Will it work ?

[johnstringer]

I have a 24 gallon tank with a dividing wall in the back for filtration. It has slots cut out of the wall for the overflow, and then the pump returns water after flowing through the chambers. I want to use a sump, could I put a U tube in the filtration section of the tank to a sump with a return pump ? It would be a very large overflow box, but I am just not sure the water flow would even out like with a traditional overflow box and return.

[Vinny Kreyling]

I doubt it will work.
A typical over the top U-Tube arrangement has a built in section of the box to prevent siphon loss on a shut down.
You will NOT have this feature and loose siphon so it will NOT start back on its own.

[on the spot]

Could the tank be drilled? either through the bottom or back.

if drilling is out, you could use the U-tube option - but you would want to add the outer box similar to a typical U tube style overflow to solve the restarting problem.

HTH

[38bill]

I drilled the back wall of a 29G biocube for a sump and it worked great. Actually I double drilled it so I could run one standpipe as a full shipon and the other as the emergency overflow. It ran totally silent.