will this work

Ted

Ted

Living one day at a time
I haven t asked any questions from yall yet so I suppose I should give the run down on my tank. Its a 48 gal glass not drilled corner tank. Im running it as a fowlr set up have 45 ibs of live rock no dsb just 2 inches of agronite (spelling). I have a bak pak 2 skimmer and a efu-25 canister filter to run carbon and has the internal 5watt uv.( I clean the canister weekly when I do my water change) also have a korlia nano power head for additional water flow. Stocking is 5 green cromis one mexican turbo 3 smaller snails (cant rember the name) and three hermits. I would like to add a mandrin in about 6 to 9 months. Anyway the question is (about time huh) I want to add a fuge to my setup for pods. I was thinking of a 20 gal tank that would be next to main tank (no room underneath). I would have it on a taller stand and drill it using glass holes product. I was thinking that I could use the canister to pump the water from my main tank over to the fuge and gravity back to the main. Would that be a good idea? The flow on the canister is 198 gph. I would be using cheato and live rock rubble in there for the pods. Another thing if this is a good idea should I use a dsb in the fuge also? Thanks in advance:D
 
you need to get an overflowbox and use a pump to pump the water back to the tank. it will be the easiest and safest way to get it accomplished
 
Hmm ok im kinda nervous about overflow boxes. So the pods would be ok going through a return pump? The way I had invisioned it was basicaly have a above tank fuge. I will have to think of a way to keep my dogs out of the thing if im gonna have it on the ground.
 
you can do this just have the tank above an the overflow box on the fuge than a little pump in the display tank it will feed the tank and the pods will not run through the pump they will be just gravity feed down to the tank
 
So use a overflow box instead of drilling the the fuge. Guess that would work just have to match up the pump to the rate of the overflow. The overflows i have seen on the web are rated 600 gph isnt that a high rate of water going through the fuge?
 
well yea thats true about the overflow, but heres the thing, if you dont push enough water through the overflow u tube, then air bubbles WILL accumulate and eventually stop the water flow..

go ahead, and ask me how long it took me to clean up from when my tank overflowed when it happened to me.

if you feel up to drilling your fuge tank, and then mounting it above the main tank, then in my opinion, thats the way to go.

Now, understand, i'm fairly new to SW fish but i do have years and years of mechanical design and training behind me.

the one thing that i'm going to caution you on is the pump that you put in the main tank to push the water up to the fuge, the intake to this pump should be near the top of the tank, and not at the bottom. The reason for this is just incase, lets say one of your drilled holes or even your u-bend tube if you go that way, gets clogged and or looses syphon. Well if the pump intake in the main tank is near the top of the tank, it will suck air before it pumps the tank dry, overflowing the fuge, and making one hell of a mess.

Just my thoughts....
 
yeah that was what I was thinking also. Im not to comfortable relying on a overflow box. Im gonna drill it. That way i dont have to worry about the overflow box failing.
 
if your up for it, i think drilling the fuge is the way to go...

i mean there are littlerally thousands and thousands of thoes overflow boxes, heck i have one, but there is some set-up and tuning to do, once its working, its pretty reliable, if its done right.. but there are the potential issues as well.

take pictures of your drilling, i havent tackled that one yet, but i'm seriously considering it for my fuge design...
 
I am still need to buy the 20 gal tank. I am looking at a aga one from that dread petco 39.99 doesnt seem so bad. I will get the hole saw kit from glass-holes.com. Gonna drill the back wall not the bottom so no temper issues. I will take pictures of the build and post everything when done. Will take a little while though have to buy stuff a little at a time. Moneys a bit tight around here like everywhere i guess. Was thinking of getting a used tank but decided not to. Cant know for sure what someone might have medicated a old tank with.
 
hold on a lot of companies on their small tanks have used all tempered glass front back sides and bottom. so just be carefull you will find out if it is tempered or not as soon as the bit hit the glass and starts a groove
 
actually, you might be able to save yourself some frustration, if you dont already have em, get your hands on a set of polorized sunglasses, and look at each plate through thoes, if thier tempered you should see some discolored dots on the glass, about the size of a nickle or a quarter if its tempered.

if its not tempered then you wont see the dots..

try it out on a car window(sides and back, not the front windshield), you'll see the dots if you have good polarized glasses. i got mine for under $10 at walmart.
 
i dont know if it will work or not, but heck its worth a shot.. i tried it last night on a 10gal glass i picked up on craigslist, and i couldnt see chit! so i dont know if it will work or if the lighting where i was at when i tried it was just crap...
 
went to the aga website the 20 high I am thinking about says the bottom is not tempered. So I should be ok drilling the back. I will still use the polarized sunglasses trick just to be sure. Hope to purchase the tank next week.
 
good luck with it, and let us know how it turns out.. i'm thinking i want to try drilling a hole in one of my tanks, but i know i'm somewhat like a gorilla in a crystal shop... i dont mean to break stuff, but i sure do seem to be good at it... and i'd hate to destroy a tank....
 
I have never drilled glass, but if it like ceramic tile, let the drill do the work dont push down too hard. It might take longer but it will lessen the chance of it breaking

Brian
 
yea thats what i've heard too, infact, one of the videos that i watched on youtube about it said that the weight of most cordless drills is too much, and that you should help support some of the weight when drilling your aquarium...

i havent ever tried it, but thats just what i heard about...
 

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