Drilling and Plumbing an Acrylic 55 Hex

Hey all,

Some friends of mine (one of which is bayareanights on this site actually!) just bought an acrylic 55 hex tank that they want to set up in the middle of the room.

My first thoughts were to drill out a drain hole dead center and make it for a wider pipe than normal to run the pump return hose and cords for lights and powerheads through as well.

Hide the whole pipe with rocks that sort of thing.

Anyone have any experience doing this sort of thing and/or have numbers of the diameters of pipe needed, size bulkhead, and diameter of the hole saw to use, tips for setup, etc??

They are dying to do this, but I want to make sure they have a good plan.

Thanks in advance,

matt

 

FYI:

http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/tank/cube_sump.html

This is an interesting alternative, but won't have the seamless effect. Worth noting though.

 

Ok, let's open this up to anybody.. how would you do it?

[smiley=yaknow.gif]

 

I would use the center design but use 3 pipes total, one for sump intake, 1 for return and one for cords just in case you have trouble with any one. In reality i would love to see a multi headed return and no powerheads, then light the tank with power from above and heat the tank in the sump so you wouldnt need third cord pipe. Use a slightly bigger return pump the recomended do to multi return holes and let it rip.

 

Thanks Phil!
What size pipe/holes would you use?

 

If you did it all with one I would probably use a 2" bulkhead so as to have room in the main pipe.

 

Thanks Shawn. That is what my buddy was thinking. I should call him and see what's up with it at this point.

 

If you go that route and have trouble finding a bulkhead that big let me know we have those instock.