Need advice on drilling holes for closed loop system and ove (1 Viewer)

[fishcraze]

I'm planning on ordering a new tank (6'L X 2'H X maybe 26" wide)with the pre-planned drilled holes as shown on the pic below. I'd like to here your ideas/ advice on my plan:

The tank will be an inwall tank, w/ the tank itself is in the garage, and no access available from the front side.

All five holes are 1" dia. Two holes for two separate overflow boxes, and 3 holes for the closed loop system.

The overflow boxes will be customed built by the acrylic "master" KEVIN a.k.a REEFALOT, and the dimensions are 8"L X 6" H X 3" W, on the left/right back of the tank. These overflow boxes are only 6" H from top, so it wont take up a lot of space like the regular RR overflow boxes.

The hole on the bottom left side is for water draining to the suction of the closed loop pump (Mag 18 ). Two holes on the top 2 corners on the back are for the returns of the CL.

 

[Guest]

A few things that come to mind:

- You might want to think about increasing the closed loop intake size to at least 1.5". On a tank that size, most of the larger pumps (Ampmaster, Sequence, etc. - I think you will find the Mag18 lacking in this application) that you would want to use to get the flow you need have 1.5" intakes.

- You also will probably want more than 2 1" drains for a tank that size. Think about increasing your overflow holes to 1.5" as well.

- Do you mean the holes will be 1", or will accomodate a 1" bulkhead? Don't forget to have the holes made large enough to hold the size bulkhead you want. For example, a 1" bulkhead requires a 1 3/4" hole. If you increase the size of some of the bulkheads to 1.5" as I suggested, then those holes need to be 2 3/8" to hold the bulkhead.

If you have 1" holes drilled, you won't even be able to fit a 1/2" bulkhead in the hole.

 

[fishcraze]

Thanks for the advice. I almost forgot about the size of the bulk head. I guess I meant the 1 3/4" bulk head for 1" drain lines. For now, I think i'll probably ok w/ two 1" lines for the overflow since that's what I have on my current tk (180gal) w/ a mag18. But may need to re-consider the size of the closed loop as you mentioned.

 

[dfimble]

Just curious, but you have 3 holes for the closed loop.... and 2 holes as regular overflows, don't you want a hole to bring the overflow water back into the tank?

David

 

[fishcraze]

The returns (2 1" lines) from the main pump in the sump will be to the top of the tank -not drilled; since if you drilled the return about 2" below the top, it will drain your water to the 2" level when there's a power outage.

Someone on RC just suggested me to use 2 drain holes for the suct of the closedloop pump to eliminate dead spots.. so i think i may need one more hole on the bottom right corner

 

[Guest]

Hey! Glad your project is coming along!! Cant wait!

One opinion. You said you were having the short overflows to create more room. Im not a fan of short overflows for a display tank. It would be better to have the overflows ALL the way down to the bottom of the tank. then you can hide the overflow box's. if you can, do the entire back with black acrylic because then you cant tell the difference in an overflow and theback. I guess it all depends if you plan to keep the back clean too like I do. I saw a guy on RC who had the short overflows on his display tank and it wasnt too appealing. let me see if I can find it.

R u sure you dont want to go 300g???

 

[Guest]

holes

Make sure the distance your holes are from the edge of glass are at least equal to the diameter of the hole or you will weaken glass.

Lee

 

[fishcraze]

eco-reef, I didn't know about that. thanx.

Invicible,
do you have the link to the pics of the tk w/ 2 short overflow boxes as you mentioned? I don't really want to paint the back of the tank since I want to be able to "sneak" at my fishes/inverts from the back , eg. to find the missing shrimp; and now I have a lot of space to do that now since the tk is in the garage. I may use a black wall paper to cover the back and side glasses though.

 

[Guest]

quoc,

I tried looking for that thread but couldnt. It was about 2 months ago. There are so many threads on that forum and I forgot who posted it. it was a new tank and people were complaining about his overflows and how he needed to get them redone. I tried doing a search on overflow, but didnt find anything. You may want to look yourself or ask to see if anyone has this.

 

[Guest]

I found one. but this isnt the one .. the other guy had two on each side.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=285772&highlight=short+overflow