2024 Ohio Reef Frag Swap

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Author Topic: Drilling glass  (Read 3450 times)

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Online JSellars

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Drilling glass
« on: December 23, 2019, 10:04:47 »
Who here is confident enough to drill 1 hole in the back panel of my new aquarium? I have no experience doing it and don’t want to ruin a brand new $300 tank lol


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Offline dbowman

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #1 on: December 23, 2019, 15:21:20 »
i bought a marineland 75 gal combo and an Eshopp's L internal overflow. once i drill it i will let you know whether i have confidence in my ability... or where i buy the pre-drilled 75 that i will need. Merry Chrismas!

Online JSellars

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #2 on: December 23, 2019, 15:37:08 »
i bought a marineland 75 gal combo and an Eshopp's L internal overflow. once i drill it i will let you know whether i have confidence in my ability... or where i buy the pre-drilled 75 that i will need. Merry Chrismas!

I bought a reef ready tank buy it only has 2 holes in the bottom of the overflow box. I want to change it to a Herbie style overflow. So i will need to drill another hole in it for the return.


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Offline SweetReefOH

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #3 on: December 23, 2019, 16:07:04 »
It sounds scarier than it is. I’ve drilled 4 tanks in the last couple years. My first one was nerve racking, but it went smoothly after that. Plenty of water, go slow and let the bit do the work. There’s a lot of YouTube videos out there too.

Offline dbjonesjr

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #4 on: December 23, 2019, 16:13:48 »
I’d think twice about drilling a hole in the bottom glass. Check if it’s tempered. The ones with predrilled holes are often drilled and then tempered after drilling.
Edit: Read your post again and realized you’re doing a herbie style and not a bean animal. The below suggestions are good.
« Last Edit: December 23, 2019, 17:08:40 by dbjonesjr »

Offline dbowman

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #5 on: December 23, 2019, 16:18:37 »
i second the caution. the seapora tank that i was looking at was drilled then tempered.

Offline dbowman

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #6 on: December 23, 2019, 16:19:23 »
the return could go over the top.

Offline dbowman

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #7 on: December 23, 2019, 16:24:20 »
J,
you are a genius. well someone is. i was planning on going over the top with the return. this would require 3 90's over down and over so the discharge would be horizontal but since i will have a hole saw and a drillable tank i could use a single 90 to enter the side reducing the head by 2 feet. so 10 feet head instead of 12.
thanks,
David

Online JSellars

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #8 on: December 23, 2019, 18:58:17 »
J,
you are a genius. well someone is. i was planning on going over the top with the return. this would require 3 90's over down and over so the discharge would be horizontal but since i will have a hole saw and a drillable tank i could use a single 90 to enter the side reducing the head by 2 feet. so 10 feet head instead of 12.
thanks,
David

I was planning on drilling the back of the tank with a bulkhead thru for the return. I could do some 90s to go over top edge, but trying to keep it as clean looking as possible.


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Online JSellars

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #9 on: December 23, 2019, 19:06:10 »
J,
you are a genius. well someone is. i was planning on going over the top with the return. this would require 3 90's over down and over so the discharge would be horizontal but since i will have a hole saw and a drillable tank i could use a single 90 to enter the side reducing the head by 2 feet. so 10 feet head instead of 12.
thanks,
David

I was planning on drilling the back of the tank with a bulkhead thru for the return. I could do some 90s to go over top edge, but trying to keep it as clean looking as possible.


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Offline Agame43

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #10 on: December 23, 2019, 19:44:50 »

  J, Dido above what Reefentraining says, go slow - lots of water and totally let the bit pull through the glass not you putting pressure on the drill body. The bit by itself will pull through the glass rather quickly. Another key point, try to keep the bit square to the surface. I did the eshopps 'S' overflow on my low boy frag tank, rather large hole and did not keep it square enough and had a small piece left on one side I had to sand off at the end. 

Rick

Offline SweetReefOH

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #11 on: December 24, 2019, 14:41:57 »
Speaking of....Just drilled my Overflow box hole and the return hole.


Then painted it black. Couldn’t have asked for better weather for this project!

Offline dbowman

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #12 on: December 24, 2019, 15:15:08 »
R,
that looks great plus coating is sharp

Online JSellars

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #13 on: December 24, 2019, 21:35:36 »
Speaking of....Just drilled my Overflow box hole and the return hole.


Then painted it black. Couldn’t have asked for better weather for this project!


Perfect, I’ll drop off my tank when i pick it up from aquatics galore. Looks great!!


