Can drilling an aquarium cause a heart attack???

azbigjohn · Jan 25, 2017

Today may have been the most nervous I have ever been!

I have been posting in my build thread how excited I have been, as I traded in an older tank, and brought home my dream tank and stand for my birthday last week! It is a custom 210 gallon rimless, with a steel stand. As I was loading it up, and unloading it, I realized that it had a center overflow, and was only drilled for two 1" bulkheads. The previous owner had run a single drain, and a single return line. After asking about it on here, the consensus was to drill a return line hole... Much easier discussed than actually done.

Long story made short, after feeling like I was having heart palpitations the entire drive home from the LFS (they lent me a diamond bit saw) and thinking it through (I had to cut on a vertical surface, as the tank weight almost 400 pounds, and was drilling on the side) I measured twice (well, four times actually) I got everything ready:

And then, after watching YouTube videos for a while, handed my wife a spray bottle, and started in... And, after a few very, very long, scary minutes...
A hole was born:

and amazingly, I did not have a heart attack!

DeniseAndy · Jan 25, 2017

It is rough. I have seen my husband shatter glass. Not that large a tank. Just a practice tank. Nicely done! I had someone else do my 210g with 1" thick glass. It was insane. I think the bottome was like 1.5" thick. Very old tank (like 50yrs).