Overflow question.

SRT80 · Sep 24, 2019

Not reef related but always seem to get good advice and help here.

I'm thinking about setting up a aquatic turtle tank. Will be for a musk turtle. Probably gonna do a 40 breeder or maybe a 55 gal. I'm only wanting the water level to be about 12" deep. Can I drill a bulkhead say lower down the tank to give me the water level I want? And do I really need a overflow box or could i get away with a strainer like these? Want to run a wet/dry sump. This would allow me to also not worry with the heater in the main display. Thanks.

Crabs McJones · Sep 24, 2019

SRT80 said:
Not reef related but always seem to get good advice and help here.

I'm thinking about setting up a aquatic turtle tank. Will be for a musk turtle. Probably gonna do a 40 breeder or maybe a 55 gal. I'm only wanting the water level to be about 12" deep. Can I drill a bulkhead say lower down the tank to give me the water level I want? And do I really need a overflow box or could i get away with a strainer like these? Want to run a wet/dry sump. This would allow me to also not worry with the heater in the main display. Thanks.

If it's for turtles, yes you can drill further down, and then just use a bulkhead with the strainer on the inside, and then pipe down to the sump on the outside. Overflow box isn't needed although it may make some noise depended on how much flow you have to straight pipe it. But the way you're describing is essentially what they use at the stores (petco, petsmart)

SRT80 · Sep 24, 2019

Crabs McJones said:
If it's for turtles, yes you can drill further down, and then just use a bulkhead with the strainer on the inside, and then pipe down to the sump on the outside. Overflow box isn't needed although it may make some noise depended on how much flow you have to straight pipe it. But the way you're describing is essentially what they use at the stores (petco, petsmart)

Thanks, that's kind if what I was thinking.

Eagle_Steve · Sep 24, 2019

I built a tank for a co-worker for this exact thing. I used the strainers for an overflow and an emergency drain. The main overflow was at about 13” and the emergency was at 15”. The main had a gate valve to adjust drain flow. Was super silent and still had an emergency just in case.

SRT80 · Sep 29, 2019

Eagle_Steve said:
I built a tank for a co-worker for this exact thing. I used the strainers for an overflow and an emergency drain. The main overflow was at about 13” and the emergency was at 15”. The main had a gate valve to adjust drain flow. Was super silent and still had an emergency just in case.

I'll probably be sending you a PM with a few questions soon when I decide to setup. Thanks.