Overflows?
Anyway, I want to drill a bunch of tanks and drain them to a central sump. If I just drill a bulkhead at the water line, and install a strainer, will this work without problems, or will I need use a 90 pointed down to kinda act as a skimmer to prevent it from sucking more air than water? 
Or, I just had another thought. Maybe it would be better to place the bulkhead farther down, so that it would always be under water?
Reply With QuoteDarrell,
Overflow filtration and water movement by gravity / sump return type system can be as simple as you have pointed out. Simply drill a hole for an overflow and run it to a filter and have a return line into the tank from that filter.
However, imagine a fish dies overnight and is sucked onto your overflow and blocks all flow. Now you are pumping directly from the filter onto the floor until all your tanks have been sufficiently drained just below the overflows.
Here is a link for a 3 overflow system that is close to fail proof. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1310585
Now fail proofing the sump is another matter. I suggest doing some searching on the reef forums for overflow design principles. They are the best at it in general according to my experience of information available online.
If you are doing a whole fish room the sky is really the limit here for you in terms of the design. Keep us posted.
Originally Posted by ApacheDan
