external overflow box question

redneckgearhead

redneckgearhead

Active Member
Hey everyone, quick question. I am upgrading to a 90 gallon tank and I want to put and external overflow box on it. Should I make it out of glass or would acrylic be OK? I was planning on using acrylic and using 4 bulkheads to hold it to the tank, but the builds I have seen on here seem to all be glass that is siliconed to the tank. Anyone have an opinion or advice on this?
 
Richard 1

Richard 1

New Member
I take it that the box would be assembled with weldon? I would be concerned with the pressure from the weight of the water in the overflo on the bulkheads causing an eventual leak in those areas, but I'm paranoid like that.
 
redneckgearhead

redneckgearhead

Active Member
Richard 1 said:
I take it that the box would be assembled with weldon? I would be concerned with the pressure from the weight of the water in the overflo on the bulkheads causing an eventual leak in those areas, but I'm paranoid like that.
Click to expand...

Yea, I considered that issue myself and planned on using gussets glued to the bottom, close to the plumbing and on each end to help alleviate that stress. Oh and yes weld on 4 to assemble the box.
 
redneckgearhead

redneckgearhead

Active Member
Haaileybop said:
Are you planning on drilling your tank?
Click to expand...

Yes, what I mean by external overflow is the box will be on the outside of the tank instead of the inside. Kind of like a C2C but the box is on the outside of the tank. If I can find a photo of what I am looking to do I will post a link.
 
redneckgearhead

redneckgearhead

Active Member
This is what I mean by external overflow. My question is, the box on the back of the tank, should it be glass or can it be acrylic? If it is acrylic I plan on drilling holes for 1 inch bulkheads to actually hold the box to the tank, I wouldn't trust just silicone on acrylic to glass. The angled piece on the inside of the tank would have "teeth" cut into it to act as my weir and would most likely be acrylic, but there would be almost no stress put on it, and if it failed it would not be a catastrophic failure.

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough before.
 

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BigAl07

BigAl07

Administrator
RS STAFF
You may want to ask Frankie to take a gander and give his 2 cents. He's amazing when working with acrylic and glass and he'll be more able to answer the question with certainty.

My next tank will have an external C2C with BeanAnimal system installed. I'm pretty sure I'll do all glass though just to be safe.
 
redneckgearhead

redneckgearhead

Active Member
tnwillia said:
Since your going to drill your tank you may want to look at this, Have fun!

Silent and Failsafe Overflow System - Reef Central Online Community
Click to expand...

Yes I want to use the "beananimal" style overflow (its what I have on my 75 and love it) But I do not want the box on the inside of the tank. I want to move that box to the outside of the tank and run the plumbing up through the bottom of the overflow box. Similar to the pic I posted above.

Al, I didn't even think of Frankie, but I may shoot him a PM. And I'm leaning towards glass because I have searched for hours on the net and haven't seen one yet that was acrylic attached to a glass tank, and that might be the easiest to do. Now I just gotta figure out how to get the water from the tank through the back wall, do I drill it or cut a "trough" out of the glass.
 
jpsika08

jpsika08

Well-Known Member
Scott, for the external overflow go with glass, much safer. Also, is rare to see combination of Acrylic and Glass, maybe if you hang the acrylic over the tank can work but you'll get into other problems.
I run mine external, glass and with the Bean Animal system, as of today 0 problems.

Any help or questions just shoot :)
 
redneckgearhead

redneckgearhead

Active Member
Yea Juan, I LOVE your tank! I think I will get some measurements and have some glass cut. That seems like the option with the least amount of questions. Thanks everyone for your help! I'm hoping to start working on it soon, Ill start a upgrade thread!
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

Administrator
RS STAFF
Juan did you drill holes or is it done as a trough?

Scott this would be ideal but since the tank isn't being hand made it's not an option
003-9.jpg

004-8.jpg

003-5.jpg
 
jpsika08

jpsika08

Well-Known Member
Thanks and Good Luck Scott :)

Al, On mine I driller the bottom holes, in my case I did four, two for normal draining and a third for emergency (Drain too), the fourth is for the return tube to go back into the tank

Here is a pic of the whole C2C External Overflow
ddb47d3f.jpg


And within the Overflow you can see the holes on the bottom, I drilled them using BRS Drill Bits.
DSC_5688.jpg
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

Administrator
RS STAFF
What about the holes from the DT into the C2C? I think I see rectangular slots. Is that correct? If so how did you do that?
 
redneckgearhead

redneckgearhead

Active Member
Well Al, It is an option but it would require me totally disassembling the tank and having the glass cut down and rebuilding the tank, or using a dremel with a diamond cutting wheel to cut the length of the tank. Which I have considered, but I think the cost out way the benefit. I think I can drill 4 holes in the tank and build the angled weir like whats in illustration on post 9 and it work just as effectively. Thanks again for everyone's help!

Frankie's build quality is second to none on everything he does! Those tanks in the pics are amazing!

And Juan's is a trough.
 
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