Question from a Sump Newbie

[Cap'n]

Originally Posted by Invigor

in my experience, overflows made NO sense at all to me until I actually hooked it up and figured out how it worked by watching it. If you have a friend that's running a sump/overflow setup, get him to show you how it all works. That'll be MUCH easier to understand than reading about it.

when you're doing your return plumbing REMEMBER TO DRILL A SMALL HOLE just above the water level so if the power goes out, it doesn't syphon the water outta your tank thru your returns. I learned that one the hard way

I have studied a few overflows in action, but I agree, I won't learn any better way than to try it myself. Just don't understand how I can run a powerhead (which is suppsed to never be run dry) to suck air out of an overflow?

Good advice about the siphon-stop, but I think I am going to sidestep that possibility by having my external eheim canister filter pull from the sump and return to the reef tank via a spray bar mounted above the water level.