Rimless or rim, internal or external overflow

shane reef

New member
So I seem to be undecided in what tank to buy. I am flopping back and forth from rimless or rim and internal or external. Tank will come from planet aquariums? Any advice is appreciated.
 
i just got my first rimless. really nice. but hard to keep water from splashing on glass when cleaning the glass with the magnet.
 
internal , external to me looks messier . they make a nice 75 gallon rimless. fish-store by me had a reef ready one for 750 with stand and reef ready.
 
I'm torn on rimmed versus rimless. I love the look of rimless, but as mentioned previously splashing can be an issue, and for me I would canopy a tank of any substantial size to prevent kids from throwing things in it :)

With regard to internal or external, I'd have to know what you mean. If you mean "drilled" versus "over the back," I would always pick drilled if it's an option because those aren't dependent upon a siphon to keep functioning properly (fewer points of failure). If you're asking drilled internal versus drilled external, I'd have to pick external just so there are fewer things on the inside of the tank (and assuming I could hide the external overflow from view). Hope this is helpful.
 
Rimless or rim, internal or external overflow

The original plan was 60g rimless with external overflow and Kessil 360we. The overflow is actual cut into back glass, no siphon to worry about.
 
I have a 60 rimless tank reef ready with corner overflow. I can say that the splashing water is minor and really of very little concern to me. Having a drilled center overflow would be cool if you have three sided viewing. You would have to paint the rear glass for a clean look. I have my tank in a corner so the cords are concealed behind the overflow. A fancy light mount gives it a clean look and I get a lot of compliments from guests.
 
I love the look of rimless, but yeah, extra cleaning, snails crawl out, splashing.
I don't like trimmed tanks, so I went trimless w/ euro bracing, works for me.
 
I have had both and prefer rimless with internal overflows. The only downside to rimless (for me anyways) is to keep that look, you need to keep it topless. I haven't seen any really good screen tops that look good on rimless tanks.
 
I thought u meant like a ghost overflow when u said external.

Internal skimmer with external overflow type of thing.
 
So the external on planet aquariums are notched out in the center and overflow box is mounted to rear of tank. They have a piece covering the gap with overflow teeth. Looks pretty sweet and flush
 
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Rimless is the way to go, IMO. Internal/external is up to you and how close you want it to be to the wall.

can always cut a hole in the drywall between the studs and push the tank against the wall and then put an access panel in the next room wall.
 
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