Grrr. Need help

[hutch901]

Hello all I'll try to keep this short and sweet. So my mom passed two years ago. Back in 89, I was 12, she set up a 55 gallon saltwater tank . Well after a year or so she bought a fish with ich and the whole tank went down and financially she couldn't do it again so she set it up as freshwater until she passed.
So I have the tank and want to set it up in memory of here as a saltwater mixed reef. I was planning on using a 25 gallon tank she had from even earlier as a sump wholes drilled in back of DT and all. To my disgust I just found out that it has tempered glass on the front and back, the sides appear to not be tempered. With all this said this is my first attempt at setting an aquarium up. Since my original plan has been foiled and given I have to go with hob equipment should I forget about the sump and just go with hob filter or go with sump and run hob overflow? What equipment would you suggest? Please and thanks in advance!!!!!!!!

 

[Munchie677]

My opinion is that you should get a 40 breeder from petco at the dollar per gallon sale and drill that. Or you can just get an overflow box. I will never use a HOB again. (just saying from years of experience) Set up a sump. For hundred dollars I have sump and protein skimmer. Also have wave makers. Just pm me and I can help you along the way.

 

[Diesel]

How did you find out you had tempered glass?
Yes you could do a overflow box or even drill the sides or the bottom.
A good way to find out that most hobbyist are using is the laptop trick
You can use almost any white LCD screen and a polarized filter to determine if a sheet of glass is tempered.

Most LCD screens have a polarized filter set at a 45 degree angle across the screen. This is why when you look through polarized sun glasses and tilt your head one way(polarized filter on screen and sunglasses are lined up) the screen gets brighter and when you tilt your head the other way (polarized filter on screen and glasses are perpendicular)the screen goes almost completely dark. This will work with almost any LCD screen...small cell phone LCDs as well as Laptop LCDs. A very few LCDs do not have this type of filter. If it goes dark when you tilt your head one way or the other while wearing polarized sunglasses then you can use it to test your glass.
This works because the stress in the tempered glass causes light to polarize in a pattern within the glass. Some people can see this as "color patterns" when sunlight passes through tempered glass. I have never been sure what to look for and so could never be sure if glass was tempered. A clear way to see if glass is tempered is to place a white LCD screen (notepad maximized) behind the glass and look at the Screen through a polarizing filter.


If the glass is tempered it will look like this view through the bottom:

If it is not tempered it will look like this view through the side panel:

[HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG]

 

[glb]

What a wonderful idea to remember your mom. Post a lot here and everyone will jump in to help. I agree about waiting for petco's $/gallon sale. You can get a good tank for cheap and know it's safe to drill. As far as knowing if glass is tempered, I just look at it through sunglasses. A pattern shows up every time. If you wanted to drill the tank on the side, you could get creative with the stand and build something around the pipes to cover them up. Good luck!

 

[pondman]

I still to this day keep an aquarium in memory of my father he is the one that bought me my first aquarium 40 + years ago.hob overflows if done right can be used successfully.good luck in your build and have fun doing it.

 

[Eienna]

I notice that Hob overflows are generally frowned upon because of their tendency to fail (definitely not a good thing). Look up the Ghost overflow.

I also recommend you go bigger. Anything smaller than 40g or so can be a bit touchy, and bigger means many more critter options.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Why not drill the sides? No reason you can't if they aren't tempered. ?? I wouldn't go HOB unless absolutely necessary

 

[clownfish chris]

If you go with an overflow, I would recommend going with two. Make sure that each one individually can accommodate more than the max flow from your return pump. If your pump is at max flow and one of the overflows fail, the other will not fail.

You could also replace the individual pain you want to drill.

 

[glb]

Can you give us a rough idea of your budget so we can help you out the most?

 

[Lionfish Lair]

There are certain overflows that are more prone to loosing siphon, but overflow boxes in generally are not considered "unsafe". Get a respected and proven design and all will be cool. We didn't have drilled tanks for many years and I can't say I know any of my friends that have flooded because of that. I'm not saying it doesn't happen as anything can fail, but it's uncommon enough that in 20 years, I haven't had it happen to an acquaintance. The one where I really remember there being issues was that one where you needed the pump to keep the siphon.... I forget what it was called.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

The one where I really remember there being issues was that one where you needed the pump to keep the siphon.... I forget what it was called.

They were the CPR-style. CPR was the first to put it out, but others have copied the design.

 

[hutch901]

Thank you i really appreciate the input and response. I used the polarized glasses and laptop trick. As far as budget i was planning on buying alittle here and there ro get started but dont have alot of money! Lol gotta feed the kids before the fish for now! I havent seen much for side drilled overflows wss curious is the a nice way to get them to look. I hoped to use her 55 to start the whole thing and in a year or two go to a 120 rimless with her 55 as the sump.

 

[hutch901]

@ clownfish how hard is it to swap the back pain and what specifics would i need

 

[hutch901]

@ pondman. Thats truly wonderful. Thouggt i was a little crazy but i want one of my daughters to hipefully do it in memory one day. We got to pass something down tradition is on the verge of extinction

 

[clownfish chris]

I am honestly not sure what thickness you would need. As far as how to do it, you simply cut away all of the silicone and scrape off any remaining silicone with a razor. Continue scraping until no more residue comes off of the glass. Clean with acetone. Then use a silicone sealant to re assemble the tank. It is absolutely imperative that there is no silicone left. New silicone will not adhere well to cured. With an older tank like this, I would recommend a reseal anyway. You could find someone locally who reseals tanks. The going rate around Houston is about $75.00 for a reseal on that tank.

 

[hutch901]

I feel pretty confident on using silicone i use it daily as i fabricate and install granite countertops. Thus my confidence to drill my own wholes as a noobie. Her glass is pretty bad scratched so i planned to polish it up with cerium oxide and was considering replacing if i had to. What about removing the trim kits for top and bottom?

 

[clownfish chris]

They should pull off easily. They should be attached with only a few little spots. Run the razor blade between the trim and the class. you will feel where they have been siliconed together. With old plastic though they can become brittle over time. Don't be surprised if they break under a small amount of force.

 

[pondman]

Yea hutch my daughter has set up my old 55 at her house and now my granddaughters really like to watch the fish.i hope they will like the hobby as I have these last 45 years. Hope you get your tank figured out.

 

[E048]

I have an overflow box on my 90 and I haven't had issues

 

[hutch901]

Ok so I have found a replacement piece of glass. I'm going to attempt to remove the back glass and have the glass shop to remake it of regular glass and they also said they could drill the holes for me at 3 bucks a pop!

So my questions now are should I expect a problem with the glass not being tempered and being the same thickness to fit back in the frame?

And what specs should I go with for having the holes drilled