Gsander,
Theres is no problem doing what you describe.
You may want to be careful to really make sure there is very little agitation of the water flowing through the comb of the overflow. A Durso pipe maybe. The only reason to do that is to make sure you are not loosing CO2 due to the agitation. It's not a big problem actually but CO2 escapes very easily when the surface is turbulent.
A thing to watch is floating plant matter blocking the overflow comb. Some people put an additonal strainer around the comb.
Hooking up the Eheim to the bulkheads is not a problem. It would be practical to have ball valves and unions (Eheim or Home Depot) installed in the in and outflow filter hoses so you can remove the filter if you need. Also maybe it's a good idea for the intake hose to be of a greater diameter so the filter never has problems sucking water.
One last thing - I assume you will have the discharge of the filter close to the overflow. When your tank becomes densely planted you may have problems with the flow because the plants obstruct it. That may not be the best positioning for the outflow. There are 3 options to resolve that:
- extend the outflow further
- have a the filter suck water from the bulkhead overflow but discharge through a separate hose on the opposite side of the tank (best option I think)
- install a spraybar running along the back glass of the tank.
--Nikolay
Theres is no problem doing what you describe.
You may want to be careful to really make sure there is very little agitation of the water flowing through the comb of the overflow. A Durso pipe maybe. The only reason to do that is to make sure you are not loosing CO2 due to the agitation. It's not a big problem actually but CO2 escapes very easily when the surface is turbulent.
A thing to watch is floating plant matter blocking the overflow comb. Some people put an additonal strainer around the comb.
Hooking up the Eheim to the bulkheads is not a problem. It would be practical to have ball valves and unions (Eheim or Home Depot) installed in the in and outflow filter hoses so you can remove the filter if you need. Also maybe it's a good idea for the intake hose to be of a greater diameter so the filter never has problems sucking water.
One last thing - I assume you will have the discharge of the filter close to the overflow. When your tank becomes densely planted you may have problems with the flow because the plants obstruct it. That may not be the best positioning for the outflow. There are 3 options to resolve that:
- extend the outflow further
- have a the filter suck water from the bulkhead overflow but discharge through a separate hose on the opposite side of the tank (best option I think)
- install a spraybar running along the back glass of the tank.
--Nikolay
