

I might be being overly cautious. I think this should come with a disclosure at the minimum.

usingthejohn
12/12/2014, 08:26 AM
An internal overflow box doesn't reinforce structure, but merely acts as a divider.

My cadlights tank had an acrylic overflow.

johno4
12/12/2014, 08:33 AM
The baffles in your sump are holding back a lot of water. An overflow box does not. Most likely the pressure of the water pushing on it helps hold it in place. Like I said, most tanks have acrylic overflow boxes in fact very few do not. To harass this guy and contacting ebay seems pretty ridiculous IMO

W1ngz
12/12/2014, 09:18 AM
I have exactly that overflow box, purchased from that ebay seller. It's been installed since July, and I haven't had an issue.

cidbozek
12/12/2014, 10:22 AM
drilling five holes in a tank with water in it seems like more of a problem than this ! just saying lol

whiteshark
12/12/2014, 06:20 PM
I'd feel bad if he lost business because of this. A while back I was considering going with one of those overflow boxes. The seller was quite responsive and answered all my questions despite me ending up going a different direction.

As has been mentioned, acrylic overflow boxes are quite common on glass tanks.

oceanlassiter
12/12/2014, 06:46 PM
As long as you use silicone made for acrylic, you're fine.

kegogut
12/12/2014, 06:57 PM
I work with acrlyic and made a overflow box for my 225. I used an adhesive product from GOOP to stick it to the glass and you couldnt pull it off without completely breaking the acyrlic apart with pliers. I used the same glue to stick an acrylic probe holder to my sump which is glass and its not going anywhere, unless I take a hammer to it.

Flippers4pups
12/12/2014, 07:13 PM
All respect to the OP, but his reasoning is flawed. Most spillways are plastic or acrylic and most of the large makers of tanks use these. All held in place with silicone. Just don't see his point.

ca1ore
12/13/2014, 10:40 AM
A handful of observations:

1. Ebay seller is offering a pretty standard open back overflow which can work fine for years; I used them for a while but then accidentally knocked one loose with my arm and it was a major pain to reinstall it.
2. Since there is no silicone I know if that will adhere really well to acrylic/plastic (even though GEII is formulated to work better on acrylic, it still doesn't work all that well), I always use overflows that have a closed back so that the bulkhead actually holds it in place with silicone just acting as a sealant
3. The only thing that strikes me as odd with the ebay posting is I'm not sure exactly how one would use this box without bulkheads at least in the sides of the tank.

Sgt Jonny Cat
12/13/2014, 11:45 AM
Ummm.....so what's the problem? I'm kinda new but I cant really see t he issue with that box...

joshky
12/13/2014, 12:00 PM
Ummm.....so what's the problem? I'm kinda new but I cant really see t he issue with that box...

Nothing is wrong with it.

Teenreefer15
12/13/2014, 04:39 PM
looks fine to me

DamonG
12/13/2014, 04:48 PM
Standard overflow box (like i have on my tank now and the last two previous tanks, totaling 5 years), is this a trick post?

As long as the seller is legit, hopefully he /she loses no business over this.. Because it just looks like a standard overflow box..

quagmire
12/14/2014, 03:02 AM
I find it odd when i hear people say silicone doesn't stick to acrylic. Maybe the brand of silicone or type of acrylic matters, idk. However, every rr tank i've owned has had silicone holding the overflow box in place. I actually installed one of those boxes from that ebay company using ge silicone. Not even a wiggle. I also had a 100gl sump with a 4' section that contained a piece of acrylic separating a 4" deep sand bed from my pumps for years. Again, not even a wiggle. In fact, i have a piece of acrylic that i removed from another diy sump i made 10 years ago. I can't even get all the silicone off with a razor blade. I'm currently in the process of building a custom acrylic overflow. Guess what, it will be siliconed in place. I'd be happy to share pictures of all the above if proof is required. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say i suspect those who had failures probably did not prep their work properly.