too many holes drilled?

[rdx1555]

You could have an acrylic shop make an overflow box that spans the entire length of your tank if you really wanted skimming across the tank. Then you'd only need to drill as many holes needed for your target flow rate. There's a sticky in the diy forum section that tells you what size holes/pipes and how much they flow.

IMO two boxes in the corners would prolly be enough and then you just direct water flow at deadspots with the return pipe or powerheads.

If you wanted closer to 10x turnover through your sump then 3x 1500gph overflows would be sufficient.

4" piping for that drain is prolly gonna get expensive for fittings and not to mention alot bulkier to route to the drain and its gonna be like flushing a toliet when you open that sucker. A single 2" pipe flows about 1500-2400gph and would drain 250g in 6-10 minutes depending how its plumbed. That would prolly be sufficient and save costs, space, and a potential failure point on the tank.

 

[nes999]

500gal

those overflows arent as obtrusive as i thought theyd be

 

[nes999]

yeah hiding likie 40ft of 4 inch hose that wont roll well is going to be hard

 

[Egon]

500gal

those overflows arent as obtrusive as i thought theyd be

Yeah they are nice. I'm very happy with them.

Another thought on your tank you may want to filter half with the overflow/sump system and the other half with a canister filter system. The nice thing about the canister filters is your returns can be on the bottom of the tank where all the poo is. Then you can get some good flow down there to push everything around so it gets sucked up in the filters.

You may not have the room for all these filters under the tank. Check out my 450 thread, I put the canisters on the side of the tank because I have two 55 gallon sumps under the tank. I really like the combination of the overflow/sump system coupled with a few canisters keeping the lower areas clean.

 

[Egon]

yeah hiding likie 40ft of 4 inch hose that wont roll well is going to be hard

I used 1.5 inch drains on my tanks. I love it! It drains into my yard and it really moves some water!
1.5" is still easy to work with. It's not to big where it's difficult to cut and assemble. I would not recommend larger than 2". I just installed a 2" drain on my bio-tower and damn that moves some water! So I recommend 2" max and a 2" bulkhead needs a 3" hole. That's a lot of glass removed from the tank. Something to think about.

 

[nes999]

did u just up size te whole to get more flow? because i really dont want to have 4 overflow kits on my tank

 

[nes999]

oops

 

[Egon]

did u just up size te whole to get more flow? because i really dont want to have 4 overflow kits on my tank

Not possible, you got to use what they give you or it wont work. I think you should go with the two overflows (6X turn over) or three overflows (9X turn over) and maybe put some kind of canister filter for the lower parts of the tanks. IMO

Also 500 gallons is not always 500 gallons. Think about the rocks and stuff in the tank and also measure the tank from the inside edges and use the conversion calculator just to see exactly how much water you really have. Most likely wont be full all the way to the top so use that measurement too.

 

[nes999]

sand bottom... ill just buy a few of them no biggie. i really appraite this were would i buy a queit one pump i looked on dr foster smith and big als couldnt find them

 

[Egon]

sand bottom... ill just buy a few of them no biggie. i really appraite this were would i buy a queit one pump i looked on dr foster smith and big als couldnt find them

http://www.marinedepot.com/pumps_pentair_aquatics_rainbow_lifegard_quiet_one-ap.html

http://www.dtpetsupplies.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=8689