Photo By Brian Renken
An overflow box is also know as a siphon box or a prefilter, the aquarium overflow box ensures that your air pump and filter keep on working and do not get damaged in the event of a power shortage.
If your aquariums has goldfish or is less than 40 gallons of water, has been going well for the past few years and you have a few spare filters and pumps around the place then you will not need to worry about adding an overflow box.
An Aquarium overflow box is mainly used by the more hard-core aquarium hobbyist or professional aquarium owners as it is an insurance that their expensive equipment does not get ruined. When there is a power shortage the water can backup and short circuit the air pump and or the filtration unit
There are some people that make their own overflow boxes but mainly you can purchase them
When there is a power shortage you can find your tank suddenly overflowing. If your tank is not on the lower floor level of your home and it is more than ten gallons, then you ought to think about some kind of aquarium overflow box. A filled tank with gravel or sand and ornaments weights hundreds of pounds.
How To Tell If You Really Require An Overflow Tank
The majority of salt water tanks come with some kind of sump pump that are much sturdier than for a freshwater tank. When it's on, the water is kept level because it's moving around all of the time. But when the electricity is off, the water has nowhere to go but into the tank and onto your floor except you have an aquarium overflow box.
A good way to test this would be to place a lot of old towels and newspapers around the floor of your tank, (things might get wet). Get a normal bucket and a coffee can to bail if need be. Get A friend to help you if you can If you can, get your friend to turn the power on and off while you are there at the tank. Whilst the power is turned off if the water level suddenly rises more than one inch – or if you have a suddenly flooded floor – then you know you need an aquarium overflow box.
Finding An Overflow Tank
It is not hard to find an overflow box and my pet stores or aquarium shops stock them, you can even find them online.
There are ones particularly made for big freshwater aquariums, so be sure you have select the correct one for the tank that you have eg fresh or salt water. They vary in prices (like everything else) from under $50 (US) to $200 (US). Most work with a gravity flow system so you don’t need to break out a drill.
2 Responses
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Lindsey Says:
Great article on overflow boxes, It was great how you put in how to test it, knowing me I might have forgotten the towels.
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Genevieve Fiorillo Says:
Thanks for the information on overflow tanks, I actually have a tiny tank and am on the verge of purchase a larger one. this is great information to have as I may have never thought of it myself.