Gap in teeth for grate on overflow?

[AquaticEngineer]

I'm going to be making a built in overflow box for one of my coldwater tanks on wednesday. I was wondering if there is a recommended gap size between the overflow teeth or if it is more of a preference as to fish size in the tank? Or potential of blockage by algae or waste?

 

Is there a rule of thumb?

 

Or is it different for every tank?

 

I'm going to have the 3 pieces I need cut at the shop I'm buying the acrylic at. Unless I can get a for sure measurement for them to cut the teeth I was going to wait and do it at home.

[andy]

Zero -- no teeth. Just do a flat-edged overflow. Teeth don't help with anything, and cut down on the surface-skimming efficiency.

[titus'reef]

if you do it with teeth than i can also make more noise,

talking from my experience.

[AquaticEngineer]

My big concern about a zero edge overflow is that I will have Catalina gobies in the tank and dont want them constantly getting sucked over. It's not likely that they would spend that much time near the overflow, but dont want to take the chance of them going over and into the tank in the garage.

 

The drain on the overflow will have a durso on it so it should be fairly quiet.

[reeferscooter]

I would make the overflow box go along the whole back side. This should give you good surface skimming and allows for less flow over the box.

[reef165]

If your going to do teeth, it depends on what you are going to be cutting the teeth in with, I used to use a 1/4 inch router bit, but had to leave 3/8 between the cuts or the potential for the tooth to snap off was to great. if you are going to just use a table saw (not recomended between teeth is to small and clog easy) then ya could prob do 1/4 between them

[AquaticEngineer]

I would make the overflow box go along the whole back side. This should give you good surface skimming and allows for less flow over the box.

 

(clap)Ooooooooo that may be the way to go, much less work, and a much cleaner look. I wouldn't need the teeth either and it wouldn't take up that much real estate in the tank since the back already has returns plumbe up through the bottom and the durso will be back there too.

[Smann]

Do both, flat overflow then put gutter guard or eggcrate on the backside where you wont see it. I havent worried about it yet but I have a screen in the overflow boxes so nothing can go down the drain, snails like it back there but i do have to help the occasional fish or crab back into the display

[AquaticEngineer]

Thats what I was thinking might work, do the flat overflow across the entire back of the tank and then on the intake side of the durso just put a bulkhead screen or something. What I'm debating on doing now is moving the overflow wall on the back of the tank up just a bit so it covers the return pipes as well and then just incorporate the returns into the overflow wall. Might be kind of cool, I can make the closed loop a little more effective by splitting it into multipe returns and the tank more attractive by hiding the tubes.

[andy]

Coast-to-coasts are a great idea: the wider the overflow, the thinner the layer of water skimmed off the surface, the more organics skimmed per volume of water.

[AquaticEngineer]

Its a little thrown together and scatterbrained but this is whats going to happen to the cube tank for the overflow and returns.