Cheapest & Smallest Do It Yourself (DIY) PVC Overflow (Drip Systems) - RomaAquatics.com 🆒 

I just made this, few things I learnt/changed from this design: 1) The PEX tubing (I used regular tubing) if flexible enough, can be hidden inside the whole contraption, further improving the overall size and look. 2) Better if the PEX tubing is bigger than the airline tube (siphon bigger than output ) or there will be bubbles in the output. 3) Input and output of the overflow should be bigger than whatever input you have going into the tank or the overflow system wont be able to keep up. This design really helped me out, looking forward to the new update!

Instead of those elbows, use a T and instead of the airhose, use smaller diameter pvc which can fit inside the larger pvc "shell". You'll get better flow overall and there is no danger for it to kink up and stop the flow, which could cause some issues

I absolutely love this video and it is what I am looking for thank you. I would recommend that you do the thinking, let somebody else do the work before you drill a hole in your hand. Great work

Thanks man, this is exactly what I was looking for.

I just finished making this overflow. It is awesome. Thank you so much for sharing your idea. Brilliant. Phase two will be to set up a drain to outside. Phase 3 will be automatic addition of water with an irrigation timer. At that point there will be no more buckets involved in the water change Woo Hoo👍

The large version really shows exactly how it works. Great video!

Nicely done .. i was just curios about overflow systems and found you video very easy to follow and to build thanks for sharing .. !!

If you had done a RU-vid search you would have seen this build Exactly what you did...

Thank You!! It makes sense and will be making some variants to this shortly!

I searched on videos that came up on this topic and I commend you for the simplicity of your solution. Back when I was breeding Freshwater Anglefish (which was pre-2000) I considered essentially this idea , but ultimately discarded it because it was not self priming. I wanted to clean my tanks with a siphon cleaner, then have them automatically refill to a desired level with a constant drip, then have them hold that level as the drip continued. The solution I ended up with was self-priming, would not drain or siphon lower that the desired level and did not require drilling the tank. The downside? It takes a small amount of air from your air supply. I used CPVC pipe and fittings (typically the same pipe used for in-tank foam filter lift tubes). Its smaller in diameter than 1/2" SCH40 PVC and works well here, although slightly more expensive. You need two 90 degree elbows and probably about 20" of straight pipe cut into two 9" pieces and one 2" piece. Assemble these into a tall narrow U. Now drill into the top of both elbows to allow you to insert your airline about 2-8" down one side. That it! Now drape this over your tank with the airline inside the tank. Connect the airline to your air supply and voila, the tank will now overflow as the air lifts the water high enough to flow over the top and down the other side, leveling out somewhere that can be controlled by the airflow you set and the depth you insert the airline into the tank. Drilling the extra vent hole on the second elbow guarantees you cant create a siphon that could drain your tank more than you expected. As a final feature, I slipped some clear PVC tubing over the drain side and ran that to my drain pipe.

That is really great! Love how compact it is. Looking forward to future vids

the flow rate will increase if the flexible tubing height is built considerably lower to the pvc so the weight of the water is not overcome from the distance of the elbow to the drain. increase the distance of the exit length from the elbow to the exit port will also increase flow rate... excellent design my friend

I like it great 💡 the smaller the better though you've made it smaller and this is perfect for a drip system great job I had to watch out twice but I've got it

I just want to say that is truly amazing. I am going to set up 10 or 15 20L shrimp tanks and I was mulling over how to do the water changes and this is perfect. Thank you so very much for sharing.

Well done. Great video.

Very nice, appreciate you sharing this with everyone!

Awesome bro!

Amazing idea...I believe if the pipes are held by suction clips they will stay in place....great content and keep up the good work...Thank you very much👍🏻👍🏻

This is what I was searching for thank u bro for sharing this video ❤

great video , great to see that it works with larger size pipe , definitely be trying this in the future , you have me thinking now

Amazing. Genius. Thanks for the design. I was looking for a non drill overflow.

This will be great for my fry tank, I needed a small solution, Thanks you 👍

Great job

U could use heater suction cups holders to hold the PVC to the glass

Definitely taken to consideration for shrimp / fish rack builders! Great video again Chris!

Great design, i want something similar. The only thing I would change is the position of the mechanical filter (sponge) you have it in the second stage, its intended to collect all the solid waste from the fish, in its current location the majority of the waste would sit in the bottom tank forcing you to suck it out at a later date some will make its way to the top but the most will settle, this then leaves the top part totally for bio filter far more effective and spotless water 👍 other than that I'm very impressed

Great video..thanks a lot

Color me impressed! This was a brilliant build!

Very helpful, thanks for sharing sir

okay Chris, just built your version of the overflow! :) works great so far. using air line for the flex tubing.

Great video! I found it very informative and educational!

