The Shadow™ Overflow from Synergy Reef has arrived!

[M3ace9]

Good call. I'll do 1" returns and keep the 1.5" overflow.

I'm having mine built as well and I'm trying to tell them where to drill the holes. How did you tell them?

I'm having my holes drilled close to the overflow bow to keep good flow in the middle of my tank. I also had 4 holes drilled on the corners of the eurobrace so I can add 3/4 pvc returns just in case I decide to add a closed looped system to replace powerheads

 

[Mebeknob]

I'm having my holes drilled close to the overflow bow to keep good flow in the middle of my tank. I also had 4 holes drilled on the corners of the eurobrace so I can add 3/4 pvc returns just in case I decide to add a closed looped system to replace powerheads

Hey I shot you a message. Didn't want to clog up their thread here.

 

[mixer911]

For a 150 gal DT would you do a reducer to 1" over flow and then 3/4 return?

Yes you can reduce them down to 1" drains. It will still handle up to 1500 GPH

 

[garcia64]

Super excited!! Will be installing this baby on a 30g lagoon this up coming week

 

[mixer911]

Super excited!! Will be installing this baby on a 30g lagoon this up coming week

Awesome! Share some photos when you're done!

 

[M3ace9]

Awesome! Share some photos when you're done!

Working out the details of the plumbing as we speak. Question, does the third emergency drain (without the U shaped attachment) have to be in the front? Or can I have drain 1 and 2 next to one another. Thanks

 

[cracker]

good question. I'd like to know why and if the utube caps are necessary. Iv'e installed 2 of these and left the u's off . Thanks for allowing me to sneak in that question.

 

[mixer911]

Working out the details of the plumbing as we speak. Question, does the third emergency drain (without the U shaped attachment) have to be in the front? Or can I have drain 1 and 2 next to one another. Thanks

It can be positioned in any drain hole you would like. The placement of the drains and U pipes can be configured to fit your needs.

good question. I'd like to know why and if the utube caps are necessary. Iv'e installed 2 of these and left the u's off . Thanks for allowing me to sneak in that question.

Depends on how your setup is. For low flow situations, not using the U pipes would be fine. The more flow that is running they will become necessary to make it silent.

 

[M3ace9]

@mixer911 Also, would it be ok to run a little less that a foot of parallel hard plumbing for the full siphon drains? I read that this can pose an issue but not sure to what extent. Thanks again

 

[mixer911]

@mixer911 Also, would it be ok to run a little less that a foot of parallel hard plumbing for the full siphon drains? I read that this can pose an issue but not sure to what extent. Thanks again

@M3ace9 It really depends on your flow rate, but you would want to use the gate valve after the parallel piece. You want the pipe to be full of water so it isn't making too much noise.

 

[M3ace9]

@M3ace9 It really depends on your flow rate, but you would want to use the gate valve after the parallel piece. You want the pipe to be full of water so it isn't making too much noise.

Alright, I currently have my valve right under the overflow box going into a 90 then it's parallel for 5 inches and then 2 45s down into the sump. I will be running a vectra L1 and plan on getting 1200 gph through there so the valve will be 95% open I assume. With that said do you advise I change it up? This should catch full siphon quickly since the valve will be almost wide open. Thanks for the help!

 

[mixer911]

View attachment 451584
Alright, I currently have my valve right under the overflow box going into a 90 then it's parallel for 5 inches and then 2 45s down into the sump. I will be running a vectra L1 and plan on getting 1200 gph through there so the valve will be 95% open I assume. With that said do you advise I change it up? This should catch full siphon quickly since the valve will be almost wide open. Thanks for the help!

You should be fine with it like that.

 

[domination2580]

Ok so would I need just one for a 120 gallon?

 

[mixer911]

Ok so would I need just one for a 120 gallon?

Yes, 1 would be plenty.

 

[Jstn]

I found to cut the second stand pipe taller than recommended to quiet mine down a bunch. I think it's recommendate at 3.25, after mine was very loud i increased the size to 4.5" inches and was able to make mine near silent with a vectra l1 on 50%. In fact the only noise is from water splashing into the box as the level fluctuates from my high mounted mp40

 

[Lowell Lemon]

Well done on the mold injection and design. What a great idea!

