Drilled Tanks vs Siphon Overflow

[hultman]

Hello everyone. I just joined the forum and I'm looking forward to participating in the discussions I see here.

I'm an old marine fish fan who's been out of the hobby for a while. My old system was a series of six or seven tanks, manifolded together into a large sump. I think I burned myself out (I KNOW I burned my wife out on this complicated system, and we retired it about five years ago.

Now I am setting up a little 40 Gallon Hex (salt FO). My question is about drainage into the wet/dry filter. I see a lot of talk about siphon overflows, but not much on drilled tank overflows. I tried the siphon system 15 years ago and hated it. All my tanks are drilled, including the hex, and I'm wondering why anyone would use a siphon when drilling a tank costs about $10.

Are there new siphon systems that have improved that much?

Anyway, just my thoughts on the subject. If I'm way off base, please excuse my out-of-date opinions!

Jim

 

[mogurnda]

Welcome to AC! Nice to see an old hand joining in.

Nothing's changed. Drilled tanks are still a lot better. Only reason I can think of for using a siphon overflow is adding a sump to a tank that's already running.

 

[OrionGirl]

Yep--that or the fact that drilled tanks are more expensive. In the long run, the drilled tank is worth every dime, and actually cheaper than dealing with a siphon system, but that fact is often overlooked by newbies. I think LFS don't really explain the benefits adequately, either. It wasn't even mentioned when I bought my first tank for a marine setup. I think another problem is that most common tank sizes don't come drilled, and many places to have them drilled scare people off by saying the if the tank breaks, they won't replace or fix it.

 

[Tyler718]

Welcome to AC! Nice to see an old hand joining in.

Nothing's changed. Drilled tanks are still a lot better. Only reason I can think of for using a siphon overflow is adding a sump to a tank that's already running.

This is the reason why I went with a siphon overflow. The tank has been up for almost 5 months and just now decided to run a 20 gal sump on my 60g setup. I wish my tank was drilled, but that will have to wait until I setup a new tank when I get back from Okinawa.

By the way, welcome to AC!

 

[crashkg]

Siphon Overflow

I agree with you. Unfortunately as a new aquarium owner the shop that i went to convinced me otherwise because they didn't have a drilled tank in stock and I needed a glass tank instead of a acrylic one. NOw I regret it because the overflow system is very noisy and it keeps getting bubbles in the syphon impeding the overflow. I'm worried that it will overflow so I have to keep draining the air out of the siphon. I would love to drill into the glass tank if anyone has any ides please let me know. Thanks