So easy and perfect recommend making

Awesome video chris thank you for sharing that. It'll certainly help in my upcoming projects👍👍

I knew there was an easier way to do this then the big bulky $10 designs. I don't think the flex hose has to be on the bottom just below the inlet and outlet. I shall slightly modify your design THANK YOU very much

Great concept! I love the idea of running it behind the matten filter. Giving me ideas... ;)

UPDATE VIDEO COMING SOON!!!!!, I tweaked this to be even smaller but yet have a stronger flow, especially on the large version. For those interested in the changes. The PEX tube is fitted inside the top PVC elbows, (the ones only used for holding the unit) therefore hiding the PEX tubing. The pipe inside the tank can be made much shorter, however the lower the output hole is on the outer pipe the better the flow will be. So the longer the outer pipe is the better the flow. To maximize flow, you need to have as much space in between the input hole on the inner pipe and the output hole on the outer pipe. In retrospect, that should have been obvious. In summary, If you only need a slow drip overflow, you can make this thing TINY (because you don't need much length in the outer pipe. If you need a faster flow you will have to sacrifice size for flow because you will need to make the outer pipe longer.

Beast! Love this video!

This is pretty cool, how ever I don't ever seeing this being capable of flowing as much water as the other design. So for larger systems, especially SW tank that needs to flow 1500+ gallon per hour I just don't see this design being practical. For a smaller FW or slow current SW tank I can see this being a nice compact design.

watch your hands with the drill, just spin it round or mark it and put pipe on a bench or floor to drill. apart from that absolutely impressive, going to try this. thanks

Awesome awesome awesome!

I really like your video .... You're a good "explainer ".....LOL Great for people that are slow like me, I think I might even be able to do this😁 better yet even afford it!!! my fish( thank you ) and ,I thank you as well* Definitely one of the best do-it-yourself videos I think I've ever seen ... please keep making videos! sincerely, new fan KELSIB

Geez after almost drilling a hole in your hand several times... you said "what I like to do is get a blowtorch" ...I thought oh Lord here we go!! Lol I felt like I was watching a fail video and I kept waiting for the accident to happen...lol

Great video! Thanks for sharing brother! Really helpful.

You could use two T's to replace the two L's on the top to give you both a support and two wide openings on the top for the inverted U pipe. It is much easier. No drilling needed on the elbows.

If something, like a leaf or small fish gets sucked into the hole, your pump will cause pump to overflow your tank. Don't have just one input hole. Drill holes all around the pipe. Also, don't hold the PVC you are drilling. You might slip and put a hole in your hand. You can avoid this by using a vice.

Thanks!! Perfect!!

Thanks mate awesome workmanship 👍

This is awesome...thanks for sharing.

So this is basically using the plex tubing as a siphon between two mini reservoirs. The advantage with the clear tubing is that you can visibly check that the siphon is intact.

Im gonna do this out of bendy straws hahaha thanks

That’s awesome will deff be making one of those

This is a great improvement over the method that Rachel OLeary had shown. Kudos for the design upgrade. I am wondering if you have improved further on this? Have you had any failure rates for the drip idea? If I wanted to make it a siphon to pull the water out instead of a gravel vac for easier changes- what step would I leave out to do so? [ Ps I want some of the frogbit you have still! ]

Nice build Roma! I seen the larger overflow in a fishroom tour Dustin did I don't remember who the guy was he visited but that system was something I was interested in. Your build I'm definitely saving for a future project! Thanks for sharing 👍👍

WHEN YOU STARTED TO DRILL THAT PIPE IN YOUR HANDS😓😮good video tho 👍

Cool, thanks for sharing!

Why does the hose need to be on the outside of the pvc. Will it work if it was inside the pvc with a hole drilled in the middle instead

Fantastic idea but it would only work for aquariums with little water flow. Thank you

Amazing!!!

Is the flex tube necessary? As long as you have holes in the top won’t the water just flow up the pvc and over the other side? Trying to understand why

Hola muy interesante overflow gracias por compartir tu experiencia saludos un abrazo

Hi Roma, Great idea! As there is no water anywhere in the pvc pipes above the in/out holes, is it safe to dril a hole above those holes to put a suction-cup into it and suction it to the side of the aquarium?

you could save a little more money and make your own elbows by heating pipe and use pipe springs or flex pipe to insert into pipe to hold structure to stop kink. if you cant make long straight bends you can add a sleeve which is still cheaper than a elbow . once your elbow is made dip in cool water to hold shape and pull out spring or flex pipe . heating is best with heat gun. try to use a spring or flex pipe that is close as you can to fill the pipe but must be able to slip in out of pipe to remove it after you dip into water.

