Anyone in my area drill tanks? Central NJ

[jerseydiablo]

I'm in Bradley Beach. I need a sump drilled with a few holes. Heard it's fairly easy but I don't really have tools for it.

Thanks,
Ed

 

[Carlo]

You can order a diamond whole saw/bit for your drill off eBay. It's pretty easy to do.

Wait is it a glass or acrylic sump?

Carlo

 

[jerseydiablo]

You can order a diamond whole saw/bit for your drill off eBay. It's pretty easy to do.

Wait is it a glass or acrylic sump?

Carlo

It's a 20L glass sump

Are those bits fairly cheapo at HD or hardware stores?

 

[JohnS_323]

I saw them on twopartsolution.com and they were fairly cheap. Here is the Link

I usually cut mine with a dremel tool and a diamond tapered bit. It's not a perfect circle but it's good enough to be used with bulk heads or uniseals.

HTH.

 

[jerseydiablo]

Does it matter what size hole I drill? I'm planning on using the sump as a fuge which will be sitting above my tank and just let it gravity feed back into the tank. Going to have 2 holes, one just where the water line should be and another one slightly higher just for extra protection. It will be directly fed from the tank with a small powerhead, probably just a maxijet 900 or a 1200


should this be moved to DIY forum John?

 

[JohnS_323]

You'd be fine with two 1" bulk heads. I had a similar set up using a maxijet 900 and rubbermaid container with two offset holes and it worked fine.

I'm not sure if this should be moved ??? ??? ???

 

[Carlo]

General section since it's not a DIY.

Why the 2 holes? I'm not sure I follow the "protection" hole? If you're even close to needing a protection hole you have way to much flow in the fuge.

You probably realize I hope that you should run all the tank water into the fuge unless you are using a very low return rate. Refugiums work better with lower flow then higher. What you will probably want to do is Y off the return with a valve so you can control the amount of water going to the fuge. With the valve you won't need a 2nd hole. 1" on a 20L is plenty but if you want a little extra protection just step up to a 1.5" bulkhead. A larger hole then needed won't hurt.

Carlo

 

[jerseydiablo]

I have an extra valve (the one that comes with 2L Fishies Phosban Reactor) for restricting the flow off the Maxijet. I also could just pickup another of the Minijets 606's instead.

The offset hole would really just be for peace of mind.

I do like your suggestion to go to 1.5" Carlo but Cmart28 says he's got a 1" bit and will help me out with it. So 1" it is!

Thanks guys.

 

[jerseydiablo]

General section since it's not a DIY.

It was once. Not by me though. Picked this sump up from Candi, who got it from Mike, not sure if he made it but someone definately DI Themselves :

I'm imagining this sump's made it's rounds throughout the club

 

[Phyl]

We have "backup holes" in our fuge. All you need is one stray snail to make it through your protective boundaries and the next thing you know you're overflowing. As divers we live by the "Safe Second" concept!

And drilling holes yourself (rather than paying an LFS) is close enough to DIY Hence the move.

 

[Carlo]

That makes sense Phyl. I use 1.5" & 2" holes which would be pretty hard to block plus I typically keep a small sponge in front of my holes to keep fuge macros in the fuge and not in the sump.

Carlo

 

[jerseydiablo]

When I do get around to drilling it, I'll just need a bulkhead and 1 inch tubing correct?

Also, would teflon tape be enough? Or should I seal with primer & a sealant?

 

[Carlo]

When I do get around to drilling it, I'll just need a bulkhead and 1 inch tubing correct?

Also, would Teflon tape be enough? Or should I seal with primer & a sealant?

I would think it depends on how you connect up to it. If you use threaded fittings then Teflon tape is what you would use. If you go with normal PVC and the bulkhead is ABS (many are) then I wouldn't use primer & sealent but all purpose cement (next to primer/sealant at Lowes/HD) for pipe work.

I've used both "all purpose" and normal primer/PVC glue and never had a problem with either but it's generally recommended to use all purpose when joining PVC to ABS.

Ideally the best way would be to get a screw in PVC connector (if possible) and use Teflon tape. Then glue PVC to PVC. This assumes you are running PVC pipe.

Depending on length of run you could also use flex hose and pipe clamp.

You have many options.

Carlo
Carlo

 

[jerseydiablo]

Depending on length of run you could also use flex hose and pipe clamp.

Carlo

It's not far of a run, it'll most likely be sitting right next to the tank about 2 feet higher than top of the tank. Was planning on just using flex hose since that's what I've already got.

 

[jerseydiablo]

Well there goes my new sump/fuge :'(

got the hoes drilled thanks to cmart, but when I tried installing the bulkheads, one was sitting out just a hair so I had to try and push it in a little, well it cracked the tank all the way to the bottom

gonna have to start all over again

 

[JohnS_323]

Oh, that's beat. Sorry to hear it, Ed.

 

[jerseydiablo]

Ahh it's all good, I was pretty peeved at the moment it happened but I've got a spare 20L so I'll just build my own now. I took out the baffles from the broken sump and have pretty much everything I'll need to get it done.

Now this really belongs in DIY huh?

 

[concept3]

start a new thread with lotsa pics !

in the DIY section!

 

[jerseydiablo]

Well I think I'm gonna try to seal the tank thats cracked, actually siliconed it already, gonna wait 48 hours then see if it leaks, put the baffles back in. Anyone have some suggestions for baffle placement? the way it was there was 4 baffles. 1 about 3 inches from end of tank where the water will enter the fuge, then there was the other 3 in just about the middle of the sump with the middle baffle raised about an inch off the bottom of the tank.

Should I just redo this the exact same? Or go a different route?

thanks
Ed

 

[jazzsam]

Well I think I'm gonna try to seal the tank thats cracked, actually siliconed it already, gonna wait 48 hours then see if it leaks, put the baffles back in. Anyone have some suggestions for baffle placement? the way it was there was 4 baffles. 1 about 3 inches from end of tank where the water will enter the fuge, then there was the other 3 in just about the middle of the sump with the middle baffle raised about an inch off the bottom of the tank.

Should I just redo this the exact same? Or go a different route?

thanks
Ed

That is kinda scarry...... I would hate to see you get it filled with water and see it explode because of the pressure. I would test it with water in the garage or something like that.