Drilling Tanks

[Goanna]

Well, I ordered a 1 1/8" Bit from Glass-Holes.com and got it the other day (I have to say, they have nice prices and very fast shipping from CA-NY) and I drilled a broken 10 gallon I had for practice. I used the Putty Well method and didn't use a wooden guide or a drill press, just started it fast at an angle to make a beginning notch, the slowed it down and leveled it off and drilled straight down. First attempt came out pretty nice, but dd have a couple small chips on the inside wall.

So, then I moved onto my 29 gallon tank that I wanted to drill, but this time I duct-taped the inside of the glass and then drilled. The duct tape holds the glass in place and keeps the disk from being punched down before the bit works all the way through. I did two holes like this and they came out perfect .

Now I am itching to drill my Exo-Terra cage which is setup as a paludarium (water and fish on bottom, frogs and day gecko on top) as it's a pain to go in there and clean the submersible filter without having the day gecko fly out and run around the living room, lol (I already ordered two more bulkheads for it, just need to find another small canister filter ).

(Oh, and I wound up with an Eheim 2213 which has 1/2" tubing, so I didnt need any reducers luckily).

 

[Goanna]

Wow, lifeguard bulkheads are kind of well, bulky...

I ordered the 1/2" bulkheads to use with Eheim 12mm tubing (1/2") and damn that took some effort to get the tubing onto the barbs.

I have some other 1/2" barb fittings, general plumbing ones, and the eheim tubing fits on them snug, but it doesn't require a ton of effort. To get it on the 1/2" Lifeguard Bulkhead though I had to heat the tubing in water, and then use a towel and pair of pliers to coax it onto the barb, and since I couldn't get it much past the second barb I had to put a metal hose clamp on it.

I have two more bulkheads to install on another tank that I wanted to also use an Eheim with, I think this time I'll get some larger tubing and try and make an adapter to step it down to the eheim one.

 

[oscarlover61898]

YOU NEED A DIMOND SAW TO CUT GLASS!!!!!!!!!

 

[Goanna]

YOU NEED A DIMOND SAW TO CUT GLASS!!!!!!!!!

What's with the yelling (caps lock)? Is this in response to a specific post? I think most of us here know we need to use a diamond coated hole saw to drill glass.

 

[mounda]

How far from the top can I start to drill ? 15mm glass.

 

[redtailshark1]

id drill a piece of glass first just to prac

 

[redtailshark1]

never buy japanese glass for aquariums

 

[frankj]

Ahole saw works great for acrylic. I used a 12v cordless drill. drill for a few seconds wait 30 seconds and repeat just go very slow so you don't mealt the plactic.

 

[Propofol]

There is a myth that you can see imperfectons in tempered glass with polarized glasses. I put it to the test with several sheets and all failed to show any indication of tempering.

When the glass is tempered, it is marked in a corner as in the pic below. Since your tank was made in China, I seriously doubt that it has a tempered bottom. Tempering is an expensive process and the Chinese manufacture as cheap as possible. Tempered bottoms is a sales gimmik used by American tank manufacturers in an effort to sell against foreign made tanks. There is no reason to use tempered glass for a tank bottom because plate glass will do the same job.

So with your statement are you saying that any tank we get regardless if it is from wallymart, petco, petsmart and so on...it can be drilled as long the user takes their time doing it?

I am thinking of buying a 80 gal tank from one of the stores mentioned above and use it as a sump for a 280 gal. What is your take?

 

[CHOMPERS]

So with your statement are you saying that any tank... ...can be drilled as long the user takes their time doing it?

Ummm....sure. If you can read into it that badly, then yes, you can drill a tempered tank. Make sure you shoot a video. We want a shot of the reciept of your brand new tank too. ...and your tears when you are done.

p.s. Keep a broom handy.