Glass Thickness for BeanAnimal Overflow?

[musicman1968]

I have a 55g tank that I setup with a coast to coast beananimal overflow on my acryllic tank. I must say I love it. I'm wanting to do the same thing now on my new 100g tank. However, I was unable to find anywhere that mentioned the glass thickness needed. My tank is 60" in length and has 3/8" thick glass. Do I need to use the same thickness as my tank, or can I get away with using say 1/4". The reason I ask is my glass shop doesn't have the 3/8" in stock. He would have to order 3/8" and so techinically I get charged twice. Once for him to order it and pay shipping, then pay him to cut it the dimensions I need. Since plexi and glass don't bond well I need to find out what size glass thickness I need. 3/8" seems like it would be pretty heavy since there's no support under the overflow. Any thoughts....Lmk..Thanks in advance. I tried to pm Bean himself but he has pm's turned off....probably for good reason lol.

 

[on the spot]

I wouldn't downsize the glass. If anything I'd go thicker. Maybe they have 1/2" in stock?

This one time expense will surely be forgotten once the tank is running...unless you saved a few bucks and the thinner glass cracks spilling 45 gallons on the floor causing your ATO to pump 45 more gallons of fresh water into the tank dropping the salinity and wiping out your tank plus burning out your return pump because it ran dry, then you will remember this one time expense for the rest of your days.

glad to help.

 

[krikor]

Are you doing a coast to coast overflow?

 

[macchicks]

My tank is a 75 gallon and I used 1/4 inch. It is very secure. I can not imaging needing 1/2 inch but I am not an engineer or anything.

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

i would say it really depends on how deep your gonna make the box...but the 60" long is really gonna make a difference too...i would say a minimum of 9mm glass and no more then about 10" tall. 12mm glass would give you a lot more bonding surface and therefor greater adhesion...speaking of adhesion, be sure to use RTV103 or 108, among a couple others that are adhesives you will need the strength to hold up all that water and weight of glass..

 

[reefermad619]

Is this an internal or external overflow? If internal, I think 1/4" would be fine.

 

[on the spot]

Is this an internal or external overflow? If internal, I think 1/4" would be fine.

Oh yeah. my Duh moment. I was picturing an external box with three bulkheads cut into it while I was typing earlier.

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

Is this an internal or external overflow? If internal, I think 1/4" would be fine.

he mentioned concerns for weight and no support under it, i would assume he is thinking external as the water in a tank will hold up an internal one. (the same way it can lift a C2C acrylic internal overflow box off a glass tank if not installed with copious amounts of silicone)

 

[khennig]

I built a coast to coast from acrylic and used it in my glass tank. I made a four side box with a bottom. I drilled the acrylic box for the bulkheads, and placed the washer between the box and the glass. Works perfectly. Plus the pods love the gap between the overflow and the back glass.

Bulkhead | Acrylic back of box | Washer | Glass wall of tank | Bulkhead fastener

 

[musicman1968]

Yup was planning on an internal c2c. I know once water is in it, the water will help support the weight, just was worried about weight before water was added. I guess I can add some temporary supports if needed until I get water in it. I'm doing a complete reseal due to a very poorly done one when I got it. I'll be using Momentive 103 all the way around for the reseal as well as the overflow.

The depth of mine is 6 1/2" and width of 4 3/4". I'm also changing the plan slightly. Instead of a full box down the length. I'm boxing in roughly 20 inches in length for the 4 3/4" wide just to provide room for the elbows. The rest of the length will still be all the way across, but only about an inch wide opening. I'm turning the exposed bottom at that point into a frag rack.

This will give me slightly more water volume. Provides less room for fish and snails that can get over into there, though that could be solved with a simple cover. I probably won't have that many hole for frag plugs, but drew that up for demostration. I'll still have to place soft frags somewhere lower in the tank, but gives any lps, sps a place to hang out without losing any more space. The added holes will also cut done on the weight allow more flow around frags due to empty holes next to it (frags spaced out of course) At least this is my thought process atm if I end up using it. I welcome feedback on this.:bounce3:

 

[musicman1968]

I built a coast to coast from acrylic and used it in my glass tank. I made a four side box with a bottom. I drilled the acrylic box for the bulkheads, and placed the washer between the box and the glass. Works perfectly. Plus the pods love the gap between the overflow and the back glass.

Bulkhead | Acrylic back of box | Washer | Glass wall of tank | Bulkhead fastener

That idea works too. I didn't think about that. Did you offset the other end of the box with a doubled up piece of acyrllic to make up the gap of the washer? Seems like it would rattle if you didn't do something.

 

[uncleof6]

I built a coast to coast from acrylic and used it in my glass tank. I made a four side box with a bottom. I drilled the acrylic box for the bulkheads, and placed the washer between the box and the glass. Works perfectly. Plus the pods love the gap between the overflow and the back glass.

Bulkhead | Acrylic back of box | Washer | Glass wall of tank | Bulkhead fastener

Bulkhead | WASHER | Acrylic back of box | Washer | Glass wall of tank | Bulkhead nut

Let's do it right. Washer = Gasket

Jim