Drilling larger return hole

[YOYOYOReefer]

my tank has overflows at both ends my sump is open area where it goes into the first chamber, not filter socks like your sump has.. so maybe you could leave you holes and build an acrylic box on the bottom of your tank with holes spaced like you need for you sump setup basically gives you a clean slate to space and drill your holes where you need them and not weaken your tank at all.

my setup.
one side my acrylic just extends the square box down to the sump.
this works as the "relief overflow"

the other side is plumbed down to 1 inch pipe so that is always under suction and pulls alot of water thru it whatever the max gph of 1 inch can do with gravity.

 

[nate167]

my tank has overflows at both ends my sump is open area where it goes into the first chamber, not filter socks like your sump has.. so maybe you could leave you holes and build an acrylic box on the bottom of your tank with holes spaced like you need for you sump setup basically gives you a clean slate to space and drill your holes where you need them and not weaken your tank at all.

my setup.
one side my acrylic just extends the square box down to the sump.
this works as the "relief overflow"

the other side is plumbed down to 1 inch pipe so that is always under suction and pulls alot of water thru it whatever the max gph of 1 inch can do with gravity.

Ah ok. I only have the one center overflow. I moved my bulkheads around a little and if I align up like the pics here it looks like I still will have room to tighten the nuts. Thoughts?
Would your method still work with a center overflow?

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

how bout just make 2 of your holes bigger (or 3) whatever you can do and still tighten them
then just put acrylic over the leftover holes? or you could put a flat piece of acrylic on the bottom (covering all 4 holes ) and drill what you want with the right spacing... weldon 4 or whatever your favorite acrylic cement is.

 

[nate167]

how bout just make 2 of your holes bigger (or 3) whatever you can do and still tighten them
then just put acrylic over the leftover holes? or you could put a flat piece of acrylic on the bottom (covering all 4 holes ) and drill what you want with the right spacing... weldon 4 or whatever your favorite acrylic cement is.

That sounds like a good idea. Just thought I had to have 2 emergency overflows from all of the reading I’ve been doing.

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

you can have as many or as few as you like..i see people spending way too much on plumbing on this site lol
. its all about what size overflows and how much water you are moving

if you have 2 and both are big enough to handle the flow on thier own then your golden.

 

[HankstankXXL750]

How are you going to spin the bulkhead nut if the sides are against one another?

Maybe not the best, but if you lube the gasket with saliva, or glycerin (don’t know if reef safe) you can turn the bulkhead while holding the nut stationary. Using water pump pliers. Will probably mess up the threads but you should be able to get them tight. One thing is to make sure you don’t make the area too weak by having too thin of areas between the holes.

 

[nate167]

you can have as many or as few as you like..i see people spending way too much on plumbing on this site lol
. its all about what size overflows and how much water you are moving

if you have 2 and both are big enough to handle the flow on thier own then your golden.

lol from researching on setting up my tank you're right that there are a ton of plumbing posts, of which I'm a statistic now lol. Being this is my first saltwater setup, I'm trying to do it right the first time and not have regrets down the road after it's up and running. My train of thought was put larger plumbing and it can always be restricted by valve but if I went with too small plumbing I'm SOL. What @HankstankXXXL750 mentions about acrylic distance between holes has me rethinking this now as the thickness of the acrylic bottom is only 3/8". Since 2 holes are already 1" I'm going to make to drill the other 2 out to 1", that way I can run 2-3 full siphon for 1200-1800GPH according to the PVC chart and have 1-2 emergency drain. I will be running a hydros system so if something overflows it will catch and shut down. Being a newbie to this I just wanted to make sure I had enough flow for my RO Regal 300INT skimmer and my 90W UV sterilizer, which I think I will with the 1" drain lines.

 

[BZOFIQ]

I dont know if this was mentioned, why don't you use all these holes as-is for drains and plumb the returns over the rim of the tank? Seems far less complicated.

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

i like it!

better to think 10 times then cut once.....

 

[nate167]

I dont know if this was mentioned, why don't you use all these holes as-is for drains and plumb the returns over the rim of the tank? Seems far less complicated.

I thought about that as I was already planning on having the returns come over the rim of the tank but 2 of the holes are for 1/2" bulkheads which is only 400GPH total. Taking them up to 1" gives me 800GPH more per the PVC chart, which I've read the debates on the accuracy of that chart but figured it's a good base to run off of and any more GPH I get is a bonus.

 

[nate167]

i like it!

better to think 10 times then cut once.....

Yeah I've ran freshwater tanks for almost 15 years now and made many mistakes. With this tank I while I'm excited to get it up and going, I'd rather be thorough from the start and not end up with mistakes like I've made in the past.

 

[HankstankXXL750]

Yeah I've ran freshwater tanks for almost 15 years now and made many mistakes. With this tank I while I'm excited to get it up and going, I'd rather be thorough from the start and not end up with mistakes like I've made in the past.

I think running the 4 as large as you can safely get them would be the way to go. Having at least one be an emergency overflow with the output in the sump above water level to make it noisy so you notice right away would be good.
If your worried about UV you can always add an additional pump in the sump and discharge into the return chamber of the sump. So you can run it at whatever flow is best for your needs.
You mentioned your skimmer, I didn’t look it up, but a self contained skimmer in the sump is my preferred method.