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Plumbing the Shadow®Overflow to your sump – Q&A

Plumbing the Overflow to your Sump.

So you now have your aquarium drilled and the overflow installed. If not, go back and watch this video on How to Drill You Aquarium for the Shadow Overflow.

Now you need to get the overflow plumbed into you sump. Here are some questions you first need to ask yourself to plumb it properly.

  1. How many gallons per hour (GPH) will my tank be running?

    – 2500 GPH is the Maximum flow rate for 1 Shadow Overflow. You can use 1 Shadow Overflow on any size aquarium that will be running anything up to 2500 GPH. If you have a larger aquarium and need more flow, just install more Shadow Overflows!

  2. How many Shadow Overflows am I running?

    – 1, 2, 3? This will indicate how many drain lines you will need. 1 Overflow will require 3 drain lines. 2 Overflows will need 6 drains. While some can be combined, it depends on each setup.

  3. How many drain bulkheads does my current sump have?

    – The Shadow Overflow requires a minimum of 3 drain lines up to 1.5″ each for the quietest operation. Some sumps only have 2 drain line ports. You will need to run the 3rd drain into your skimmer section.

  4. What size are your sumps drain lines?

    – We recommend 3 x 1.5″ drain lines on the sump for flow rates over 1500 GPH. If your sump only has 1″ drains installed on it, you can use it. You will need to reduce the drain lines down on the overflow to 1″, this does reduce your maximum flow rate to 1500 GPH.

  5. How long will my drain lines be? Short runs under the stand or long runs to a basement or remote sump.

    – The best way to plumb the Shadow drains is with short runs. While long runs will work, you will need to do your research and make sure the drains are all draining down, with no sections going up.

  6. Where do I install the gate valve?

    – The gate valve should be installed on the primary drain line. So what ever drain port you choose to use as the primary (any of the 3 will work perfectly fine) will have the gate valve installed on it. You need to install the gate valve where you can access it easily and still be able to see the rear box of the overflow. This way you can tune the rear box properly. We DO NOT recommend installing the gate valve in a remote location. This makes it very difficult to fine tune the overflow.

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