Bulkhead Question

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ExoticEctotherms

Candiru
MFK Member
Nov 23, 2007
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South Jersey
I took my tank to a glass shop to have holes drilled to install bulkheads. I asked them to drill 1 1/8" holes....but I got a phone call 45 minutes later telling me that they could only drill 1" or 1 1/4" holes. I probably should have went and picked the tank up and looked for another glass shop, but I wasn't thinking clearly at the time. I told them to go ahead and drill 1 1/4" holes for me. As I mentioned, the bulkhead calls for a 1 1/8" hole. Am I going to have problems or do the bulkheads allow for some variation in hole size?

Thanks.
 
as long as the larger of the bulkhead doesnt slip through the hole and there is a decent amount of overlap, you should be right
 
Bulkheads have a range of hole size they'll work with. I don't know if you just measured the bulkhead and came up with that you needed 1 1/8 holes or if that's what was suggested. Either way doesn't really matter as long as the hole size wasn't way bigger than the bulkhead to begin with having 1/8 inch larger hole is only going to add 1/16 to any side, so the difference is negligible.
 
Also I assume you have to be using a 1/2" bulkhead with that size of hole. Aquacave actually suggest a 1 1/4" hole for their standard 1/2" bulkheads anyways.
 
I figured it would be ok....just wanted to run it by the experts. I didn't actually measure the bulkheads....they are being delivered tomorrow. The manufacturer recommended the 1 1/8" hole. 1/16 of an inch on any side doesn't seem like a lot of space, but I wanted to be sure before I ended up with a 75 gallon puddle on my floor.

Thanks guys!
 
Also I assume you have to be using a 1/2" bulkhead with that size of hole. Aquacave actually suggest a 1 1/4" hole for their standard 1/2" bulkheads anyways.

Thanks a lot for telling me about the Aquacave bulkheads. I'm a little neurotic, so I ordered new bulkheads from there instead of using the ones I have....lol. Better safe than sorry I guess....
 
you know a 1/2" bulkhead is WAAAYYYYYY tiny, right? I can't think of anything that a 1/2" bulkhead would be useful for on a 75.
 
you know a 1/2" bulkhead is WAAAYYYYYY tiny, right? I can't think of anything that a 1/2" bulkhead would be useful for on a 75.

Very good point! I ordered 1" bulkheads for my 110g and have since decided to use 1.25" bulkheads when I drill it after being able to over power my 1" Durso pipe. A 1/2" overflow is going to be VERY limiting!
 
you know a 1/2" bulkhead is WAAAYYYYYY tiny, right? I can't think of anything that a 1/2" bulkhead would be useful for on a 75.

I know....I am hooking up a Rena XP3 canister to them. The flexible hose it comes with is only 5/8". I'm gonna clamp it down and hope it doesn't leak. The reason I went with bulkheads instead of just running the filter hoses over the lip of the tank is because this tank is for my albino snapping turtle and the water level is only gonna be about 1/3 full. I figured it would be easier to do bulkheads than to get extensions for the intake/output of the filter. Plus I won't have any unsightly hoses all over the place.....
 
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