 

[Lowell Lemon]

@kattz,
I have a few (30 plus) years of experiance in the acrylic aquarium market so there are some major differences you need to know about the recapture of cost for mold injection versus the car industry. First of all the potential number of customers and sales for the Shadow is much lower than a typical market for mass produced parts for both the manufacturer and after market car buying public. So Synergy Reef is making a much larger financial gamble than your company when they make a part. Potential buyers may be in the low thousands per year at best for Reef Aquarium parts. In the car industry you can go through several molds just to meet production requirements whereas Synergy Reef may only use one set of molds for this products entire life cycle. They have had to put out a lot of capital just to develop this overflow...I know I researched mold injected overflows way back in the 1980's and 1990's for designs that I was producing then. The development cost made the project cost prohibitive due to the numbers of units being produced in this country for sale. So we in the industry continued to make them by hand or CNC and hand assemble. Since the collapse of many mold injection businesses in the U.S. mold injection machines are cheap on a used basis but not in the clamp pressures required to run their parts as you know. Also you know the only way to make money in mold injection is to keep the machines running 24/7/365 for the best return on the investment. With the lower production you will have to break down the machines and purge the lines and their molder will have to switch to other molds to keep their machines running to make a profit. So their cost per part is much higher than yours since your company may run several hundred thousand parts per production run making each part pennies each. Not so for Synergy Reef.

As a person who runs a business we have to calculate the ROI based on our cash flows as well. Something to consider as you compare your business experiance to Rick's at Synergy Reef. Now add product insurance cost, advertising, packaging, shipping, distribution, and other related overhead costs and Synergy Reef may actually be charging to little per assembly if they cannot sell enough of the product to offset the huge mold development costs. Mold injection for low production parts is a risky and costly venture. I think you see where I am going as you are the engineer. Just saying the industy for Reef Aquariums is rather small world wide in comparison to auto parts manufacture.

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

I had to search for what post you were replying to @Lowell Lemon but I recalled reading it a while back! I can 100% agree with you on this

Potential buyers may be in the low thousands per year at best for Reef Aquarium parts.

Mold injection for low production parts is a risky and costly venture.

the industy for Reef Aquariums is rather small world wide

Yes, yes, and yes.

 

[mixer911]

I found to cut the second stand pipe taller than recommended to quiet mine down a bunch. I think it's recommendate at 3.25, after mine was very loud i increased the size to 4.5" inches and was able to make mine near silent with a vectra l1 on 50%. In fact the only noise is from water splashing into the box as the level fluctuates from my high mounted mp40

Good call @Jstn Yes that is the one thing we tell people. That second pipe has to be the correct level (and this depends on the tanks actual flow) in order to make the overflow quiet. In our testing we used so many different pumps and pipe sizes that we just like to give a basic starting point. Thanks for adding your experience.

@kattz,
I have a few (30 plus) years of experiance in the acrylic aquarium market so there are some major differences you need to know about the recapture of cost for mold injection versus the car industry. First of all the potential number of customers and sales for the Shadow is much lower than a typical market for mass produced parts for both the manufacturer and after market car buying public. So Synergy Reef is making a much larger financial gamble than your company when they make a part. Potential buyers may be in the low thousands per year at best for Reef Aquarium parts. In the car industry you can go through several molds just to meet production requirements whereas Synergy Reef may only use one set of molds for this products entire life cycle. They have had to put out a lot of capital just to develop this overflow...I know I researched mold injected overflows way back in the 1980's and 1990's for designs that I was producing then. The development cost made the project cost prohibitive due to the numbers of units being produced in this country for sale. So we in the industry continued to make them by hand or CNC and hand assemble. Since the collapse of many mold injection businesses in the U.S. mold injection machines are cheap on a used basis but not in the clamp pressures required to run their parts as you know. Also you know the only way to make money in mold injection is to keep the machines running 24/7/365 for the best return on the investment. With the lower production you will have to break down the machines and purge the lines and their molder will have to switch to other molds to keep their machines running to make a profit. So their cost per part is much higher than yours since your company may run several hundred thousand parts per production run making each part pennies each. Not so for Synergy Reef.

As a person who runs a business we have to calculate the ROI based on our cash flows as well. Something to consider as you compare your business experiance to Rick's at Synergy Reef. Now add product insurance cost, advertising, packaging, shipping, distribution, and other related overhead costs and Synergy Reef may actually be charging to little per assembly if they cannot sell enough of the product to offset the huge mold development costs. Mold injection for low production parts is a risky and costly venture. I think you see where I am going as you are the engineer. Just saying the industy for Reef Aquariums is rather small world wide in comparison to auto parts manufacture.

Well said. The reefing hobby is a very low volume and we did take a risk with making molds. Right now plastic prices are sky high when doing low volume production. Also 2 of our molds require an extra operator to remove the parts by hand, which is not cheap. These are large molded parts. We wanted to bring the best possible product to the market and still have a good value priced item. This is a product we truly love and enjoy ourselves, so we wanted everyone else to be able to enjoy it with us. With it being molded, we are now able to add features that are unthinkable when hand building with flat stock. As more and more people start to use these they will see all the details we have designed into the Shadow!

 

[Jstn]

Thanks, it's eerie how silent my 120 is now with this overflow a vectra and mp40qd. Also your heater mounts are so dang pimp!!!!!!