Drilling horror stories?

[keiths]

I'm trying to decide to drill my tank or not. Of course it sounds scary to do but I've never heard of any bad stories from doing it. Anyone have any stories that completely destroyed the tank from drilling?

[nc_nutcase]

I've never drilled a tank... but there are two guys in my local fish club who are wiling to drill member' tanks for them, but they do not in any way guarantee their work.

Having talked to them about it... I'm not willing to try it personally.

Another option is to take it to a glass shop and ask them to drill it. It should only take a couple of minutes and therefore shouldn't cost much.

One thing to remember though is tempered glass cannot be drilled. There is no way to simply look at glass and know if it's tempered. So if it is, it will shatter, and the driller cannot be helpd accountable for that mistake. Tempered glass will shatter, so if the tank cracks, you know it is due to the drillers error.

All that being said... I would have a tank drilled over using an HOB style overflow box anyday...

[keiths]

Yea the problem with my tank is that it is old and it doesn't say if it is tempered or not and there isn't a manufacturer listed on it so I can't even find out. I've been looking at diy overflows however I can't find a really good tutorial and I can't find one that will push like 1800gph unless I do 3 of them.

[chesterthehero]

whats wrong with doing 3?

space them evenly and do it cleanly and i dont see a problem

also drilling a HOB overflow (on the side.. do it just like you would a tank) to add a second drain and then adding extra/larger U pipes works great to up the flow..
you can also drill a larger hole for the main drain and upsize everything..

just my .02 bits

[nc_nutcase]

What size tank is it?

Thick glass is much easier to drill than thin glass, provided it's not tempered.

On older tanks it was very common to have the bottom pane of glass tempered but the 4 walls not tempered. I think it's quite obvious that the bottom pane is under the most pressure.

I wouldn't be willing to assume anything about the bottom pane, so if I were in your shoes I wouldn't drill it. But at the same time... I don't understand why more people do not consider drilling the back of the tank near the top. I've seen tanks drilled like this that worked just fine, and I've never heard any stories/reasons why not to do it.

I would trust drilling the back long before I trusted an overflow box.

[keiths]

whats wrong with doing 3?
I guess nothing except that it would be huge. Also I can't find many good directions about it. The part I'm confused about the pvc overflow is that most overflows just take the water that overflows and sends it to the dump. The pvc one seems to work more like I suction. At least as far as I can tell.

What size tank is it?

Thick glass is much easier to drill than thin glass, provided it's not tempered.

On older tanks it was very common to have the bottom pane of glass tempered but the 4 walls not tempered. I think it's quite obvious that the bottom pane is under the most pressure.

I wouldn't be willing to assume anything about the bottom pane, so if I were in your shoes I wouldn't drill it. But at the same time... I don't understand why more people do not consider drilling the back of the tank near the top. I've seen tanks drilled like this that worked just fine, and I've never heard any stories/reasons why not to do it.

I would trust drilling the back long before I trusted an overflow box.
It's a 225. The glass on the side is almost 3/4" thick.

Why would you trust drilling the tank as opposed to an overflow box?

[Knowdafish]

You might want to check out all of these "how to" glass drilling videos on you tube:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=drilling+a+hole+in+aquarium+g lass&search_type=&aq=f

[nc_nutcase]

Why would you trust drilling the tank as opposed to an overflow box?

There is no reason to temper a 3/4" or even 5/8" glass wall that is 8' x 2'... so I think you are extremely safe the back wall is not tempered.

The thicker the glass the easier it is to drill, so as long as your experienced driller is mostly sober there should be little risk in drilling.

Overflow boxes have limited flow rates and I believe strongly in over filtering... Compare the price of 3 boxes to drilling 3 holes.

I would constantly be worried that something would happen and my overflow box would get screwed up and the tank would overflow. My big Cichlids get pretty rowdy sometimes and those little plastic tubes aren't nearly as strong as my fish. But I trust my fish are not strong enough to break a hole...

