Tank Return Hole Location

[RDuhb]

Newbie question....

Are there any rules for how high the return hole in the tank needs to be located? Also, if the overflow box is on one side of the tank does the return HAVE TO BE on the opposite side? I would love to have the overflow located top/middle and the return directly below it. Of course, spaced appropriately.

Thanks in advance!!!

[passion4reef]

as far as i know there are no rules as long as the holes are spaced far enough apart.

[super_steve85]

Shouldn't matter as long as you have good circulation within the tank.

[Jacob Sellers]

Remeber that in the event of a power outage your return will act as a siphon. If it is low (and you do not have a check valve) your entire tank could drain.

[hllywd]

...and it could drain if you do have a check valve. Get a snail, or some crud caught in a check valve and they become non-functional.

[RDuhb]

Thanks everyone! I plan on having a power head on each end of the tank. And yes, I definitely plan on installing a check valve on the return.

BTW, what is the recommended distance between the tank holes?

[jimmyj7090]

Definately don't rely on a check valve, they just aren't reliable in saltwater.

Locate the output from the return high enough that the siphon will break naturally, and make sure your sump has the volume to handle whatever back flow happens before the siphon breaks.

[hllywd]

Thanks everyone! I plan on having a power head on each end of the tank. And yes, I definitely plan on installing a check valve on the return.

BTW, what is the recommended distance between the tank holes?

You should really do some research about using a check valve. Maybe there's some reason you want to do so, but you'll find the vast majority here have no use for them, they're simply not reliable in the long term. It's much safer, like jimmyj7090 states, to insure your sump will hold anything that drains to it in the event of an outage.

[RDuhb]

Thanks again for the advice! Sounds like the safest thing to do is make sure the return is as high as possible.

[jimmyj7090]

It can be down a bit if you run some locline out of it to set the actual height for the siphon break.

[Rinkrat]

The placement is important took me a while to figure out mine

[reefermad619]

I'm a fan of going up and over the back for returns. Much easier to remove whole line for maintainence. Not only that, but now you dont have to drill yet another hole and use another bulkhead. That leaves more cash for fish/coral.