www.bulkreefsupply.com
Leaving the tank
Are you aware of any overflows that can be used in a cabinet like this? The bulk heads on overflows I see aren’t big enough to go through the cabinetWith a single overlfow setup like that, it will be noisy or unsafe to run if you make it quiet the way it is.
In order to make it quiet the way it is, you would need to have the water above it and create a full siphon, but not let it suck air. That is not good with no emergency drain. One little thing clogs it up a bit and tank overflows.
Option 1:
Make it into a durso style drain. There are 2 ways to do this. Once inside tank by glueing in an overflow box and one where you put the durso on the outside of the tank. Plenty of images on google about how to do it and what it looks like, so not gonna slam a bunch here.
Option 2:
Drill tank and put an overflow box on it. This will give you an emergency and a primary at minimum. This can be tuned to be silent. It is also very easy and most smaller overflows come with the drill bit needed to drill the glass. You also look like you may only have to drill one hole and use the existing one for one of the drains for the overflow.
Option 3:
Turn 90 elbow down so that it faces the bottom glass, adjust gate valve to create a silent siphon and run it that way. You can make it silent that way, but give up the safety of having an overlfow drain. This can be fixed via a sensor, like the one below, to turn the return pump off if the tank level gets too high. This sensor is now you back up for a clog. Not as safe as an emergency drain, but if cleaned regularly, should work well.
Smart Level Security
Prevent overflows or equipment from running dry! Using a tiny optical sensor, AutoAqua's Smart Level Sensor will cut power to the outlet when the sensor detects a change in water level. The plug & play design requires no difficult programming and the magnetic attachment makes placement and...
Ideally I won’t need to drill any new holes in the tank. (I’m okay with drilling a hole in the cabinet
OK. Did not realize that the bulkheads went through the cabinet. That is a tough one.
That’s a great idea! Thanks! I’ll probably have the return run up the back to the corner of the tank.OK. Did not realize that the bulkheads went through the cabinet. That is a tough one.
But you do have an option.
Use the return bulk head for an emergency drain and bring the return through the cabinet and have it exit just above the rim of the tank. You can then turn the return down into the tank.
This would give you a main drain and an emergency.
The main drain (one you have now) would involve turning the 90 to face the bottom of tank. You would then adjust gate valve to get water level to just above the top of the 90. I like to drill a small hole in the top of the 90, just to bleed air after a power cycle or something. This small hole will not make noise as it only needs to be about 1/16" - 1/8".
You will then take the return bulkhead put a 90 on it and turn it straight up. This will need to be below the top of the tank, but above the waterline. Sometimes you may have to cut the 90 down some to bring it below the top of the tank, but that is easy. This will allow for an emergency drain if the main drain clogs.
Then your return is just a new hole in the cabinet.
I did this exact setup on my frag tub added to my nem and macro tank system. Worked well and was super quiet.
Hard to see it, but if you zoom in on pic, hopefully you see what I mean for the drains.
90 closest to front is pointed down and one next to it (behind it) is facing up.
