I have a 120 4 foot tank I was thinking of sectioning off into two tanks the breed discus or mbuna, someone suggested breeding clown fish morphs, and sectioning it off even more. My question is how many holes can I drill in the bottom for overflows and returns before there is no more structural support and it breaks? I was thinking one hole for each section so 2-4 maybe even 8. It's a 4foot x 2foot 5/8 inch thick all sections would be glass siliconed in place
How many holes can I drill
- Thread starter Jag586
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I dont know if the bottom is tempered or not if it is then none. On my 120 reef I had a closed loop on the back 7 holes all together. But that was the back. I don't see why you couldnt have 4 if it's not tempered.
Is it true I can use polirized glasses to check if it's tempered, and thanks for the reply, only reason I was thinking the bottom is because I wanted to section it off with like a cross in the middle but I guess I could do 4 sections 1 foot by 2 feet deep
No, I got it from my brother n law and there is no manufacturing name on it, which sucks because I need a new top to it but can't find one so it's going to be a diy
I haven't done this, but this person says so. However, others say it's not fool proof. The truly only fool proof method outside of perhaps an electron microscope (or some other equipment that most of us have never used) is to drill it or break it.
That's obviously, not a preferred method, but if you can use this method (or something similar), you might get a better chance of making the right choice.
To answer your other question, a glass maker could probably tell you with some certainty how many holes or what size or what placement would weaken the glass.
I'd aim for at most a few holes, and ones that are not large and not close to each other, but I'm no glass maker.
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Side panels are almost never tempered. Almost is the key. But that's what Marineland told me also. They said if you absolutely need to drill and you dont know, side panels are safest to drill. Also just because the bottom is drilled from factory doesn't mean it wasn't tempered after the original hole were drilled.
Are you looking at making separate filters so you have separate water for each compartment? If not, and it'll have shared water/filter, just using hamburg matten foam to make different compartments could be a heck of a lot easier. Put an overflow on one end and a return on the other and you'll be golden. It might not look as nice though.