Best place to to drill return line?

[Pulcher]

So as you can see I have an external overflow with 2, 2 inch holes that I’m using for drains but I’m wondering where I should drill a return line? Would it be possible to drill a new hole in the over flow or would it have to be in the side of the tank? Thank you in advanced.

 

[pacu mom]

There have been changes since the advent of Herbie and BeanAnimal overflows. Traditional overflow boxes only had two holes--one for draining and one for the return line. Is there a hole in the top of the tank? If so, the return line comes up through the overflow box and enters the tank through the top of the tank. If you want two drains, then just run the return pipe adjacent to the overflow box and put your return hole in the top of the tank....the floor of the overflow box looks too tight to accommodate another hole. And besides, with the return pipe outside of the overflow box, you will have one less bulkhead to deal with.


Our 300 gallon tank came with the hole on the top of the tank for the return line.


It's easy to drill holes in acrylic using a hole saw. We ended up drilling four additional holes in the top of our tank



nightmare plumbing is the twenty bulkheads in the two overflow boxes in our big tank upgrade...and there is no room for two more drain holes so we can go with Bean Animal....