Return Plumbing: Drill or no?

[Husker]

I'm trying to decide whether I want to drill a hole in my display tank and put in a bulkhead for my return plumbing or just run an "upside down U" over the back wall.

The tank is a 5'x2'x2' peninsula, and running over the back wall would save some space on the very valuable single panel against the wall (I'm trying to keep the other 3 sides as free of equipment as possible).

Did you drill a hole for your return plumbing or not? What influenced your decision?

 

[Ashish Patel]

I decided against it for a few reasons - Id only drain holes if it was absolutely necessary to the success of the tank, therefore i did 2 holes for the overflow box only. Return that is behind the water line is a eye sour especially when the loc-line gets gunk buildup. But the main reasons for not drilling is I want to alter the motion of my return to give me that guaranteed random flow..Therefore, I'll have my return going to the middle of the tank via 1" Sea swirl with a Y...

 

[Ashish Patel]

I used one of these for years and loved it. Its a very strong flow nozzle and easily hangs on the back of the tank. you can make one with PVC fittings if you don't mind doing some plumbing.. Good luck

https://www.amazon.com/Return-Assem...337754&sr=8-7&keywords=aquarium+nozzle+return

 

[Husker]

Only one opinion, but it is good to hear. My custom tank builder forgot to drill a hole for the return. I think I am just going to tell them to not drill and I will plumb over the rim. The tank is a peninsula, so this also gives me the opportunity to run the line along the top rim of the tank to have the return dump into the far end.