First drilled aquarium

[TBout86]

A success!!!!

75gallon Aqueon aquarium
800gph Fiji Cube overflow
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3/4” bulkheads, lock line, and drill bit are being delivered today. I’ll drill those tonight.

fascinated on how easy that process was. I was nerved up over it all day yesterday.

after I do my returns I was tossing the idea of drilling another 1” bulkhead roughly 3/4 down the tank. This would act as my water change on/off drain point. I typically toss in my Python with a water pump and pump outside.
Anyone have a system like this where they just open a valve and drain water?

if you do or have done it, what are your thoughts? Any issue?
I attached some photos from last nights drilling. Clamped down the template that came with the overflow, plus built a retaining wall with plumbers putty to keep water in that area. I do need to trim a small area off my back trim as I drilled high on purpose to make sure the water line was above the bottom of the trim. Also ordered a 4th bulkhead gasket to bring to bring the inside outward a tiny bit more away from the interior trim.

 

[jjohnwm]

Virtually all of my tanks are set up for draining like this. The line (ordinary garden hose) runs from a standard faucet tap screwed into the bulkhead on each tank, to a manifold with valves on each line. The manifold is connected to a pump which directs the water outside, either to the same drain line running from my house to the adjacent fallow field (for use in summer) or to a dedicated faucet mounted on the outside of the foundation wall (for use with a hose during the winter). This latter is necessary because cold temperatures freeze the buried "summer" line and force me to lay out a hose on the ground for winter changes.

My tanks are in the basement, below grade, so I am forced to use a pump to evacuate the water to the outdoors. If you keep your tanks above grade, you might be able to get by with just gravity drain, but I suspect you would be happier using a pump; much faster and more efficient. I started with too small a pump, which took way too much time to drain the quantities I needed. I recently upgraded to a larger pump on the order of 2000 gph and am now happy as a clam.

 

[Dégatdeau]

I run the same overflow as you. And I noticed that water seems to raise at the top of the teeth of the weir when the pump is running. I swapped the weir for strainers because if the bulkheads are not aligned perfectly, the weir is a ***** to het on lol. I drilled mine lower than yours and I kind of wish I drilled it lower still. I'd say watch your tank on start up to make sur you don't overflow it. Still a nice setup, good job