OK, becuase i have to move some stuff around and i want fix my sand bed and my tank i moved everything to a spare tank.(2 clowns/anemmone and a tang) everything is happy and working with them. I am going to drain my DT into another tank to save as much water as possible and while itis empty im am thinking about drilling for overflows. I kno how to drill the tank but im confused on placement and piping. I noticed RR tanks are drilled in the bottom with a bulk head and a pipe, and iv seen tanks drilled on the side with a overflow box in front. Which is better? i have a 125g DT and a 55g sump/fuge, my return is a mag9.5. I currently run 2 1" diy pvc overflows and a 1" return everything works fine but its loud and ugly. please LMK what you would do. TIA
drilling tank
- Thread starter ramz28
- Start date
- Location
- Union Square, NY
test
- Location
- New Jersey
Is the tank u gonna drill tempered glass? If so its 50/50 that ur tank might crack on u... Trust me i had my old 55 g drilled from the back side of tank n it cracked all the way
- Location
- New Jersey
The bottom of the tank is better people wont c ur pvc piping from the bottom. If u do it from the back people will c all ur pvc pipes. But this is up to u its ur opion on how u want to do im just tellin u which way will look better on ur tank
- Location
- Far Rockaway 11691
the bottom of your tank is most likely tempered glass.. (unless its custom made) definitely do not do it there until you are 100% sure..... who made your tank? then we would be able to tell if they used tempered glass on the side...
- Location
- New Jersey
Yea i forgot to tell him bout the tempered glass on the bottom on the tank lol
If the tank is going to be emptied, verify first if the any of the glass is tempered by contacting the manufacturer, usually the bottom is tempered and the sides are not also if the sides are less than 3/8" thick they are more than likely tempered as well. In any case if the sides aren't tempered (Probably not) you could go the Glass holes route, they sell nice overflow kits that come with the bit and all.
loneracer05
Advanced Reefer
- Location
- suffolk county
You should drill the back because the bottom is almost definitely tempered.if ur doing it urself go slowwww if you rush it it will crack.
Ok 1st problem is how do id the tank? I bought it used a few.yrs ago. All panels of glass are 1/2". Is drilling tempered glass possible? I like the bottom so i can hide the pipes. The tank is a old tank. Its 125g came factory with no center braces, i put in a 10" piece of glass as a brace. If i cant id the tank can i id the type of glass?
- Location
- Huntington
If the tank is that old and you bought it used I wouldn't even risk it. Your best bet might be selling off this one and just buying a new 125 with overflows from the factory. If that tank is tempered and it's 1/2" when it pops it's going to be deafening not to mention a huge mess.
- Location
- Huntington
there isn't much worse than the moment that follows breaking tempered glass, when you realize "well crap I'm screwed". The other option is to just get a new piece of glass for the side you want to drill and swap them out. If it's a side panel it isn't too bad and you can do it yourself.
loneracer05
Advanced Reefer
- Location
- suffolk county
To answere ur questions...yes holes can be made in tempered glass but ONLY using special laser cutting tool wich is crazy expensive.to answer if you can tell if it is tempered yes you can.get ur self a pair of polarized glasses and put the tank in direct sunlight and look at it at different angles.if you see a rainbow effect in the glass its tempered.play around with that looking at car windows as they are geerally tempered glass.glass shop guys can supposedly tell just by looking at it if its tempered but I have yet to unlock that skill.
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