Drilling tanks

[Matrajeous]

Ok I have seen many tanks drilled through the back and the side walls for over flows and returns. I am kind of curious cause i have only seen it done in a few display tanks, but does your tank need to be made out of special glass or acrylic to drill through the floor of the tank for all of your plumbing???? I know tempered glass has alot to do with it but if you tank is not made with tempered glass can u drill through the bottom of the tank and how many holes can be made before the base is unstable to hold water weight???? saw some display tanks at a store that got my gears turning so just curious.

thanks
Matt

[cjones1344]

I'm certainly no expert on this, but I think you can drill a fair number of holes as long as they aren't extremely close together or really close to the sides. How many holes do you need to drill? If you're just wanting to drill for overflow and returns you'll only need 2 or 3 holes. This may be totally untrue and I have no idea where I heard it, but I think I was told that holes need to be 1 1/2 times the diameter of the hole apart, and 2 times the diameter of whole from the sides, or maybe the other way around.

[Matrajeous]

the reason i asked how many holes could be drilled was because a particular tank I saw had the returns, over flow, and closed loop systems for flow all plumbed through the bottom of the tank so that you could view the tank in 360 degrees without any mechanics viewing and i was curious as to if it was something that could be re-created in the home aquarium but i was nervous about it since it would b drilling through the bottom of the tank