Durso Standpipes Portal

Updated: October 2007

My coral reef aquarium was an Oceanic 180 gallon (680 liters) located in my dining room. It had two overflow boxes, one in each back corner. The aquarium came with a perforated pipe (a tube with a hundreds of holes in it) in the overflow chamber. This allowed the water to flow into the pipe quickly. However, this also meant that the water level in the overflow chambers was very low -- about 3 inches (8 cm) deep.


Durso Standpipe™ - Original Prototype March 1999

With such a low water level, water entering the overflow chamber had about a 20 inch (50 cm) drop! This sounded like Niagara Falls with about 1,500 gallons (5700 liters) per hour enter the overflow chambers. Secondly, each chamber made a gargling noise -- sounded like a toilet flushing 24 hours a day. It was so loud my wife could not sleep. I had to fix it fast!

A solution was suggested to me by Mark Lanett -- use a solid stand pipe with a submerged intake. This solution solved all my problems:

Little to no water fall.
Whisper quiet, no splashing or gurgling.
Each chamber becomes a refugium.
Chambers will not drain in a power outage.
Pipe is self priming.

Pictured to the left is the very first Durso Standpipe™ ever made. It is the original prototype I tested. The current design is slightly different with an operating water level a few inches higher.

This design is perfect for coral reef display, fish only saltwater or fresh water aquariums where you need a quieter display tank.