Another DIY overflow! Pic heavy

For those of you that are into Overflows/Sumps/Trickle filters this may be of interest to you! The following is a version of homemade overflow I found online, then modified it for my tank and specific goals. That being said I will not take credit for all this.

Heres a quick parts list:

-Lees Large specimen box
-2ft piece of 1-1/4" pvc
-2x 1-1/4" PVC couplers.
-1x 1-1/4" to 1" male threaded PVC connector
-U tube. (I went with 1-1/2")
-Air line or something similar
-Air line check valve
-stainless bolts with washers and wing nuts
-Bilge pipe
-Vinyl tubing for return pump.

Construction is straightforward.

Cut a hole in the bottom of the specimen box until you can slide a piece of the 1-1/4" PVC through, keeping it as tight as possible.
This is optional, but I had to take a propane torch and heat up the part of the specimen box that hangs on the tank and flatten it, as my tank is THICK!
Now take the two couplers and a piece of 1-1/4" PVC about 1.5" long, put the piece through the whole in the bottom. Using lots of PVC glue, sandwich the couplers, one inside the box, one on the outside. Before I did this, I used a generous amount of silicone between the box and coupler on the outside, just being paranoid of leaks!
Now, I drilled two holes in the flattened out part of the box that will hang it off the tank for the stainless screws. With this I also cut a piece of acrylic to level the box, going between the tank and box.

For the siphon start on the u-tube I started with drilling a hole on the highest part of the tube, slightly smaller than the air line diameter.
Silicone the airline in as close to flush with the inside of the tube as possible, this will allow you to get more bubbles out.

At this point I mounted the box on the tank, using the stainless screws with wing nuts and washers, along with the piece of leveling acrylic. The goal here was to adjust the screws so that it hung off the tank securely, but the weight was balanced between the screws and acrylic piece against the tank. (I can certainly clarify this if needed!)
I now cut another small piece of PVC pipe and glued the 1-1/4" to 1" adapter onto the coupler outside the boss, this makes an easy connection for the Bilge pipe.

The water level adjusting comes from one piece. I cut a chunk of PVC pipe about 3" and stuck it (no need to glue here) into the coupler in the box. I then set the aquarium water height to what I was aiming for, then just cut, tested, cut, tested the 3" piece until I was happy with where the water level was staying and the flow to the Trickle filter was adequate.

I must note, that this system is SAFE!! No, you will not flood your house! I have tested this many times to be 100% as I get fairly paranoid with the thought of making a swamp out of my first floor

I have been tweaking this setup for about a month. I added a piece of screen door screen to the tank side of the u-tube, and put some poly filter material in the box, between the u-tube and bulk head.

I am sure I have forgotten something! Questions are sweet, by all means ask away! Hope the pics help too!
This isnt as cheap as some DIY versions I have found, but it fits my needs and was well under $100. Not to mention I accomplished making it and understanding the concepts, thats why i do this stuff!

thanks for looking!


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very nice!!!

very cool. and probably very cost effective too

Nice DIY project!

I will be making one! here is a diagram i believe for the same build as this one!
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Yep thats the same one I went off. Looked a bit more complicated than what I needed, and I really dont have the need for a skimmer. Next tweak is to extend the u-tube tank side to go down another 10" or so.

Thanks fishman! I believe I was $30-$40 deep all said and done.

oh and I've been messing with this for about 2 months. Took me forever to understand the concept on how the whole Sump/wet dry system works!