If you have a drain near by or if you don't mind a garden hose, you can add one more bulkhead for water changes. Put it 30%-ish of the way down from the waters surface (depending on your average water change volume). Lowes and HD sells a pvc to garden hose adapters in the plumbing isle. When it comes time to do a water change, you just roll out the hose, open the valve, and let it drain to the height determined by the bulkhead.
How to plumb a sump when tank is drilled this way.
- Thread starter alleykat0498
- Start date
Finished Product! 
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I really wish I would have noticed this before I filled the tank. That is a wonderful idea that I will utilize when I move in september. I'll just use one of the 3/4" blukheads and put a garden hose connector on the end of it. Thanks Chompers this project has been made a heck of alot easier with your input which has kept me fromCHOMPERS;2855908; said:
.All thats really left now is to fine tune the sump (mostly to quiet down the waterfall effect, and a little cosmetic stuff on the stand and canopy (sand, retrim, repaint etc.)
Thanks again guy's!
It's the distance the water is falling, I'm going to build some "legs" for the media baskets to cut the distance the water falls before it hits the trickle filter.
Extend the pipes to just above the floss but don't glue them. If you have the lid for the top container, add it and cut two holes for the plumbing.
I have managed to quiet the waterfall quite a bit, now the overflows are noisy as all get out. I added a nice green back ground with driftwood in it, and bought the biggest piece of Mopani I could find and I'm currently soaking it in the tub. Painted the stand and canopy again and will probably reebuild the canopy in the next few weeks. I also bought an AC 50 powerhead for a little more movement.
pics of background and the wood that's soaking. I drilled the spray bar a little more and almost doubled the flow rate.