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Offline SweetReefOH

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #14 on: December 24, 2019, 22:26:07 »
Perfect, I’ll drop off my tank when i pick it up from aquatics galore. Looks great!!


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I know you’re new to the club and don’t know my history with them : )
But I wouldn’t trust Corals Galore to do anything. 2 tanks, two leaks all over my brand new floor. And the shady owner Brandon claimed I cut the seals on purpose. Like I have nothing better to do than dump saltwater all over my new floor....twice!

Purchase with caution and also the understanding that if anything goes wrong, it’s your fault!

Offline dbjonesjr

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #15 on: December 24, 2019, 22:33:09 »
Yup, I’ve had leaky tanks from them twice now... hasn’t been a big deal as I’ve had him replace them so far, but still kind of weird.

Online JSellars

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #16 on: December 25, 2019, 13:16:54 »
I’m just purchasing my tank from there. It’s a seapora tank, so hopefully I won’t have any problems with it since it’s a factory built tank.... I was telling him that I’ve seen quite a few of those 93gal cube tanks leak lately and he didn’t want to believe me at all! He just wanted me to buy one lol


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Offline dbowman

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #17 on: December 29, 2019, 11:58:18 »
here is my 75 with overflow and return holes drilled yesterday

Offline SweetReefOH

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #18 on: December 29, 2019, 12:21:54 »
Good job!! I see you have a single and a set of holes. What hole is for what? And what overflow are you going with?

Offline dbowman

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #19 on: December 29, 2019, 13:47:13 »
i have an Eshopps Eclipse L. This has two (1 1/2") bulkheads through the tank wall, with three (1") drainage bulkheads in the outside box. the other hole is also sized for a 1 1/2" bulkhead for the return from the basement. My return pump is sized for up to 1 1/4" outlet, a Hydor Seltz D Varia Flo 2400, variable speed AC pump. Happy to get the drilling done before the weather went south.

Offline SweetReefOH

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #20 on: December 29, 2019, 19:34:57 »
Wow, that’s a massive return bulkhead!

Offline dbowman

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #21 on: December 30, 2019, 07:50:55 »
i know, right? ^-^ it's threaded so i can reduce as needed and/or change my mind if my return pump changes

Offline SweetReefOH

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #22 on: December 30, 2019, 19:35:24 »
Just some food for thought....
When I set up my 75g with a bean animal like yours, I was afraid of reducing any of the pipes for fear I would have a flood lol. I didn’t realize how much water a 1.25” pipe on full siphon could handle. Let me tell you, it handles a lot! So needless to say, you don’t need the full 1.25” secondary and emergency drains. It made for quite a bit of bulk/clutter under my stand.

Just this weekend I replumbed the secondary and emergency drains down to 3/4”. I also plumbed in a 20g frag tank. I plumbed the secondary of the frag tank to the secondary of the 75g. That gave me 1- 3/4” pipe into the sump. I just emergency tested them tonight with great success. I just wanted to help you not make the same mistake I did. Unless of course you’re running a 3,000 gph hog : )

Offline dbowman

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #23 on: December 30, 2019, 21:02:20 »
Reeferntraining,
I appreciate your comments! i am going to set up the bean in the Eshopps Eclipse L. It has three 1" drain bulkheads. After talking to Brian, I plan to use an empty bulkhead for the full siphon with a gate valve. the second 1" will have an open standpipe, with the third a dry emergency drain with the provided red 1" pipe. i think, based on the head/flow chart from Hydor the max return through the 1 1/4 return pipe at 10' (9 feet vertical with one 90 deg. Elbow) will be 600 gph. i am going to put a tee in the return by the sump for reactors.
Personally i felt claustrophobic about having the sump inside the stand.This convinced me to put the sump into the basement.
 one issue i need to deal with is the outflow into the tank. it is below the projected water level. it could drain 2 inches down to the sump if i leave the bulkhead open. that is 7.3 gallons. that much will back flow into the refugium  and skimmer sections. not optimal but acceptable for emergencies. i think i will explore some sort of flattened fitting to raise the outflow to one inch from the surface. I painted the back of the tank today with masking of the bulkhead areas.
 i have been shopping at Gerber's, Marine Depot, Aquarium Specialty, Lowe's, and Home Depot. i am moving forward.
 stay tuned.
Dave

Offline dbowman

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Re: Drilling glass
« Reply #24 on: January 12, 2020, 23:24:01 »
so, slowly moving forward. 

 

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