Bulkhead placement

[zchauvin]

I am going to be drilling my ADA tank this weekend in the upper left corner, back pane. I am wondering how high I should drill the hole for the drain, I only want a 1" at most gap between waterline and top of tank. Not sure if the bulkhead will be completely underwater or if the water will go half way up ect. I'm assuming this would all depend on how fast water is being pumped into tank?

[stingeragent]

Are you drilling a hole for a single bulkhead? If so, that's a bad idea. If you stick with 1 (even though its a bad idea), and you only get your bulkhead halfway submerged in water, its gonna sound like a toilet flushing 24/7. The first thing you gotta do is test fit your overflow in the tank to see where you want it. The water level is always going to be at the bottom of the teeth, so adjust that up or down accordingly to where you want the water line. The only time your waterline is gonna go above the bottom of those teeth is when a snail crawls into your single drain and clogs it and your return keeps on chuggin. ( sorry I couldn't resist.)

[zchauvin]

Hey thanks for the reply, there will actually be no over flow box only two bulkheads. One drain and one return, I don't want a box in the tank. Also I will be using bulkhead screens so there will be no worry of blockage by snails. Both the drain and return will have gate valves as well.

[stingeragent]

Are you going to use an external durso or something like that? Or are you just planning on have the bulkheads , pipe straight out and down? I'm new to sumps myself but I can't see anyone on here recommending that. In my humble opinion and take it for what you will, a screen seems good, that will keep larger stuff from going in, but all it takes is a snail sitting on top of the screen and your flow is gonna be greatly reduced. You also gotta consider algae growth, and also unless your going to use a very very small holed screen there are plenty of hitch hikers that can fit in tiny spots like mini brittle stars, and theres also the small white starfish that are only a few mm's wide (can't remember the name but I have 100's). What you gotta remember is, whatever the worst case scenario is, anything that could possibly restrict that single drain be it a snail, algae, a dead fish that gets sucked onto it, your tank is gonna overflow. Not trying to be mean or anything. I'm actually in the process of getting my first sump going. I've got my tank drilled and filled with an overflow box, been up about a week now, just waiting on getting the actual sump in place. I'm still a noob by far with sumps, and when I was about to buy everything I was gonna do the single drain also. I did a ton of research while I waited for my single bulkhead to come in the mail I decided I had to have 2 and went with a herbie style drain. I'm not 100% saying it can't work as I'm sure someone somewhere has made it work, but I personally wouldn't try it. The bad thing about drilling an aquarium is once you drill it, there's no going back. Now that I have mine drilled I wish I would of put my 2 drain holes about 1 inch lower but I'm stuck with it. I'd say just do some research on different drains, herbie, durso, bean animal, and the bulkhead only no overflow your wanting and see the advantages of them. If your concerned about noise, flooding potential, etc, look at that too before you drill. If you stick with your single bulkhead only drain, that's it. Theres no way to really adjust it. If its loud your basically stuck with it. If you drill it close to the top of the tank as I'm thinking your planning, it may or may not create a water vortex tornado (I have no clue but that's what I call it), It will be just like I said earlier, a toilet flushing, and you will have no way to fix it.

[zchauvin]

Well I know people have done it before and it works, I'm not going to spend the $250 to get essentially the same setup from over seas. As for the snails or crabs, I simply won't buy any and that will fix that. Algae, well I will clean it. After all the bulkhead will be completely exposed so it's not like I'll forget about the hair algae growing. All of the noise factors you are stating have to do with people not being able to control flow, I will have a DC return pump as well as gate valves on the drain and return. If I get a siphon on top of water, I'll use less flow, same as the toilet bowl sound. If I get a trickle because water isn't flowing fast enough I'll speed up pump/open valve.


I'm only after how close to the top I can drill without cracking glass. Seems people stay 1 1/2" - 2" from any edges. Anyone have anything to add relating to distance to glass to drill?

[rwb500]

Originally Posted by zchauvin

I'm only after how close to the top I can drill without cracking glass. Seems people stay 1 1/2" - 2" from any edges. Anyone have anything to add relating to distance to glass to drill?

sure dude. run a full siphon straight down a bulkhead 1" from the top of the tank. it will be fine, because you have a DC return pump. you can drill the tank wherever you like. I know you have read that there are limits to where you can drill, but that was probably just unhelpful people like stingeragent who said that. i know they come across like they are trying to help you but really they are just morons, right?

[zchauvin]

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1427301355.109969.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1427301368.616535.jpg


How is what I'm asking any different than either of these products which work the exact same way? Apparently both of these systems ( a bulkhead for drain and return on back glass ) all great reviews aside, are garbage and the idea is terrible? I mean unless if I spend the $$$ for the same thing it will make it work then I'm all for it.

And I'm not sure why you have to be sarcastic about it, not calling anyone a moron just trying to replicate a product ( as many people do) to save some time and money.

[rwb500]

he typed up a couple of long and detailed posts filled with accurate information and you pretty much just ignored it. and the idea of a full siphon down a single drain, 1" from the top of the tank, was just too funny for me to pass up.

those systems work but they will not be quiet, as he told you.

[zchauvin]

Originally Posted by rwb500

he typed up a couple of long and detailed posts filled with accurate information and you pretty much just ignored it. and the idea of a full siphon down a single drain, 1" from the top of the tank, was just too funny for me to pass up.

those systems work but they will not be quiet, as he told you.

It wasn't ignored but it wasn't new to me so I didn't question it, my apologies if it was looked at the wrong way. I have taken into consideration the noise factor, as well as the clogging due to inverts and so on. But, as with a durso or bean animal or any other overflow setup the noise is specifically due to flow. Obviously this is why they all can be adjusted, the same as this one would. To me the only thing that is bad about this setup would be the fact that it is much more vulnerable to clogging but that is a risk I'm willing to take because I do not have room to run any other overflow setup as well as I do not want a overflow box inside the tank. The drain would not have a full siphon if the flow coming into the tank is less than the capacity of bulkhead, thus my reason for purchasing a DC pump as well as having valves. If you run a mag 12 on a 75 RR tank the flow would be far to much for the stand pipe and it would create a full siphon, but if you use the equivalent in a DC pump and control the flow you can tune the drain in much better than any sized airline could correct? In this scenario I would have valves like any other quiet overflow system as well as controllability of my return pump.

Long story short, I plan to control the flow from pump rather than adjust drain(s) to accommodate flow. Even if that means I can't run more than 2-300 gph I'm fine with that as I will have vortech for flow.

[rwb500]

that will work. i used a pvc elbow as an overflow box one time. it was supposed to be temporary but I ended up using it for about a year. This is basically a prettier version of that.

[stingeragent]

Heya, I hope it works out for you. I know my post's really didn't advise your question, it was just some information I wanted to relay just in case you didn't know, as I didn't when I was planning to drill. Kinda like someone posting "what do I feed this tang I just got for my new 10 gallon tank", wouldn't get an algae sheets answer from me,lol. Your's wasn't that extent, just saying. Anyways, good luck to you.

Edit: Oh, one other thing (my apologies if you know this already). Once you get it all drilled and ready, I'd test it first with freshwater just to make sure everything is working as advertised.

[zchauvin]

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1427417683.052918.jpg

Drain on left, return on right.

[zchauvin]

For you guys worried about the clogging issue these will be used on both the drain and return. Will be painted off white to match the background which will be a frosted white glass cover ImageUploadedByTapatalk1427420205.846894.jpg