A crazy idea to hide a pump cord.........................

[Anonymous]

I'm planning on putting a pump inside an internal overflow box, and an idea struck me for a simple way to hide the cord. Put it inside the drain!

Can you see any reason why this wouldn't work??? I would like to cover the overflow, and I don't want a cord coming out the back of the tank.

 

[Anonymous]

Oh yeah, the green is the cord, and the red is wire lugs.

 

[Blazin__]

i cant see any reason that it wouldent work. providing that the drain is big enough that the cord wouldent cause to much of a flow restriction, and of course the obvious electrocuting your tank cuz of damaged insulation on the cord.... are you going to be soddering and shrink tubing the electrical connections on the other side??

 

[EmilyB]

You'll never become an electrician in Canada.... 8O :wink:

 

[Blazin__]

haha.. electrician nope that stuff scares me... but a mechanic yes. i would just be to worried about electrocuting my tank doing something like that not worth loosin sleep hoping that nothing happens

 

[Mouse]

Maintenance on the pump could be tricky, only because youll have to remove the plug every time you want to get it out. And from the numerous pumps ive bought over the years, i doubt the cable will allow you enough length to wire it up without having to make a connection before the wire comes out of the overflow. Good idea though, but if the wire goes behind the tank youll never see it anyways. Is there some reason why you want the tank so close to the wall, id be a little concerned about condensation whe its so close to a wall or something.

 

[da colts1]

at the lfs i work for, we actually did that on a 120 gal that was in the middle of the floor and viewed all the way around, the problem was the maintance on the pumps we had to cut the cords to do maintance on them. but other than that it wasn't too bad, the problem was the pumps were rios so if the lights went out chances were that the pumps wouldn't start back up.

 

[Anonymous]

Well the reason I thought of it was this:

A friend of mine has a gang of wires hanging out the back of his tank, along with an external overflow. It looks like some type of power station or something back there. He decided to run all of his wires through a stretch of PVC outside the tank, kind of like those computer pipes that bunch all the wires together. Well, I thought, why not just put that pipe inside the tank???

I'm not going to be backing it up to a wall, I'd just like to not see the wire. This would be ideal in a 360 degree tank though like da colts is saying.

As for the wiring, the distance from the pump to the wire lugs is about 3 feet; it should be long enough. To remove the pump, I can disconnect the wire lugs, wrap the cord end in a plastic baggie, and pull it up through the overflow. How often do you have to remove a pump anyway?

 

[Anonymous]

If the tank is acrylic, drill another hole in the over flow, use a bulkhead and make a cord pipe.

The terror of flooding makes me worry about restricting the flow through any drain.

RR

PS
A woman from Davis came a got a cuttle from me!

 

[Anonymous]

I agree with Righty. Drill another standpipe specifically for the wiring, and make sure it is high enough that no water flow throw it like the overflow.

 

[cdeakle]

If the tank is acrylic, drill another hole in the over flow, use a bulkhead and make a cord pipe.

I think Righty has something here! has anyone else ever thought about that? Sounds like a really good idea.

We shall call it the "Righty Modification" :wink:

 

[ChrisRD]

If the tank is acrylic, drill another hole in the over flow, use a bulkhead and make a cord pipe.

I agree with Righty. Drill another standpipe specifically for the wiring, and make sure it is high enough that no water flow throw it like the overflow.

My thoughts exactly...

 

[Anonymous]

If the tank is acrylic, drill another hole in the over flow, use a bulkhead and make a cord pipe.

I think Righty has something here! has anyone else ever thought about that? Sounds like a really good idea.

We shall call it the "Righty Modification" :wink:

Aw, shucks. Sadly it ain't my idea!

 

[Anonymous]

Well, I had thought of that, I just don't know if I'll have room to drill another hole. I'm not running much through my sump so I'm not too worried about flooding.

Technically, you could do this without a sump. If you have an internal overflow, make a standpipe that goes up to the level of the tank. You could put pumps, heaters, etc. inside it with cords running down, and dosing pump line or airline tubing coming up through it.

 

[ChrisRD]

I like it. Sorta like the hole in a computer desk where you run all your wires...

 

[Anonymous]

There are acrylic tanks with this kind of thing built into the tank - more like an extra small overflow with no teeth that goes to the top of the tank and has no bottom.
If I had gone acrylic, I would have had a few of those!

 

[Anonymous]

I don't know how your set up is, but on mine, the rear of the tank is covered in a blue paint/plastic. So, it doesn't matter how the wires come out of the tank, you can't see them anyway.
~wings~

 

[Anonymous]

There are acrylic tanks with this kind of thing built into the tank - more like an extra small overflow with no teeth that goes to the top of the tank and has no bottom.
If I had gone acrylic, I would have had a few of those!

This is how my tank is built.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't know how your set up is, but on mine, the rear of the tank is covered in a blue paint/plastic. So, it doesn't matter how the wires come out of the tank, you can't see them anyway.
~wings~

You can't see them from the front of the tank, but unless you have a fish room they're visible from the side in between the wall and the tank. I hate the way that looks, especially if there's an external overflow and a HOB skimmer back there. Just messy.

 

[leftovers]

You can't see them from the front of the tank, but unless you have a fish room they're visible from the side in between the wall and the tank. I hate the way that looks, especially if there's an external overflow and a HOB skimmer back there. Just messy.

This is much a do about nothing. Unless your tank is a foot from the wall after 2 days you wont notice them and neither will anyone else. They notice the tank not the gap between the wall and the tank.

A simpler solution is to place plants next to wall and tank. They will love the light and block/obscure the view while allowing easy access.

A more complicated solution is to build molding that matches your walls and/or tank that simply "plugs" in between tank and wall on the side(s) that is visible.

Again this is much a do about nothing and plumbing electrical cables through drains while feasible is dangerous and frought with potential disasters.