Use a freaking clamp when you're drilling pipe! I kept thinking the video would cut out, then you'd come back with a bandaged hand! lol

I was looking to make something like this for a pong overflow for when it rains

Hey, thanks for making this video. It inspired me to make these for my own aquariums. :-) Made some experimental changes to their design and am currently testing one on the first tank as part of an auto water changing system (works perfectly), soon to be followed by the second tank. Are you still using these overflow thingies yourself? If not, why not, and what alternative did you go for?

Hello , I just made one just like yours and it does work well ! ( my first time doing DIY stuff) i would like to know how do i increase the flow i am using it for a sump ( i dont want the return pump to be faster than the overflow )

I remember cutting PVC with a serrated bread knife... That took a while

For the love of god invest in a vice I’m sat here cringing like mad when you slip

How about a three way at the corners to alleviate the need to drill the larger holes?

Thank you it works great in my water garden

Simpel keren 🙏

Thank you for the video, after I see your video I make an overflow th my tank, but it is too small or I make something wrong, I need 30 gallons / hour. Do you have experience what dimensions of tube I need to use to get 30 galont/h?

Oh yeah I even like your background music LOL

How would you match the pump flow rate with this? I have a similar siphon out of large 1.25 inch pvc but a slightly different design with a wider pvc pipe wier. (Joey's designs) I find it absolutely impossible to match the pump speed to the overflow speed. The water level for the return pump is either going up or down and I'm constantly adjusting the valves to no avail

The flow is also being affected by how high you have the vinyl tube.

Hey there i know this is a while since the video. First question i have is has it failed you at all yet as i want to use it for a drip system just like yourself but want to make sure the small tubing and the design hasnt failed as your design suits my purpose to a tee. 2nd question i have is if i cant locate any PEX tubing or i can only buy large amounts is it possible to do it with another pipe like reinforced vinyl tubing or something else but still supported and held the same way? Thank you kindly!

Why do you need such large reservoirs for the little pipe that does the work?

Here's a thought: try using a manifold wye instead of the elbow/street-elbow.

Hello sir. If the return pump is 7500 l/h (+-2000 gal/h) with 3/4" pipe, what size of pipe and hose should I take to keep it up? Please advise, thanks.

Hi, what are the factor to consider to prevent losing the prime in the flex tubing? how reliable is the system?

nice video. so pretty much the PVC is just acting as an overflow box and the tubing is the overflow.

So if I want to get the water out faster and more, I have to replace the other wire bigger, right?

You could have used the same PVC size in your "bigger model" as you did in the smaller one, it would make no difference to the flow rate. The water flows through the flexible tube, so that's the bottleneck in terms of flow rate and I doubt that size flexible tube is going to let enough water through for a large tank. Unless I'm missing something ? I'm busy building a similar setup for my 100g tank, but have the PVC pipe running into a small plastic container outside of the tank and then draining from there into my sump. That way the size of the PVC pipe matters and you can get some really good flow rates - similar to the original bulky one that you're replacing.

If there is just the one hole, what happens when something blocks it. I would think multiple holes would work better.

very cool

Been looking at doing something similar in my fishroom. How has it been Workin for you over the past few months

was wondering from where i could purchase this ?

Hey buddy, I did as you directed in the video but its a bit noisy what can I do To make it quieter?

Great video! BUT, in the beginning you showed a glue gun, then never used it or showed it again?! Did you glue the pvc? I would think that the end cap on the output side and the airline tubing for the water exit must be sealed - the rest doesn't really need to be water tight....right?

Do you need to prime it again every once in awhile?

Intake to small but 💪🎊 great vis

Roma Aquatics! Great Video! From what I understand this would work with an automatic water change system on a 10 gallon shrimp tank. Am I Right? I have been trying to find a cheap alternative to drilling the tanks for the overflow. Thanks!

Great video but if you replace the L's with T's save your hands from the drill bit...

A little advice... no matter how large the tube you use will it change the flow if the flow tubing is a lot smaller. The airline tubing has to be larger for the water volume to be higher. You a good idea but it has a lot of room for improvement to get the flow going faster. I would use this system, at least the smaller one, for a drip system but as it is now I wouldn't use it for an overflow system, at least not without doing some serious reworking to it to get the flow up much higher.

I have a ton of micro bubbles... why do you suppose that is?

Did everything in this video and mine won’t stay primed

nice and smart , thanks again;Can you fixe yours exclusive outflows at the back of your tanks ?

Have these been working well?

I can tell you what the flow issue was. You said to push the tube all the way down to the cap. Imagine if you will, you put a straw into a drink cup and it nearly is flat with the end of the straw. you try and drink out of it, but can't cause it is restricted. So case in point, put the hose all the way in, but once you hit the cap, pull it back about a half of an inch or so to allow a free flow into the hose. and same on the other side to allow a good outflow into the other side of the pipe.

What do you call that golden hole-making drill bit? Thanks.