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DIY $10 Overflow Box

I just wanted to try hooking up my aquarium to another small one as a refugium, and i dont need a huge flow rate or a huge gygantic overflow box hanging over my aquarium. I came up with this idea to use a gravel vacuum and a jar to make an overflow box. So here you go:

To make a $10 overflow, here are the materials:

1 Gravel Vacuum with hose (cost ~$10)
1 Thin cup like thing (I used a spice jar)


All you do is put the jar down the cylinder, and feed the tube coming from the overflow inside your aquarium into the jar. The jar will preserve the cyphon, and water just flows over it and down the cylinder! I added some plastic bits underneith to keep the jar from falling right to the bottom, but you could use a sponge as a prefilter or marbles to improve 02 levels. If you need a tube to go from the overflow on the back to the one inside your aquarium you can just cut a small length off your gravel vacuum tube.

Now to make things a little better with a bit more money, it might be a good idea to seal the cylinder and the green cap with some silicon. You might also need to add elbows as I eventually did to keep things sturdy. I used air-tube holders I had lying around and zip-ties as a way to fasten the overflow and return line to the aquarium.

Here are some pics:

The overflow box .. er overflow cylinder


Overflow box with marbles (there is also an upside down plant pot separating the marbles from the drain)


The overflow that leads to the overflow box, made out of a spent bottle of Buckleys with holes drilled into it, fastened with zipties to an air-tube holder and that made it adjustable :D


Heres the return to the big tank


The small pump whirring away in the smaller tank


This is a drawing of how the cyphon is maintained


So for the cost of the entire flow system:

overflow box: $10
pump: $20
aquarium safe silicon $7 (used only a tiny bit of it)
3 elbows $3
tube for return $3

Total: $43 cdn

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