1.5" thick acrylic drilling advice?

[knobhill]

It will be impossible to reach the other side. I am also kinda at a loss as to how I will screw in the bulk head. Sadly my arms are not 4' long

Thanks guys Hope to have it drilled next week. I was hoping for 3 1.5" holes two for drain and one for feed. However the nice thing about it being 4' deep is that if it drilled on the bottom and can't drain fast enough I can add more bulkeds on the back side of the overflow.

Use aquatongs to put the bulkheads in place. You don't need to hold the flang side to screw in the bulkhead--just hold the threads.

You may also want to use a slip fitting on the flange side so that you can put a pvc riser on the bulkheads or the tank will be really noisy! The risers can also be used in place of tongs.

Are you installing 1.5" holes or bulkheads????

 

[Mastiffman]

It will be impossible to reach the other side. I am also kinda at a loss as to how I will screw in the bulk head. Sadly my arms are not 4' long

Thanks guys Hope to have it drilled next week. I was hoping for 3 1.5" holes two for drain and one for feed. However the nice thing about it being 4' deep is that if it drilled on the bottom and can't drain fast enough I can add more bulkeds on the back side of the overflow.

This might work for your tightening issue. Just screw in a 1.5" Coupler into the top of the bulk head. Put the 1.5" 4.5ft long PVC pipe into that Coupler. Make sure that you have the gasket placed on the bulkhead before inserting down into the overflow and into the hole. If it's just you, and the tank is already on it's side, then tape the nut to the bottom of the outside of the tank in allignment with the bulkhead hole. Strart the bulkhead threading into the taped nut and continue to screw it in until you hear the tape pop off. Then go around to the nut, pull the rest o the bulkhead through the hole and screw the nut on as far as you can go. You can either have someone else hold the PVC from the top of the overflow and you tighten the nut OR hold the threads with some gloves adn tighten down the nut.

What I did was Set my 135gal on 1" styofoam after threading and finger tightening the nut. I filled the tank partially and that put enough weight to press the nut into the foam and hold it secure. Then I just gripped the 1.5" PVC pipe that I glued into the bottom of the bulkhead and gave it a good hard twist!!!! No leaks at all. You don't need to crank them down like a lot of people think...

For increased sealing, you can rub a tiny layer of petroleum jelly or vegetable oil on both sides of the gasket before installing bulkhead.

Pretty simple that way. Added bonus is that if you ever have to drain the overflow and remove the PVC stand pipe, you can easily give the pipe another good twist to the left and out she comes. No messing with the nut either. It stays in place and doens't move!!! Obviously you have to cut holes in the styrofoam the ONLY the size of the hole, plus 1/4" in diameter, Not radius! The Tank settles right down into place and the nut into the foam with a little pushing down of the tank proir to filling.

Sorry for the long explaination but I hope that I helped to make your situation easier!

 

[nfored]

Awesome advice.


A point was brought up that also worried me, previously. The noise I have the thought of running a closed loop system so there should be no with sound, but if I go with a sump then it would work like a normal overflow, and I would think it would sound super loud.

How tall should I make the stand pipe a system like this? I have only used horizontal overflows before, the only sound was air getting sucked in from an unturned durso.

If I drill the over flow from the back, and put a 90 pointing down with a tee on the outside. Would I loose a lot of flow like this? Ow will I still get the flow since its still falling 3 feet before it reaches the bottom of the tank.

 

[knobhill]

You should get the same flow if you go horizontal. If you go vertical, the standpipe (or top oF the durso) should be just below overflow's teeth. I am going to do my 350g with the method you described: bulkheads on the side of the tank with a 90 degree pointing down in the overflow box. A tee will be on the outside with a capped riser (with a hole on top w/ airline) that will be a few inches above the top of the tank to prevent flooding. It's a durso with the tank wall in the middle. If you have the wall clearance, go horizontal.

 

[nfored]

You should get the same flow if you go horizontal. If you go vertical, the standpipe (or top oF the durso) should be just below overflow's teeth. I am going to do my 350g with the method you described: bulkheads on the side of the tank with a 90 degree pointing down in the overflow box. A tee will be on the outside with a capped riser (with a hole on top w/ airline) that will be a few inches above the top of the tank to prevent flooding. It's a durso with the tank wall in the middle. If you have the wall clearance, go horizontal.

I will for sure have the clearance. This is going to be a room divder so I will be taking down an whole wall place the tank there and build two walls one on each side.

I even thought about not drilling, I am going to spend the money on a high head pump, so I can locate the filtration in the basement. That means close to 13' foot drop from the rim of the tank to the pump in the basement, maybe even 17 foot drop. I was then going to get a 1/2" vinyl tube with a siphon pump one end would be at the bottom of the overflow, and the second end connected to the drain pipe. The drain pipe would then have a ball valve next to the pump in the basement. I wound then use the siphon pump to drain the overflow into the drain pipe filling it completely to the tanks rim. Once I open the ball valve I would think gravity over 13' would be enough to suck out the air from the section above the tank.

 

[Dan F]

You shouldn't have any trouble drilling from one side only - most hole-saws will go through about 1 5/8" of material before bottoming out.