What do you think i should do?! B/c I have no Idea

[Cramz07]

I want to drill my 55 gallon tank but have a close to or maybe 100 lbs of live rock and livestock. What could i do with them while i am drilling? Also what size bulkhead and drill bit should i have for a return pump that pumps a little over 55gph?

[Fishcrazy06]

I wouldn't drill a 55 gallon tank. If I'm not mistaken all 55 gallons are tempered. Drill that and you will have a big mess. I could be mistaken but I don't think I am.

Eric

[Jefe12234]

Is this a glass tank? And if so, do you have a diamond coated drill bit? Are you planning on drilling the back or bottom? Are you planning on installing an overflow? And lastly, are you planning on draining the tank to drill it? And ebrabender is right, AGA (or Aqueon) 55g tanks have a tempered bottom so they can't be drilled there. Also, 55gph is not much of anything for a return pump. Most people would run at least a few hundred gph. What kind of return pump are you using?

[MSU Fan]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11793235#post11793235 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ebrabender
I wouldn't drill a 55 gallon tank. If I'm not mistaken all 55 gallons are tempered.

My understanding, and I have seen images of this, is that the bottom and the front/back are tempered. The ends are not. I know that one guy had the ends drilled for the tank to be part of his basement sump system.

[Cramz07]

The return pump is 550gph and what i want to do is drill the back or the sides for an in tank overflow but just have a skimmer box around the bulkhead to where i don't need a siphon over the back of the tank. Would the livestock be able to stay in a rubbermaid container with everything running on it?

[Cramz07]

I was going to get a diamond bit but i also needed to know what size bit for the bulkhead needed to keep up and not overflow the sump

[Sk8r]

It might be safer. I have known people to drill while the tank is 'up', but if you have the thing shatter, you would be safer to have all fish and major live rock containered. Pretty well best start with new sand and your live rock, expect a week's cycle at least---if you have to remove the sand. If you don't, you could leave base rock and sand in place, cross fingers.

The way to rewater sand without destroying sandbed and causing tank crash is [if sand has been meticulously undisturbed and left with shallow water for just a few hours] take 'old water' and reintroduce, having a garbage bag lying flat on sand and base rock. Progressively add more water: bag will float but will not permit upset of sandbed. Restore live rock.
Do not add fish back until system has run at least 24 hours without trouble.
32 g Rubbermaid Brute trashcans make great bins for this purpose.

[Jefe12234]

There's a calculator on the RC homepage that will tell you what size bulkhead you need for a given flowrate. There's also a headloss calculator to tell you how much water your pump is moving after gravity and plumbing losses. I would make sure the glass panel being drilled is not tempered and then just drain the tank halfway and drill. The only cases of shattered tanks I've heard are when someone tries to drill tempered glass or when they try to drill very thin glass like on a 10g.

[hllywd]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11793235#post11793235 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ebrabender
I wouldn't drill a 55 gallon tank. If I'm not mistaken all 55 gallons are tempered. Drill that and you will have a big mess. I could be mistaken but I don't think I am.

Eric

All 55s are not tempered. But, it's always best to physically check the glass to make sure it's not tempered. I never trust what I'm told with respect to this but I take the info for what it is, info. I do this:

I use two polarizing camera filters and like to do this with a clear bright sky as the backdrop. One filter on each side of the glass. Rotate the filters until most of the light is blocked and move both filters simultaneously across the glass while looking at the sky through all three layers. If the glass is tempered you will see light and dark areas or a pattern in the glass. You may sometimes see a similar effect while wearing polarized sunglasses while looking at reflected sunlight on the side or rear windows of a car, never the front windshield since they are not tempered glass but safety glass.
You can try the method I describe on the side window of your car for practice and to see the effect, they are always tempered.

Tim:cool:

Also 55 gph isn't much flow, you'll probably want to rethink this, if it will be your only circulation you'll want a lot more but with a lot more flow through a smaller system comes more noise too.

Good Luck,


Tim:cool: