Bottom Drilled or Side Drilled?

[Ulu]

So you want to do everything in a sort of concealment tower? Customaquariums.com offers something like this. Its pricy but i considered it for one of my tanks. Might be worth a look for your tank.

Plumbing Concealment Tower/Column - Custom Aquariums

This unique aquarium plumbing concealment tower is a perfect way to use the H2Overflow® and Siphon Stopper® on the inside of your aquarium island tank.

www.customaquariums.com

Thank you, I'll have a look.

 

[FAT daddy]

top...

Do you prefer overflows be on a back, side or bottom?

I was told at a not too local FS that bottom-drilling was the best way.

I don't believe it. I've never seen a fish store with bottom-drilled tanks.

If you lose one bulkhead fitting gasket you can lose everything.

If ten bottom-drilled tanks T to a throttled drain line, and one has a leak, they can all drain.

I was intending to bottom-drill my new acrylic 75, and glue the fittings in, but I worry too much now.

 

[Ulu]

Wow! That was kind of a drive-by . . .
I was gonna ask Fatdaddy about above tank sumps.
But he's already gone like smoke and oakum.

 

[Ulu]

Backfromthedead Yes, that's the idea, but a little too robotic looking for me. I'm going to build something on the same principal. Open drain, return line and throttled drain in some big plastic mushroom looking thing from PVC.

 

[Sharoncthompson]

The reason why it is much better to have a bottom drilled tank.

There is less chance of leakage.
It's more tidy.
It's easier to maintain the filter.
Gravity helps the filter perform very efficiently.
The filter will prime itself.
Filters will last longer.
Pipes are usually shorter improving water flow.
Gravity stops air getting trapped in the filter.
The intake pipe is usually set higher up in the tank and there is less chance sand will ruin the filter.
Filters run a lot more quietly.
A tight fitting lid can be used preventing fish jumping out and water evaporation.
It is easy to drain the tank.
The outtake pipe can be positioned more effectively at the surface of the water which reduces noise and improves oxygenation of the water.
Water changes can be performed without the need to stop the filter.
The better efficiency of water flow improves stabilisation of perimeters improving fish immunity against diseases

If anyone can think of anything else, I'm all ears!

 

[Ulu]

Off-hand I'd say about half of those things are not exclusive to bottom drilled tanks, by any means.

Also I cannot think of a single thing supporting that statement that the filters will last longer

 

[pacu mom]

I prefer drilling the top of the tank. My big brutes ram pipes so hard, they have broken three bulkheads.

 

[Ulu]

How long were those pipes?

 

[pacu mom]

Nearly 24" to the just off the floor. I call them poop suckers as they remove everything off the bare floor. I like these vertical pipes so well, that I had eleven holes drilled on the top of the big tank to accommodate my mechanical filtration.


My pipes will be the only "decoration" in my undecorated tank.


Since I made these pipes for the big tank system, we had to jury rig the plumbing in the small tank when the fish broke another bulkhead. We just ran a pipe straight down through the hole without using bulkhead. It actually works better with no chance of breaking any bulkheads. I am actually going to redo two of these pipes, as we have no need from drawing water from near the top of the tank. I'm going to just run the PVC pipe down without a bulkhead. Drawing water from the bottom of the tank has a lot of advantages. It makes draining the tank a breeze (we just open a valve)--we do have to pay attention or we could drain the tank dry which I accidentally did one time when I got distracted with a phone call.

I do have two 4' external overflow boxes on the tank which I am going to use for redundant filtration. Again, I am so against drilling sides/backs of tanks, I am going to run a vertical pipe to just off the bottom of the sump to return the water to the main tank.

 

[Ulu]

pacu mom That sounds really interesting but I still can't quite figure out how your filtration connects to all those pipes. You must have a lot of hoses or some large manifold with lots of clamps or unions.