Help!!
I am planning on creating a 72x24x30" acrylic tank. I want to seal the 0verflow to the back of the tank to not use any of the volume of the tank. I need to minimize water volume in the overflow to reduce its weight as it is attached to the back of the aquarium and will not sit on a stand.
Some assumptions:
Some questions I have:
Any advise is gratefully accepted, thanks!!
I am planning on creating a 72x24x30" acrylic tank. I want to seal the 0verflow to the back of the tank to not use any of the volume of the tank. I need to minimize water volume in the overflow to reduce its weight as it is attached to the back of the aquarium and will not sit on a stand.
Some assumptions:
- I am thinking I want 2400 gph water exchange
- I want redundant stand pipes (2) of 2" diameter that will drain the water from the overflow to the sump
- I want to maximize thin layer flow to the overflow from the tank and minimize overflow weight. To do this I would make the overflow 72x6x8 using left over acrylic or I could use a thinner acrylic that I would seal onto the back top of the aquarium
- Water height in the overflow would be 4", again in order to reduce weight
Some questions I have:
- 4" depth of water in a 72x6 area is still about 60 lbs of water. Granted that weight is spread over a large surface but will the acrylic overflow be structurally sound if sealed to the aquarium?
- Is a larger surface area of 1" thick acrylic glued to the aquarium justify the additional weight of the acrylic or is it wiser to go with thinner cast acrylic?
- I have not seen standpipes so short in any plans or youtubes and wondered if there was some other factor that makes such a short standpipe an issue?
- As a noob, what things have I forgotten to take into account?
Any advise is gratefully accepted, thanks!!
