Internal coast2coast w/ external bean overflow box?

House · Mar 10, 2013

I'm looking to see internal coast to coast, with drilled tank, and an external overflow box.

This is what I'm planning on, about 1.5"x8" inside coast to coast, 4-60mm holes in the tank, with an external box ~ 6"x8" with a bean overflow inside w/ 1.5" bulkheads.

Does anyone run a similar style system, and could give me advice, their results, feelings about it? Pictures maybe?

I'd like some input before i silicone it all together.

Aquaph8 · Mar 10, 2013

I'm kinda confused, the whole idea behind an external box is so you don't have an internal box, I'm not sure why you would need the internal coast to coast? You can drill the back of your coast to coast and run the pipes out the back.

House · Mar 10, 2013

I don't want a full internal box taking up space in my tank. So i will have an external box with the bulkheads at the bottom. However in order to get the water into that box, i will drill 4 holes at the top of the tank, and to create a calfo coast2coast topwater skim, i will have to create a small internal box with the weir about 1" from the trim.

Water from the surface falls into the internal box, through the holes drilled in the side f the tank into the external box, and down the bean style overflow pipes to th sump.

Hopefully that made more sense?

House · Mar 11, 2013

Has anyone had experience with this?

Kevin1966 · Mar 11, 2013

I did the internal C2C with external box with Bean on my 45 cube

House · Mar 11, 2013

Would you be able to discuss it a bit? How did it turn out? How do you like it? Would you change anything about it? And how does my idea relate and what do yiu think about it?

Thank you

JPG@CFI · Mar 12, 2013

House,
One of my clients did this with his glass tank. He thinks it works great. I built the acrylic internal and external box for him. He used bulkhead gaskets betewwn the internal box, andtank, and another gasket between the tank and external box. No silicone was used. Acrylic and silicone don't like to stick togeather. ES330 is toxic at some level. He is a bean animal kind of guy, but I prefer the Herbie style of drain. I have been using that style since 1994, and feel it should have been named after me instead of this Herbie fella. But, that is a different topic. J

grumpy-crab · Mar 12, 2013

Question.... If you have a internal over flow box why would u want a external box?

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House · Mar 13, 2013

In order for the bulkheads and pvc for the overflow to fit, the internal box would have to be around 6"x8". I don't want to use up all of that real estate in my tank. So if i put the plumbing on the outside, i only need a small box for my coast to coast on the inside, so i save around 4 inches of viewing space. Which really makes a difference.

JPG : do you remember the dimensions of the boxes? And would you personally recommend this? Would you alter it anyway?
Thank you for your post.

JPG@CFI · Mar 13, 2013

House,
It will work great. I think the internal box was about 48" long and about 4" wide and about 6" tall. The outside box was quite a bit bigger. The flaw in the set up is if the box on the outside splits a seam, your done for. Weather it is a glass tank, or an acrylic one with the back box attached, I do NOT like to build external half boxes. So much so, I will not warranty them. If the external back box is full height, meaning the top and bottom panel is trapping the external box, no problem. I have repaired alot of half back boxes from other tank builders. High risk if you ask me.
Now, if it were me, and I wanter a continous OFB in my tank, I'd just make the tank 6" bigger! Size matters, right? Bigga is betta. My best advice is to make the internal box a few inches taller, and cut the holes lower so there is more head preasure to force the water out and down to your sump. Looking forward to pic's, J