drilling a 75 gal question

[alextheromanian]

i have a 75 gal its all set up and stuff its been running for about 8 months but i plan on moving it to the basement and building the room for it.


question is about drilling it...ive only drilled ONE tank before and that was a 29 gal and it was succesful however i did it without researching and it ended up well but i think it could have been better.


on the 75 being i think 18' high 48 long where and how many and what size should i drill.

the bits i have are bought from ebay for 8$ all 3
30mm 32mm and 35mm.

also should a 30 gal sump be enough to fit a small refugium/hospital in it aswell?

im trying to stay pretty cheap with whatever i can.


PS- the 29 gal i drilled i did not put a bulkhead fitting on.
i used 2 90 degree elbows on either side connected by a small chunk of pipe and sealed on both sides with silicone...sounds ghetto but it worked great

 

[crsswift70]

How many and what size is totally dependent on what type of drain and return you plan on having. I think you should read up on that first. There are plenty of good 75 gal build threads to give you ideas. Here's a start.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1428872&highlight=tswifty

 

[LJA]

I Like this one, although it's a little over the top, you may find some great ideas here:


http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1310585&perpage=25&highlight=silent%20overflow&pagenumber=1

 

[LJA]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/s...age=25&highlight=silent overflow&pagenumber=1


this one

 

[alextheromanian]

<b>THANK YOU GUYS

im new to the forum and i must say joining is probably one of the best things ive done for my saltwater aquariums

 

[Tswifty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12989039#post12989039 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LJA
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/s...age=25&highlight=silent overflow&pagenumber=1


this one

That's the method I used. :thumbsup:

 

[alextheromanian]

try not to laugh to hard...i did this in paint really quick to give you an idea...can someone shed some light on it ?

can you let me know if its to comfusing?

 

[2frosty4u]

Re: drilling a 75 gal question

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12988975#post12988975 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by alextheromanian
on the 75 being i think 18' high 48 long where and how many and what size should i drill.

the bits i have are bought from ebay for 8$ all 3
30mm 32mm and 35mm.

also should a 30 gal sump be enough to fit a small refugium/hospital in it aswell?

im trying to stay pretty cheap with whatever i can.

I recently put together a 75g FOWLR and I used two 1 1/2" bulkheads for the overflows located in both rear corners of the tank. I used the same design as your left side drawing from above. The reason I used that setup had a few reasons.
#1, by using 1 1/2" slip/thread bulkheads I was able to use a street elbow in the tank to turn the direction up into which I inserted a very short piece of pipe. that then went to a 1 1/2" to 3" increaser coupling with a pvc floor drain cover to top it off. All which I purchased at Lowes. I used this set up to increase the linear length of the pipe circumference to allow for better surface skimming.
#2, It was very inexpensive
#3, The 1 1/2" to 3" increaser gave me a linear length of 7". Multiply that by 2 and I had 14 inches of length skimming surface water
#4, It all went together really quick
#5, The short piece of vertical pipe was easily trimmed in my electric mitre saw to fine tune the water level in the tank. It was also a bonus when I found out that the tank was a hair off level.
#6, Did I mention It was dirt cheap...lol...Im a frugal kind of guy, I work to hard for my money to spend it foolishly.

The size of hole is also bulkhead dependent. bulkheads vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, get the bulkheads before you drill the tank since you want as tight a fit as possible to allow the gasket and flange to act as reinforcement for your holes.

The 30g sump should not be used as a hospital/QT area. a seperate small tank is a better option. the big question is how big of a skimmer footprint do have want to stick in the sump and then you'll know what remaning room you have available for a fuge area less baffle space required.

 

[alextheromanian]

well i have a remora with a 1200 mj on it...i dont think ill be upgrading for a while since this one does the job...the only complaint i have is the microbubbles but i think that would get fixed by being in a sump with baffles.

this is the 35mm hole saw is JUST a hair bigger than a 1 " pipe...and what i did with the 29 gal is to put a shrt piece of pipe trough the hole and then snug fit 2 90 elbows on each side...and then silicone around them inside and out...


im not sure if i should even drill 2 holes for return...im new to the hobby and i have n idea what those neat joints that you can slip on return lines are called...but i like the way they look and id like to plan this so that theres a munnimim ammount of stuff in the tank...as far as hardware goes...ofcourse i have 2 koralia 3 's that im happy with and dont mind having in there but other than those i want to try to keep it to a minimum.

 

[LJA]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12989087#post12989087 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tswifty8
That's the method I used. :thumbsup:

I like this one a lot, it does cost a little more money and work but I believe plumbing is something that shouldn't be skimped on (like how I've done my current 29G)

I would have used this for my upgrade tank if I didn't shatter the tempered glass when I tried to drill it :hmm4:

 

[alextheromanian]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12989372#post12989372 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LJA
I like this one a lot, it does cost a little more money and work but I believe plumbing is something that shouldn't be skimped on (like how I've done my current 29G)

I would have used this for my upgrade tank if I didn't shatter the tempered glass when I tried to drill it :hmm4:

did you try drilling the bottom?:eek1: