Update: Well I tore down my tank early last year sometime, because I was having problems with dinoflagalates. I had all the fish in smaller tanks, and then in April I sold all my lifestock because I was leaving town to go on a 7 month electrical engineering internship. I just came back about a month ago and moved into an apartment now. I moved all the fish stuff from my mom's house over to my apartment yesterday as I plan to start it back up soon. To my dismay while preparing to move the fish tank I saw this:
:(
You are looking at the backwall (and bottom) with the crack on the backwall from one of the holes I drilled. This might have happened either when my friend and I were carrying it down stairs or when it when it sat in the garage for a couple months (because it had pipes connected still which probably acted like a lever). It was never there when my tank was up and running.
I bought this tank from glass-cages (I live like 2 hours from them here in TN), so I will probably buy another one from them. I know they get a lot of complaints, but I never had any issues with the tank, plus you can't beat $120, unless someone can show me one that's not much more expensive. (I also get from them because I know it's plated glass that I can drill).
I still have all my other equipment, and I removed the overflow from the broken tank so I can reuse it.
So when I redo the tank, I have some questions.
Should I just avoid a CL system altogether? I had holes for it last time for future use, but I don't know if it's even necessary. I thought about when I set up the tank run some pvc from the bulkheads, like a spray bar behind the rock and some flow outward from the back, and then just hook up the pump when I buy it. That is why in this setup I had 3 bulkheads coming from the bottom (see previous posts)
What size should my returns be, the glass-holes website says that he 1/2 inch return is good for like 450 gph, and I had 2, and the overflow box is like 750 gph or something. Is this all sufficient for my 55 gallon tank?
Should I put the overflow box in the corner instead of the center? It seemed that I wasn't getting enough surface agitation the last time.
Where can I get some of that really flexible tubing (not flex pcb, even more flexible) for the drain/overflow line to the sump, it would need to be 1.5"
Any tips would be appreciated.
