tank project overflow

[treesprite]

Hey, what would people think of building an ATS in the overflow, since it will be behind the tank?

[BowieReefer84]

How do you plan to make those slots close enough together and nice? What is your end goal for this project?

[Origami]

Hey, what would people think of building an ATS in the overflow, since it will be behind the tank?

Bad idea, Forrest. You raise the risk of an obstructed overflow should the mat separate from the screen. The risk can be managed with diligent care, but I'm of the opinion that you don't intentionally (knowingly) raise the risk of water on the floor under any conditions.

[Jon Lazar]

How do you plan to make those slots close enough together and nice? What is your end goal for this project?

 

I vote for a piece of acrylic with slots. I'm sure one of our local fabricators could do a nice job for a reasonable price.

 

Using a hand-held dremel to cut slots into a 4' long piece of glass is going to take forever and will look...very rustic. At standard 1/4" spacing, that's almost 100 slots.

[treesprite]

Bad idea, Forrest. You raise the risk of an obstructed overflow should the mat separate from the screen. The risk can be managed with diligent care, but I'm of the opinion that you don't intentionally (knowingly) raise the risk of water on the floor under any conditions.

 

Good point. I just remember someone having sort of a trough... can't remember it very well though.

 

It actually did not take me as long as I expected to do the two test ones. My current tank is not broken or anything, so I have no timeline to worry about.

 

As far as slots go, I'm just playing with ideas. I was just rushing through making those test slots, not trying to be precise, just getting a test done without using any measurements or markings or anything. I think though, that with water rushing through no one is going to be able to tell if slots are perfect, but they do need to be precise on the lower horizontal line.

 

Teeth are much easier to grind in and easier to be more precise because they are at the top of the glass and it's just a V shape.

 

I'm thinking along lines of grinding in teeth because after discovering that the 10g is partly glued together, I don't want to be taking apart a 75g tank only to get stuck - if there was a way to know if glue was used, I would just go ahead and do it (one the tank is obtained).

[Origami]

Paul Baldassano had/has an algae trough on the back of his tank. I think it's actually a piece of PVC fence post sliced lengthwise that sits on the back of his tank. It's not actually part of his overflow structure. He lines the bottom of the trough with a piece of window screen that he's roughed up and treated with some cement dust to provide an algae-friendly surface. It's lit using spillover light from his tank lights. When he needs to harvest algae, he just pulls out the screen, gives it a little scrape, and returns it to the trough.

[treesprite]

Paul Baldassano had/has an algae trough on the back of his tank. I think it's actually a piece of PVC fence post sliced lengthwise that sits on the back of his tank. It's not actually part of his overflow structure. He lines the bottom of the trough with a piece of window screen that he's roughed up and treated with some cement dust to provide an algae-friendly surface. It's lit using spillover light from his tank lights. When he needs to harvest algae, he just pulls out the screen, gives it a little scrape, and returns it to the trough.

Now I remember - thanks! I keep thinking about setting up an ATS just not getting around to it.

[zygote2k]

I see a problem in grinding slots by hand in glass- sometime in the not too distant future, you're gonna see those slots get clogged with algae faster than normal. When you clean them, you'll risk cutting yourself on the sharp edges or if a snail gets lodged into the slot and you try to push/pull it out, you'll risk breaking the slot and surrounding glass since the back edges of the ground slot will be very brittle.

 

It's nice that you are creative, but why would you want to attach a 10g tank as an overflow? It's not going to drain any more water out of the display faster than a conventional overflow or a glass holes overflow since you're limited by pipe diameter. You also have to worry about getting external support and siliconing it water-tite. You also have to worry about the possibility that a minor bump will break the overflow. This is why working with acrylic is so much better than glass

[treesprite]

I see a problem in grinding slots by hand in glass- sometime in the not too distant future, you're gonna see those slots get clogged with algae faster than normal.

Yeah, I was thinking about that yesterday. I decided not to do it with a tank this size.

 

When you clean them, you'll risk cutting yourself on the sharp edges or if a snail gets lodged into the slot and you try to push/pull it out, you'll risk breaking the slot and surrounding glass since the back edges of the ground slot will be very brittle.

Not true. Grinding the glass makes the edges dull. The snails would not be able to fit in the slots. The back edges would be the same as the front edges - the glass has to be ground from front and back so they're the same width all the way through. I've done a lot of playing with what I can do with glass and a dremmel. But I decided to not do slots.

 

It's nice that you are creative, but why would you want to attach a 10g tank as an overflow?

Who is attaching a 10g tank to anything? Is the rest of your post based on that notion? I'm going to base the rest of my responses to your post on the fact that I'm talking about a C2C on a 48" long tank. The purpose in a C2C is surface skimming.

 

You also have to worry about getting external support and siliconing it water-tite.

I have plenty of experience with siliconing tanks and overflows, including having completely removed the back of my old 65 and putting it back. I haven't had a leak yet. At this point, I'm pretty sure I can manage the support. But of course I'm talking about something that is only a few inches front to back, not a box that is 20"x10"x16".

 

You also have to worry about the possibility that a minor bump will break the overflow. This is why working with acrylic is so much better than glass

How would a minor bump break the overflow? I would not be taking a hammer to it. If it were to be a 10g tank - which it would not - I could see a lot of possible mishaps because it is so bulky.

[zygote2k]

For maximum surface skimming that doesn't take up a lot of space, you could much easier build a weir/ false back wall that will be C2C and no slots are needed.

[treesprite]

For maximum surface skimming that doesn't take up a lot of space, you could much easier build a weir/ false back wall that will be C2C and no slots are needed.

 

I've done that in other tanks - those types have their own issues. I need the spece to be wide enough to fit PVC pieces - a false wall would take up too much space at that width.

Edited July 4, 2012 by treesprite

[treesprite]

I did this with a dremmel on a 10g tank... it took I guess about 20 minutes. It isn't very practical on a 10g tank though.

 

[smallreef]

It looks cool.... though Im with ya,, not really practical for that size... and what is the possibility with a larger tank of cracking or crazing? and that is if you can get the pieces of glass off....

[treesprite]

The dremmeling process is one of grinding, not cutting. There is no pressure on the glass, and the process automatically includes the edges being ground smooth.

 

The glass does not have to be removed from the tank to do this. In fact, if I wanted to (which I don't really), I could do it to my current tank up and running, because the back of the tank is the back of the internal C2C overflow and the water level is about 4" below the top of the back tank glass. I would just have to remove the back section of trim in the area where the opening is desired.