I am buying a 125 g in the near future. If I decide on sump filtration, which way should I do my intake/outtake?
drill the bottom
drill the back
hob
The local lfs had 125g tanks on sale, but could only drill the back because th bottom was tempered glass. Does it make a difference where they go? Also how many holes?
Typically near the top of the tank. That way if your return pump fails, your sump can handle the overrun. If you drill the bottom, you have no safety factor for power outages or pump failures. Your tank just runs into your sump, and your sump runs over on to your floor.
Typically it would be 2 holes one for a drain and one for the return. With a 125 you might want to do more. My 90G came with a built in over flow setup, so I am not a big help. It has a 1" inch dir the drain and a 3/4 for the return. AGA doubles that for tanks over 110G.
Typically near the top of the tank. That way if your return pump fails, your sump can handle the overrun. If you drill the bottom, you have no safety factor for power outages or pump failures. Your tank just runs into your sump, and your sump runs over on to your floor.
That would be a pretty poor design. Most tanks are drilled at the bottom. Not saying thats best, but thats the norm. You can double protect siphon flooding, simply drill a small 'siphon break' hole just under the waterline in your return, and use a check valve in the plumbing between your return pump and bulkhead. On the drain side it cant oveflow since once the return pump stops pumping the water level will not be high enough to go over the overflow part. This is sump design 101.
I just got a tank with two in-tank overflow chambers, drilled at the base. To be honest, I'd rather had gone with the cheap PVC tube HOT concept if I had heard about it before getting the tank. Having multiple in tank overflow chambers is rather expensive and permanent. if you dont like the look of PVC I am sure you could use one of those black overflow covers so it would look any different than a normal one, plus there is no holes in your tank and its mobile/removable. My two chambers cost me a little over $200, two PVC overflows probably would have been 10% that. Oh well.
If your getting a new one why not just order one with the overflows built in if you know you want them before you buy the tank. Yeah they charge a bit more for that but that way there is no danger of you making a mistake, or the glass being tempered.
I think the Oceanic brand aquariums refer to it as "Reef-Ready". Not sure what the other brands call it.
The built in ones are very well designed and have antisyphon protection built in and look ver nice.
I would only look into DIY overflow system for an existing tank, or a small cheap one that I could easily afford to replace if I made a mistake.
A 120G Perfecto at Big Als cost $250 without holes. If I requested predrilled bottom holes, they added about $400 more. (this included fittings as well, not just the holes).
Its expensive. The popular Glasscages.com for my 240G tank would be:
$25 per hole = $100
$25 per Overflow chamber = $50
$30 black plastic cover = $60 (I think, I cant remember that one for sure)
$15 per bulkhead = $60 (unless 2" ones are needed at $20 ea)
So thats $270. $400 is a bit steep, but remember glasscages.com is pretty reasonable, many places might charge a lot more. IMO, I wouldnt have spent the $270 on my tank had I seen the DIY PVC design above before hand.
