New Predrilled tank... confusion

[bobblehead27]

Just found this tank on the side of the road with no issues other than a small crack that we fixed...
anyway it's predrilled and we were wondering what that little section of the tank that's seperated is for...

 

[Willz]

Sweet find. That is the overflow. The "teeth" on the top skim the water surface and overflow to sump. You would put a bulkhead in the bottom and an appropriately sized piece of PVC. The other chamber off from the overflow (it looks like a square section that is empty), I have no idea what that is for. Perhaps some salt water keepers are familiar with that. What are the dimensions on it?

 

[Willz]

It almost looks like they broke the tank when they drilled the bottom and added a new piece in the bottom and another on the side? That is odd. Most overflows have two holes in the bottom.

 

[tscharf]

the other piece off of the oveflow looks like an emergency overflow... if the original overflow were to get clogged water would continue to rise in the tank until hitting the emergency overflow, then it would spill down into this and whatever it was you had waiting to catch the water. its there to keep your tank from overflowing. atleast thats what it looks like to me

 

[ziggy2]

Now you just have to build yourself a DIY sump.

 

[Conner]

The second chamber without glass in the bottom is for any return piping. The bulkhead inside the first chamber of the overflow is for your drain pipe down to a sump, canister filter, or closed loop filter system.

 

[bobblehead27]

Ok thank you. So what exactly comes next? I have a 20 gallon tank that i'm planning on using as a sump or whatever, but i don't know exactly how to set that up... is there some other forum that explains this (instead of making one of you go through explaining it to me... but that'd be just as appreciated) what else needs to be bought? the dimensions of the tank are 51.5" Long, 20 Wide and 24 High... I never had a predrilled before... or a tank this size (55's my biggest altho my dad''s had a 150 salt before)

 

[Willz]

Ok thank you. So what exactly comes next? I have a 20 gallon tank that i'm planning on using as a sump or whatever, but i don't know exactly how to set that up... is there some other forum that explains this (instead of making one of you go through explaining it to me... but that'd be just as appreciated) what else needs to be bought? the dimensions of the tank are 51.5" Long, 20 Wide and 24 High... I never had a predrilled before... or a tank this size (55's my biggest altho my dad''s had a 150 salt before)

There are awesome links on this site for sump building. Your tank is a 110 gallon, so a 20g sump might be a little small. I have a 120 gallon and use a 40 gallon breeder. When the power goes out you'll appreciate the extra room so the water doesn't overflow! Here are a few pics of mine (I built it myself.):

I added another 8L of Pondmatrix after this photo was taken (I bought them out and they had to put the last two buckets on backorder). The blue stuff is course Poret, then the next blue thing is finer Poret. The media bag is filled with Purigen and another filled with Phosguard, then I have my UV sterilizer and heaters in the reservoir along with the return pump and a nitrate reactor. Here is a picture of what it looks like now from above:

I also have my old Eheim cannister hooked up, and a Mag 350 with the impeller pulled running on the return line to bleed down the return pressure (the pump is too fast for my overflows). I'll get rid of the Eheim after a month as it won't be needed once the BB is established on the Pondmatrix and Denitrate.

Of course, the cool thing about sumps is you can custom make them to whatever situation you need. Have fun
w

 

[tscharf]

110? u sure? maybe i missed it in the thread when he said that but it looks a lil small to me

 

[Willz]

110? u sure? maybe i missed it in the thread when he said that but it looks a lil small to me

He said it's 51.5" long, 20" wide, and 24" high. So, (51.5 x 20 x 24) / 231 = 107 gallons. Pretty sure if he measured right that would have been sold as a 110 Gallon tank. I have never seen those dimensions before, but I was just going off of what he said. I was also basing the wet/dry size off of 1/3 of the tank size, so he would probably want at least 35 gallons, and the nearest (common tank size) to that is a 40 gallon breeder. I got mine for $40 when Petco did there $1/gallon sale.