Overflow question/thoughts-Glass Holes

reefboy87

New member
Hey guys...So i might take some heat/have people voice their opinions on this, but I thought I would ask.

First some background...

I've been in the reef keeping hobby for 3 years now and have kept anything and everything with success in regards to corals (knock on wood!)...Acans, blastos, echinos/challices, montis, LPS, etc. Parameters are always where they are meant to be and the water has always been clear. Had an algae problem when I first got into the hobby from using tap water but soon learned the RO-DI lesson in reef keeping and nuisance algae has been a plague of the past ever since (knock on wood!).

Anyways...to the point of the thread. Currently I have a 46 gallon bowfront tank. When I first entered into the hobby, I purchased a hang-on-the-back filter (350 GPH) for my tank. As the years went on and i caught reef-fever, I started learning that overflows/sumps are the best filter options for reef aquariums. I looked into them and learned that I had 2 options; drill my tank for an overflow or get a hang on the back overflow. As I read horror stories about hang on the back overflows becoming clogged and the siphon breaking, causing an overflow, I became weary of that option. The best hang on the back option I found was one from LifeReef.com who claims theirs will never break, but my display is in my bedroom and if 46 gallons of water were to flood onto the 2nd floors floor, all i can say is "Houston, we have a problem!" Drilling is ideal, but not having the necessary equipment to drill with and the tank already being established, I figured that option was not doable as well.

Now onto where I am now...I recently met a fellow reefer who was very impressed with my setup and amazed that I wasn't running a sump on it. I told him I had been wanting one and explained my situation to him and why I never bit the bullet on switching over. He referred me to this site for overflows and says he is an owner of 2 of their products for both of his tanks and loves them.

I was wondering if any of you guys out there are familiar with this company/their product(s) and your thoughts on them. Supposedly they come with everything you need to install one; glass cutting bit, piping, overflow, etc. Everything except the labor haha!

I trust the reefer who referred me to this site, but like anything, the more opinions and information I can get, the better.

Here's the link:

http://glass-holes.com/main.sc

Thanks in advanced!
 
I use the 700 kit and used the 300 on my old 30G. Tons of people locally do, and for a good reason. Plus, G/H's customer service is very highly regarded.

PS- They give you everything you need in the kits, it's very easy to drill/install. Plus, they give you free candy. Need I say more! ;)
 
Free candy...i'm sold right there! :strange:

How's the noise on them? I watched the video on their site and they sounded pretty quiet.
 
Glass-holes kits are fairly quiet, and personally I think they are awesome.

Just make sure, if you're running the 700gph kit (or whatever kit) you run enough water through them. If you run (for instance) 300gph through a 700 kit... It could be pretty noisy (from experience).

-dan
 
So far i'm sold. I probably won't make any purchases for a few weeks, graduation is in 4 weeks so once that comes I'll have more time on my hands to get working on projects. . .This overflow/sump will be my little graduation gift to myself :fun2:

Do you think a 700gph would be a good fit for a 46 gallon tank?
JohnnyC is being nice enough to show me some working ones soon, so i can get a first hand impression!

Thanks again guys for the feedback.
 
I love mine, using the 700gph kit... I had another reefer here this week and he commented on how quite it was compared to his hang-on-back overflow
 
awesome! If the tank was elsewhere, noise wouldn't be the biggest issue. But since it's in my bedroom, the quieter the better...a guys gotta sleep!:smurf:
 
The guy who referred me to them said that's what he did too, just lowered the level and drilled. . .Supposedly it's pretty simple to do it. I'm excited!
 
I have never heard one single negative thing about the gl*******s solution for a non-reef ready tank. Having said that, I also never read anything bad about LifeReef. I've had my LifeReef overflow box for several months and it just never loses its suction. I disable my return pump for water changes and it just starts right back up easy peasy. I mention this because there are those of us who are squeamish about drilling glass.
 
The guy who referred me to them said that's what he did too, just lowered the level and drilled. . .Supposedly it's pretty simple to do it. I'm excited!

I hope he also told you it's a pretty risky thing to do. not to say that it's not often done successfully, but you should be aware that you would be far more likely to crack the tank than if you drained it.
 
draining really isn't an option for me at this point...I tried uploading a picture of my tank, so hopefully it worked.

I was planning on emptying about half of it to drill...Removing corals isn't a problem, but catching the fish without removing rock is an issue. I really like my aquascape and really don't want to tear it apart and re-do it.:worried:
 

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I had abc drill my 72 half drained. I found some security in someone doing it that had done it before. As far as noise, I'm still trying to quiet mine down, maybe I'll try changing the flow rate per the recomendations. Thanks!
 
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