At the end of the day it is cheaper, safer and more reliable to drill the tank. I just don't see a reason to pay more for a lower quality solution.

[keiths]

Makes sense. Is it just as easy to drill the tank when it is standing up? The tank weighs like 600-700 lbs empty and I don't want to have to try to lay it on its side.

[nc_nutcase]

Again, I've never drilled a tank so I can't answer any technical questions...

St Louis has local fish groups... find one and talk to the guys that are a part of it. Chances are you will find someone you could talk into coming by and drilling the tank for a reasonable price. They could also tell you if they are able to drill without rotating the tank.

Another option would be to visit a glass shop and talk to an employee as opposed to a sales person. Times are tight and a lot of people would jump on a chance to make $30 in 30 minutes on their way home from work.

I guess either chance of having someone stop by depends on where you are located in reference to where they work/live.

Lastly, from what I've been told drilling isn't all that difficult if you have a steady hand. I know one guy that does it freehand and the other I know has a guide. They both say that less than 1/4" glass is very difficult, and from there the thicker it is the easier it is. So your 5/8~3/4" glass should be a great pane of glass for your first try... except if something goes wrong it will cost a fortune to replace.

I wouldn't take the risk, but that's only because I have other relatively cheap/simple options (local fish club's ROCK!!!). But if I were in your shoes... and I couldn't find a local fish club guy to do it... I'd probably step up and do it myself...


Sorry for linking to a "competitors" site... but they have what I needed... This will help you find a local fish club...
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/clubs/

[chesterthehero]

this (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/chetifall/fish/PVCoverflow1.gif) explains the pvc overflow.. if you have questions.. watch it again..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/chetifall/fish/PVCoverflow1.gif
(img is also linked so you dont have to wait for it to start over)

[keiths]

Interesting so the drain would be right at water level. Seems to make sense. I think I read that with a 1" pipe it would do about 600 gph. So does anyone have any design of this where it has 3 intakes?

[chesterthehero]

Interesting so the drain would be right at water level. Seems to make sense. I think I read that with a 1" pipe it would do about 600 gph. So does anyone have any design of this where it has 3 intakes?

1" might do 600gph as a syphon.. but not as a gravity drain.. someone around here will have a link to a gravity flow chart.. i use to have one bookmarked but i dont know what i did with it... for 1800 gph my guess is you would need 2-4 2" pvc overflows maybe more...

[keiths]

I found this, I don't know how accurate it is:

3/4" 330 gph
1" 600 gph
1 1/4" 910 gph
1 1/2" 1300 gph
1 3/4" 1800 gph
2" 2350 gph
2 1/4" 2960 gph
2 1/2" 3650 gph
2 3/4" 4450 gph
3" 5280 gph

[crowconor]

yeah im kinda interested in doing it too im going to hear some horror stories first

[keiths]

yeah im kinda interested in doing it too im going to hear some horror stories first
I haven't been able to find too much. On another forum some dude cracked his tank I guess. If you search youtube you can also see what happens when you try to drill a tempered glass tank ;)

[chesterthehero]

i have not horror stories of my own.. but generaly theres only 6 ways to screw it up

-trying to use a wood/metal hole saw
-pushing too hard and just flatout smashing the glass
-pushing too hard as you go through the glass and smashing it with the drill
-not putting "padding" on the other end of the tank and the falling piece of glass smashes the other side
-trying to drill tempered glass
-drilling in the wrong place cuz you were not paying attention

[Dr Joe]

Makes sense. Is it just as easy to drill the tank when it is standing up? The tank weighs like 600-700 lbs empty and I don't want to have to try to lay it on its side.

As long as you can keep water running on the cut to keep the cutter cool and cut cleaned out and can keep your balance and a steady hand you'll be ok.

CHOMPERS eloquently displayed his endeavors well in a past thread. His use of a guide is mandatory for hand drilling. And a variable speed drill is a must.

Dr Joe

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