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Updated: May 2004

My Oceanic 180 gallon tank has two overflow boxes, one in each back corner. Each overflow chamber measures 8 inches deep, by 11 inches wide, by 24 inches high (20 x 28 x 60 cm). Before I made this modification, the standpipe that came with the tank was nothing more than a perforated pipe (a tube with a million holes in it). This allowed the water to flow into the pipe quickly. However, this also meant that the water level in the overflow chambers was very low -- about 3 inches deep.
Durso Standpipe - Original Prototype
March 1999

With such a low water level, water entering the overflow chamber had about a 20 inch drop! This sounded like Niagara Falls. (At the time about 1,500 gallons per hour enter the overflow chambers) Secondly, each chamber made a gargling noise -- sounded like a toilet flushing 24 hours a day. It was so loud my wife could not sleep. I had to fix it fast!

A solution was suggested to me by Mark Lanett -- use a solid stand pipe with a submerged intake. This solution solved all my problems:

  1. Little to no water fall.
  2. Whisper quiet, no splashing or gurgling.
  3. Each chamber becomes a refugium.
  4. Chambers will not drain in a power outage.
  5. Pipe is self priming.

 

 

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