Drilled vs. Non Drilled

[s3iz]

Hey all,

Im looking to upgrade. I currently have a 55.


The new tank I am looking at has a corner overflow, and is pre drilled with a bulkhead. Sump is also drilled with bulkhead for external return

Can someone help explain the difference and possibly the advantage of having a drilled tank?


Many thanks,

J

 

[coralsnaked]

Well the drilled tank gives you the option of having a sump refugiums etc... and all the perks that come with them. The drilled sump gives you the option of running an external return pump. Not my favorite as they are noisier than running an in sump pump. However they add no heat to the system and that may be a benefit depending on ambient room temperatures.

 

[shellsea]

corner overflow in tank may have some disadvantages if you want to do a beananimal coast to coast silent failsafe overflow. search forum to review what holes you would need for that. Wish I had.

 

[gbru316]

The advantage of a drilled tank is that you don't need a siphon overflow to drain water to the sump.

 

[Reverend Reefer]

Hey all,

Im looking to upgrade. I currently have a 55.


The new tank I am looking at has a corner overflow, and is pre drilled with a bulkhead. Sump is also drilled with bulkhead for external return

Can someone help explain the difference and possibly the advantage of having a drilled tank?


Many thanks,

J

hey j,
well i guess the question is relative to your current setup, do you currently have a sump/fuge connected to your 55?

i currently have a 65 display with a 30g sump that is NOT DRILLED, i use a lifereef prefilter siphon overflow box system. if you already run a sump on your system and don't have it drilled, then you probably have something similar to get the water up and over the wall of your tank and down into your sump.

i can tell you that my main regret for not drilling the tank is basically psychological. while i haven't yet had a flood, the siphon tube can fail and bam, you have a flood. i believe drilled tanks have less chance of that happening, especially with guards and overflows.

i think the other concern is noise. so if you do end up reading about drilled tank systems, you will find all sorts of threads about strategies to reduce the noise, and this will range from things like durso standpipes and so on. i've never had a drilled tank so this is based on what i've read but in some setups, if you don't employ some sort of noise reduction strategy, your drain will sounds like a constant toilet flushing.

i know this isn't really about your question (drilled vs non) but if you do decide to go with a drilled tank, i have also read that side drains are different from bottom ones and i've also seen ones where there are 2 holes with one pipe sticking straight out and the other one is curved like a j. one being slightly taller than the other. i forget the name if this style of drilled tank but many claim them to be completely silent with safety redundancy since there are 2 drains.

HTH

 

[Dannigirl]

I would love a silent drilled tank but my big tank isn't bad with noise or I'm used to it. I have all my freshwater tanks drilled and love it. I only have 1 SW tank right now (for a few months anyway) and that is a Nanocube. My bigger SW tank will be drilled. I don't know if it helps at all but there's my 2 cents.

 

[kmbyrnes]

There is no reason a properly tuned system, either overflow box or drilled , can't be almost completely silent as long as you have at least 2 drain lines and run one as a full siphon and the other as an emergency. I had an overflow box for a year and just recently got a corner overflow drilled tank. Can't hear the drains on either one UNLESS THERE IS A PROBLEM. So it's like a built in alarm.

Biggest advantage: easier to plumb and can be placed closer to the wall.
Biggest disadvantage: That overflow takes up a lot of real estate and holds a lot of water. Even with a higher return pipe, it took some planning to be sure my sump could handle the extra water in case of a power outage.