To drill or Overflow....

[ZeroHour]

Want to drill the tank but concerned over potential shatterage lol.

Would go HOB overflow but fear or potential floodage......

So what would you do if you had an undrilled 60 and that was the only hold up.....

I have a 20L sump to work with in this case.

Help a newb!!!


Oh and if you could tell me why you make the suggestion you do that would be great lol

[Mr Cob]

I don't miss my "HOB overflow" days. I shouldn't have to explain this one. "Muphy's law" plays a big part in HOB overflows. And... if you have never had problems, then that just means your day is getting closer. u-tubes are the way to go if it's an absolute must.

If it can be drilled.... DRILL IT!

[Mr Cob]

Oh...I really don't miss syphoning! For some reason I always got a mouthful of nasty water (nasty because my water changes during those days were months apart...lol)

[txg8gxp]

+1 for drilling, don't fight gravity...you will lose one day.

[ZeroHour]

aight ill call tomorrow and get her drilled I wanna get moving on this thing I am getting antsy to get it cycling and I think after todays tutorial im doing some foam practice tomorrow to see if I can foam the bigger tank

[ZeroHour]

would either a RIO 2500 or 1700 be enough for return?

[FireWater]

would either a RIO 2500 or 1700 be enough for return?

Depends on how much flow you want running through the set up. Also have to factor in how much you can flow through your sump set up. When I started out it was explained to me that you want about 10 times your gallonage to flow through - so in your case you would want at least 600 gph + extra (flow restriction for height and tubing). There are other opinions out there as well but, hope this helps and gives a starting point

[ZeroHour]

How does one gauge the ROF from display to the sump? How do you match the flow rates? Regulator valves on the flow into or out of the sump?

[phippsj]

So the challenge is knowing if the bottom is tempered or not. The sides, however, generally are not (although you can certainly find out). I elected to go with a dual overflow from Gl*******s.com. It has a very small footprint in my display, and I was able to drill only the side (versus the bottom as that was tempered).

Now, about a week later I dropped a router bit and shattered the bottom glass anyways, so I had to replace the glass (I think that was $120 for a 72" x 24" piece of glass for a 180G). I guess that defeated my 'bottom saving' phillosophy :)

[Regric25]

So lets say you drill your tank and put in an over flow. Now lets say you use a 500 GPH pump to send the water back to the tank. With an overflow the water will only "drain" into the sump as fast as the pump puts out. The exception to that rule is if the pipe or hose you use is too small in diameter, it might slow down the flow back to the sump. Usually when you have a hole drilled at the LFS they will ask you what size hole and bulkhead you want. You can tell them what size pump you are going to use and they will make sure they drill the correct size holes for the size bulkheads you will need and then they will tell you what size tube or PVC to use to achieve the GPH you want.

Oh yea when picking a pump be sure to account for headloss. Measure how much PVC or tube you will be using on your return and look at the back of the pump box and it will tell you the TRUE gph. The longer the tube/PVC the lower the GPH will be. I use a MAG 9.5 pump that is rated at 950 gph. With the amount of tube I am using it is only truly putting out about 750 gph.

[ErikH]

Go slow flow and make your whole sump a large fuge. Use powerheads for flow. I am in the process of redoing my hastily setup 200 to make it more like my old 75g. It was as stable as it gets. MY 48 had 2x2" drains and it was ran by a mag5 split in two. There was nothing in the sump, the display was just macro rock and sand. It used to house seahorses, but they always managed to wiggle through the egg crate and die. Very rarely did I clean the glass!