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Drill or not to drill tanks?


Jabberjaw
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Re-doing my fish room. It will be set up on a sump with an auto-top off system. 20 tanks 5g to 20g. mostly 10's and 5's for breeding (all currently in use with fish in them). Can't decide if I should drill the tanks or do the pvc overflow. I've been trying to decide for a couple weeks. So concerned with cracking tanks 😞 Now it's go time, all aquariums are out and through-out the house, sealing and painting the floor and the walls, need to decide now. UGH. what are the pro's and cons other than possible breaking a tank. anyone?

Edited by Jabberjaw
forgot to add the tanks are in use
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yes, I did. it made me feel like I would crack fewer tanks, but uggh. I forgot to put all my tanks have fish in them (fixed it, sorry). I would have to remove the fish to drill the tanks. they're all breeders so not really scaped...(guppy grass, some wood/rocks, maybe some hides depending on the fish) so not a big deal, just concerned with stressing the fish more. Also, have you drilled 5g tanks? there's quite a few of them. I put newly born/hatched fry batches in them to grow for a few weeks/months before transferring them to 10g. guess it doesn't matter if it's 5g or 20g, drilling is the same?. There's a lot of fish. maybe over 1k total. I've read where people drill with fish in them. wonder which would be more stressful for the fish. moving to a temporary bucket/tub, or drilling with them in there. I don't think i want to drill with them in there, so bucket/tub it is, I guess.

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I wouldn't drill, one there is always a risk and you don't want to cycling lots of new tanks.

Also drilled tanks are harder to sell or give away (especially the smaller ones if you decide to change things out a few years from now.

Likewise if you want to move one back into the house to be a show or pet tank it's easier if it's not drilled.

Aside from neatness is there much to gain from drilling (I suppose less faff adjusting lids.

Oh and it also makes it possible to remove a tank from the shared sump when quarantining.

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On 11/17/2022 at 3:11 AM, Flumpweesel said:

I wouldn't drill, one there is always a risk and you don't want to cycling lots of new tanks.

Also drilled tanks are harder to sell or give away (especially the smaller ones if you decide to change things out a few years from now.

Likewise if you want to move one back into the house to be a show or pet tank it's easier if it's not drilled.

Aside from neatness is there much to gain from drilling (I suppose less faff adjusting lids.

Oh and it also makes it possible to remove a tank from the shared sump when quarantining.

Very good point. I was thinking on the small aquariums it would take up less space in the aquarium to drill it, but it would take less space than a sponge filter to do a siphon overflow. I wonder how often that breaks the siphon. From the price of bulkheads vs the extra pvc to do an overflow siphon it's about the same I guess, maybe a little cheaper. 

As far as removing the tank from the sump, all the tanks would have shut-offs so they could be removed from the system if necessary. 

I didn't think of the selling price, very good point.

Thank you

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I think I like this instead of a plastic hanging overflow box. my main concern with a drill-less siphon is losing the siphon due to power fluctuations or outages. I think this method may alleviate that fear. I can paint the pvc black to match the back of the tank, less screaming in your face there's an ugly piece of pvc there. AND, I can put the tanks in the rack immediately and add the tank to the sump as I go. hmmm

 

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I have drilled many tanks over my years of fish keeping, and by far, the smaller tanks are the most difficult to drill because of the thickness of the glass. If you drill, I would recommend a good bit and possibly rent a drill press from a place like Jehmco, so that the bit stays nice and straight and level so that it doesn't drill uneven and grab and cause a crack. There are many ways to do a PVC overflow without having to drill the tanks, Greg Sage has one on his Select Aquatics YouTube channel that a couple of guys in my local fish club have used and appears to work good. 

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I vote for drilling. I use some wooden blocks and C-clamp and it reduces the chances of breakage. Below it's set on a spare piece of glass, but when drilling tanks I set it right on the pane I'm drilling. If the tank is empty, I always drill vertically. I prefer to drill from inside the tank to outside, in case the last bit of the cutout circle chips a bit. But that's tricky on small tanks like 5 gals.

I place the frame of the tank onto some blocks so there is no added pressure or torquing of the glass I'm drilling. Twisting or bending pressure is bad. 

The C clamp provides resistance on the back side of the piece I'm drilling through. 

I'll often put a piece of painters tape on one or both sides of the glass where I'm drilling. At the start of the hole, it reduces chatter and gets the hole started better. On the back side, it reduces chipping, and catches the cut hole (I've heard stories of the cut piece falling through and breaking the pane below). 

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Recently I drilled my first tank with fish in it. I removed the tank from the rack, and drained it down to a couple of inches. I cleaned the glass with a razor, and mounted my clamp and blocs like in pics. I put a piece of tape on the inside to be sure the cut glass stayed in place. When I was close to breaking through, I went very slow, and held a piece of paper towel on the inside, below the hole. I wanted to avoid any glass dust going into the tank. But this proved not necessary, it was quite neat and tidy. 

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I think I'm not going to drill. Flumpweesel has a very good point that It would make it more difficult to sell if I decided to get rid of that tank. I'm going to try a combination of a few peoples set up. i don't want anything blocking the view of the tank because people come and buy from my tank themselves sometimes, I want an overflow box so if I lose power I don't lose the siphon. Shut offs for each tank so I can separate the tank from the sump if necessary. Thank you everyone for the input. i've "agonized" over this decision for a couple months while I've been renovating and just got to the point I had to make a decision.

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On 11/17/2022 at 10:18 AM, Jabberjaw said:

I think I like this instead of a plastic hanging overflow box. my main concern with a drill-less siphon is losing the siphon due to power fluctuations or outages. I think this method may alleviate that fear. I can paint the pvc black to match the back of the tank, less screaming in your face there's an ugly piece of pvc there. AND, I can put the tanks in the rack immediately and add the tank to the sump as I go. hmmm

 

Just need to make sure that a fish doesn't get caught in there…

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Because i have a lot of tiny fry, I planned on putting some kind of mesh at the bottom of the overflow. I'd have to keep it clean so it doesn't get clogged, figure I'd put rocks and things up against it to help keep them out also. maybe some of the pea gravel I put in the bottom of the tank with larger rocks in front of it. I would also have to make it as a complete corner insert, I really don't want to have to empty the tanks to put the overflow in.

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