Drilling a tank....bottom or back?

[A-ron.h]

My debate here is.

Do I drill my tanks on the bottom or the back about about 3/4 of the way down from the top. What I was thinking was either drill the tank on the bottom then use a bulkhead strainer on the bottom of the tank. (I have/use bare bottom tanks) That way when I plumb it into the filter all the waste naturally settles down to the bottom and thus get sucked right into the drain. Then when I do water changes just unplug the filter and just let the water drain, but I would have to keep an eye on the water level.

Or drill about 3/4 of the way down the tank in the back to still allow for most of the waste to be sucked out. Then when I do water changes I can allow the water to drain as low as I want but if I forget and it drains to low the overflow basically will stop the tank from draining completely. But with this way I would still have to siphon any remain waste out of the bottom.

But with both ways I would be returning the fresh water to the top and would naturally be creating a cycle effect of bring in fresh water at the top and waste water at the bottom. A nice cycling effect of the water! Instead of having/using normal overflow boxes or bulkheads as overflows drilled at the top. Also I would be using a ball value on either 1 to control the drain/flow rate.

 

[A-ron.h]

125 gallon tanks

 

[NgaNasty]

i wouldnt worry about drilling hem at the bottom cause that will stir up your substrate. and if you worried about stuff settling at the bottom then add a power head or something to add current which will keep all the debris suspended. and i would drill them towards the top

 

[andyjs]

If it's a premade tank, the bottom is probably tempered and undrillable.

Also, are you using an open sump or some sort of closed canister? If it's a open sump, you'll want to do some sort of overflow setup (the drain could be near the bottom, but it needs to be plumbed back to the water's surface) as a fail-safe so the sump doesn't over flow if the pump stops for some reason

 

[A-ron.h]

i wouldnt worry about drilling hem at the bottom cause that will stir up your substrate. and if you worried about stuff settling at the bottom then add a power head or something to add current which will keep all the debris suspended. and i would drill them towards the top

There is no substrate, I use bare bottom.

 

[Pharaoh]

Are you going to put in overflows?

I prefer tanks to be drilled on the bottom as I like to put them flush to the wall and not have plumbing where I cannot get to it once the tank is full.

 

[ozzyboo]

Are you going to put in overflows?

I prefer tanks to be drilled on the bottom as I like to put them flush to the wall and not have plumbing where I cannot get to it once the tank is full.

Agreed,my new tank has been drilled in the base for exactly the reason above.
Having a 24" wide tank then with all the plumbing behind it it is 28-30" away from the wall and if space is at a premium then that makes a lot of difference.

 

[A-ron.h]

Space is not a problem as I have a 1500 sq warehouse.