Hi, everybody Joey here again, and welcome back so in today's video. I'm going to show you how to build a PVC
Overflow now that type of overflow might sound familiar as I actually did a project on it about [4] and 1/2 years ago
For those that don't know what PVC overflow is a cheap and easy to build
Overflow made from PVC and used to
Overflow water from your aquariums to a sump filter below it or for any other use that you might need to overflow water from your
Aquarium typically cost you about $10 to build one and saves you from buying a hang on the back overflow
That works on the same principle yet cost more than ten times more a PVC
Overflow also doesn't require you to drill your aquarium and to be added to an already established
Tank which many people like I wanted to revisit this project today and update and address some concerns that some of you had now in
General some of you think the PVC. Overflow is ugly. Which it is some of you also found that
It doesn't get the advertised flow rate, or it eventually lose its its prime and stops flowing water which can be disastrous
Personally I never have those issues and a lot of people don't
With that said others have said their fish have gotten sucked down into it, and that's definitely not [a] good thing either so today
I'm going to address all of these issues with solutions as well as some improvements
You might remember that the materials for PVC overflow requires [6] PVC elbows a tee and about 4 feet of PVC pipe?
Sizing depends on flow rates, but we'll get to that later
Typically this would hang on the back of the tank with two of the pipes going on the inside
The exposed top could suck the fish in and the fact that two pipes forming a u in the tank
Are another reason you guys don't like it the version?
I want to show you requires you to only have one pipe in the tank
So I grabbed the PVC pipe twice the diameter of the overflow pipe, and we'll be making a we're out of it
I place the cap on [and] drill the hole just large enough to squeeze the nub of the suction cup on
Then I use my table saw [and] cut out [some] teeth
Although a router would work better if you have one or most of you will just have a drill and in that case simply drill
In some holes large enough so that your fish can't actually swim into them place the holes where you want the water level to be
in the tank the bigger these holes are teeth are the better you don't want them restricting the flow it's totally fine if you
Get it right the first time you simply will have to do some testing and changes most likely now in this example the big pipe
Is 2 inches in diameter, and it's the height of the aquarium the overflow is 1 inch in diameter
It's important that the weir is twice the diameter of the overflow, so you again
you're not restricting flow the overflow uses 3 feet of pipe with
Section length being 12 inches long and of course everything is cemented together with PVC cement the we're simply gets placed
Where you want the overflow to be and the overflow pipe goes inside it
How you run it down to your sump is up to you however in this example. I attached a short pipe
So you can see the water exiting to prime this you need to fill the pipe full of water and remove air now previously
We added the check valve to the top to do this that check valve was also used to easily remove air
But this style doesn't need it
This is actually because the inlet to the overflow is far below the water surface and any bubbles formed from falling into the weir
Don't travel far enough to get into it once we prime the overflow we turn our pump on water will start to flow [out] in
The event [of] a power outage water will stop flowing as expected
When the pump starts back up the overflow does as well
Now because we have a weird we still get surface skimming without the worry of sucking the fish in we also have less pipe in
The tank yet while we are using a single large pipe. It does look a lot better
Especially if we paint it, and that's something we're going to get to now an interesting aspect to this style
Is that it's far [more] powerful than the previous version and a lot more quiet to give you an example?
I started running 200 gallons per hour through this overflow, then added another 400 gallons per hour for a total of
600 gallons per hour the overflow handled it
No problem
And this is a [60%] increase
Over the previous version now the sizes I tested were 3/4 inch one inch and one and a half inch and they all flowed
[60%] more water than the previous version one thing to look for with a weird though is how far the [water] is falling?
Into it you want to aim for it to be falling by about one inch
Anything more and the teeth or holes are too small?
Anything less and you might not be skimming the water
Surface at all so make sure you start off smaller and do some testing now to make this look a lot better
I spray-painted it with Krylon fusion for plastic. This made it look a lot better however once Krylon fusion for plastic has cured
It's also non-toxic so it's safe if you're still worried about the overflow you losing its prime and failing pick yourself up a [toms]
Aqua [lifter] pump this is like an air pump, but it can also suck and pump water
Drill a small hole in the top loop of the overflow about 5 millimeter in Diameter and insert a 6 millimeter airline
You'll want the airline to be flush with [the] inside top of the PVC wall
Just like we did with the check valve in the previous version
Ensure you insert the suction side because you want the pump to be sucking out air and water
Apply a bit of silicone around the seal as well to ensure. This is watertight now to prime this overflow
You just seal both ends turn your pump on and it's going to suck out all [of] the air and fill it with water
Now you'll want to keep this pump on continuously
And it will ensure that air cannot collect in that pipe making the overflow now fail proof
This will add about [$15] to the overall cost
But as is the entire overflow only cost me [around] [$10] for what you see
So an additional $15 pump to make this fail proof is definitely worth it
So how does any of this work and what are the flow rates well?
I already did a video on this in the past and I invite you to check that out for a full explanation
both versions work the same, so
Information in it is still relevant the only difference is the flow rates
So make sure you add an extra [60%] - what's advised if you're building the style from this video
So you now have an overflow that looks good. It's powerful. [it's] silent and it's failed proof yet
You don't have to drill your tank, and you don't have to spend a lot of money now
You can have the sump if that's what you're after anyways. Hope that you guys enjoyed today's video
I also wanted to [thank] you for watching and I'll see you guys next Sunday for a new do it yourself project