Opinions of drilling tank

[jpkboca]

Hello,

I've had my tank for several years and had a over the back overflow. I am moving soon so need to take down and re-do my tank, and one of the things I want to do is drill it, but I hae a few questions.

For any of you who have drilled, how did you make your overflow? Has anyone use glassh*les overflows? Did you like them? What about makign a coast to coast overflow [it seems a bit complicated]. My number one thing is I want something that is quiet.

I cannot drill the bottom it is tempered. I hope the back isn't but kow for a fact the bottom is as it has a sticker on it.

Any ideas/suggestions let me know so I can research them, just want some real world ideas.

Thanks a ton.

Jeff

[whiteshark]

I recently set up a small tank and did a coast-to-coast internal weir with and external overflow box with a Bean Animal drain. The external overflow is fed from the internal weir via three holes drilled in the tank. I wouldn't do a tank any other way. Granted it's only been running with water in it for a few weeks now, but it has so many advantages. It wasn't really difficult to install, it is silent, the internal weir takes up very little space in the back, and with the back of the tank painted black it's hardly noticeable.

Again, though, it is only a 24" long tank, but I would definitely try this on a larger tank. Honestly the hardest part was making sure I gave the glass cutters the correct dimensions.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2420434

[whiteshark]

For reference:

[jpkboca]

thanks ill read up on that. not sure if i want a external overlfow, but bean animal dain is nice from what i hear.

[pmrossetti]

A friend used the g holes kit and it worked great.

[rustyjames]

I ran an Eshopps hob overflow for about a year with no problems but I was always nervous. Single channel overflows like Glass,holes are noisy but mine isn't too bad. If your breaking the tank down to move, drill baby drill. Two holes for a Herbie or better yet three for a Bean with c2c. It's not that hard and plenty of info here.

[whiteshark]

Originally Posted by jpkboca

thanks ill read up on that. not sure if i want a external overlfow, but bean animal dain is nice from what i hear.

If you have a larger tank an internal overflow would be fine as well. I did the external mainly for space saving in the DT since it's small. I was apprehensive about it at first, but I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out.

As mentioned above, though, I definitely think you should drill the tank. It looks so much cleaner and alleviates so many concerns with over the top setups. And definitely look into the Bean Animal. I LOVE that drain.

[jpkboca]

Ohh believe me I am drilling, that's not a question :-) Just how I am drilling is the only question :-) I've done the eshopps HOB too long, it worked ok but there were a few 'close calls'. I don't want that nervousness anymore (not to mention it was a little noisy).

I'm likign what you all say about coast to coast and bean so far.

[E.Rude]

I had a narrow coast to coast w/ external BeanAnimal on my 125 and it was awesome! I angled the internal weir so water didn't drop down, it rolled down the inside of the weir, and the system was silent. Before that, I had two G-holes 700gph overflows and they were obnoxiously loud. All joking aside, when I would power down the return pump to do water changes, there would be a phantom "white noise" in my head because I'd gotten so used to the constant noise. I would never recommend g-holes.

[TTrout]

They have all different sizes, but I picked up my overflow from Premium Aquatics here

It was very easy to silicon in. There is a lot of talk about how acrylic and silicon don't bond, so that has me maybe a little nervous, however after siliconing mine in it's rock solid so we'll see how it does. I suppose if I did it again, I might create a glass overflow and then glue the acrylic overflow to it since I still like to have the teeth. I do believe that is what glasscages.com does with their aquariums.

As for drilling, it was very easy. Check out bulkreefsupply.com for the hole saw and bulkheads. Just take your time and you should be fine. Here's my build thread for reference.

I didn't go with the gl@ssh0les setup mainly because I didn't like how thin they were. Yeah, they take up less space, but maintaining that would be pain I think. Also, you are reversing the bulkhead in the tank which isn't how they were designed to be used which also made me nervous.

[wildman926]

I use a hob overflow, with dual u tubes, using a herbie for years now. I have never lost siphon, no "close calls", and dead silent. I use a couple of bioballs over the open pipes in the overflow to act as screens. I have even had an anemone clog up one u tube, with no issues, just noise to alert me that something is wrong. Even with that setup, I still run a pump stopper kit from Aquahub, "just in case".

[Fishy 1]

I would go with a coast to coast with a bean and external overflow, best system you can get in my opinion. I'm only doing a small weir in my new build (because I don't have the space for a coast to coast) and an external overflow with a bean.
I found a cool video on YouTube showing how to check if an aquarium is tempered and all you have to do is get a pair of polarized sunglasses and look at the back window of your car(the back window of most cars are tempered), you should see black dots or lines on the glass, now look at your tank and if you see no dots or lines its safe to drill. I haven't tried it yet though.

[jpkboca]

My back is painted black so that won't help :-)

Thanks for all the input guys.