Glass Overflow Construction Questions

I’m hopefully going to be able to order the glass to build my overflows soon.

My tank is a 90 gallon tank drilled through the bottom, in the back corners. I am planning on getting two pieces of glass for each overflow, so I can build the last two sides of the overflow box (with the other two sides being the sides of the tank itself... if that makes sense). I also considered using a single diagonal piece of glass per overflow... but I think I'd lose too much of my visability from the side of the tank.

I’m assuming I need to get the height so the glass lines up right with the begining of the frame on the top. Is this correct?

Also, do i need to worry at all about the corners on the bottom of the overflow glass(these corners will be sitting on top of the silicone that seals the tank)? Or is the silicone bump small enough?

Lastly, would it be of any benefit to do the overflows before painting the back of the tank… or should I go ahead and do that?

Making the overflow is one of the things I least looking forward to on this project :|

 

Hello,

To the bottom of trim will work well giving room for different flows. I always notched the bottom area the thickness of glass used...so glass is against glass and then seal. You want your overflow to be plumb or you could sand corner of glass pieces as needed

 

Thanks for the reply!

I'll make it to the trim, I think that will work well. Do you mean you notch the silicone?

 

yes but you can also (easy)sand both corners with a grinder or a drummel. They could also do it for you where you get your glass. It doesn't need much. You could leave glass an 1" below trim and have acrylic shop make you a acrylic L shape piece overflow too.

 

Just wanted to follow up. It was crazy easy with a dremel to notch the bottom for the silicone. I decided that I'd rather have water leaking into the overflow instead of to the outside of the tank, which is why I decided not to cut the silicone on the tank.

I went with glass that was slightly below the trim, and am using a local reef club member with a 3d printer to print knotched teeth for the overflow.

 

Sounds cool. Make sure to post some pictures!

 

Will do!

Just cut the glass last night, so I still have a few steps to go before pictures would mean anything

 

I forgot to post pictures!!

 

If you haven't already glued your pipes together, you could use black pvc fittings for your overflow. That way the white wouldn't stand out so much. Just a thought. You can find it here:

Product Listing PVC-BLACK-Elbows-90

 

It's already glued in. I'm planning some sort of removable cover for the whole side of the overflow, sikhs help. The white def pops right now though! Lol