Overflow...what would you do?

ca1ore · Mar 7, 2018

Radman73 said:
Research balancing a bean animal between two overflows. Not sure how difficult it is.

I think most folks with dual overflows end up doing a dual herbie - that's what I did.

iplumbsome · Mar 12, 2018

I just talked to the company that built my tank and he thought it would be possible to cut my over flows out but he was guessing you'd always see where the bond seam was. I was planning on keeping the back painted blue or possibly changing it to black.

Anyone have any experience with this?

lmm1967 · Mar 12, 2018

I've removed an overflow from a 60g cube. You will see lines where the bond seams are for a good while. After 2 years of the tank running - I can no longer tell there was ever an overflow in the tank.

iplumbsome · Mar 12, 2018

lmm1967 said:
I've removed an overflow from a 60g cube. You will see lines where the bond seams are for a good while. After 2 years of the tank running - I can no longer tell there was ever an overflow in the tank.

Can you feel the lines also or did you sand it down flush with back panel? Is your back panel painted?

laverda · Mar 12, 2018

I bought a used tank that had a weird addition bonded into the tank. Imagine a very large over flow in the back center. I think it once have a TV or computer screen in it. The previous owner had cut openings in it. I removed it completely using an oscillating saw. I put a couple lawyers of tap to protect the tank bottom, sides and top from the saw blade in case I got too close. Then I sanded it smother. I did not remove every bit of it. I don’t think it is really practical do make it perfect without being very carful and a lot of time and effort. I was going to do a foam rock wall and cove it anyway. I put more effort into cleaning up the top.
I have not done anything more with the tank yet. I have been thinking about routing 3 or 4 horizontal slots along the back top to act as an coast to coast overflow and building an external overflow box for it.

lmm1967 · Mar 12, 2018

iplumbsome said:
Can you feel the lines also or did you sand it down flush with back panel? Is your back panel painted?

The overflow is most likely siliconed in - it was on mine. I simply cut the silicone with a razor, then used a razor to scrape (carefully) any leftover silicone. Wiped it down with rubbing alcohol. You could definitely still see where it had been when I refilled the tank. IMO, it's the back glass, behind a whole bunch of rock and corals, I really don't care if you can spot an imperfection on that back wall of the tank. If it was the front of the tank I'd be annoyed.

My back glass is clear on this tank - I don't paint the backs of tanks - when I want them blacked out I use window tint on the outside.

If you are very picky - you aren't going to be happy. If you can live with seeing "something" on the back glass for a while, knowing algae of some sort (probably coralline) will eventually hide it then you shouldn't have any issues.

iplumbsome · Mar 12, 2018

lmm1967 said:
The overflow is most likely siliconed in - it was on mine. I simply cut the silicone with a razor, then used a razor to scrape (carefully) any leftover silicone. Wiped it down with rubbing alcohol. You could definitely still see where it had been when I refilled the tank. IMO, it's the back glass, behind a whole bunch of rock and corals, I really don't care if you can spot an imperfection on that back wall of the tank. If it was the front of the tank I'd be annoyed.

My back glass is clear on this tank - I don't paint the backs of tanks - when I want them blacked out I use window tint on the outside.

If you are very picky - you aren't going to be happy. If you can live with seeing "something" on the back glass for a while, knowing algae of some sort (probably coralline) will eventually hide it then you shouldn't have any issues.

My tank is acrylic and the overflows are fused into my tank just like the other seams.