so i have a new tank. now what?

[dadstank]

i just brought the tank from mom's garage to my apt ready to be shipped to cali. i want to start preping myself for what i will need to get/do once i have it positioned and ready to be filled.

i didn't realize that the tank would be, well, just a tank.....

i know it sounds silly, but i never noticed, nor thought the "overflow" would be a box with some holes in it.

y'all knew it was coming:
some questions
1. the tanks are DIRTY!! and about to be shipped cross country (again). what do i use to clean it?
1a how long after i clean it can i fill it with salt water? (i checked it for leaks this weekend)

2. the glass part of the overflow is sealed into the tank. when i put the supplied cover over it, will just "any" aquarium sealant do, or you guys have a preferance?

3. how deep should the water in the overflow be? is this a personal thing?

4. which hole is which? there is a 2" and 2something" hole.....

 

[Anonymous]

1. Tap water works fine.
1a. As soon as you're happy it's clean
2. Cover on the overflow? Sealant? I'm confused, if it's sealed already you shouldn't have to do anything, if you're talking about the bulkhead for the pipes, no sealant is necessary.

3. I'm guessing this is an internal overflow, in which case I'd have your pipe fairly high, simply so water doesn't fall that far down to make loud splashing sounds. Not to mention you'll probably get a bevy of growth of life in there

4. Depends upon what the overflow as designed for, sometimes there's two holes, one of which is an emergency hole in case one gets plugged (it's a little bit higher than the other), other times I"ve seen a hole as a return for the pump, in which case the larger one should be your return. If it's a 2-3/8" hole that's for a bulkhead 1.5" wide. If it's 1-3/4" that'll be a 1" bulkhead, which sounds more like a return.

 

[dadstank]

2. there is a "walled" overflow in the tank. then they gave me a black cover to fit over it. it fits perfectly when pressure is applied...
(i attached a photo)

3. "bevy growth"?

4. those are the only holes in the whole tank. one must be for return, one for overflow. they are a 2" and a 2 3/4". he threw in the bulkheads for me... so i am certain they are proper.

A. i also want to color the back of the tank black. something i can do once its up and running yeah? doesn't need to be a priority?

 

[Anonymous]

2. Ah gotcha.. hmmm interesting way they went with that, IMO looks like those teeth in the black acrylic are rather... small and won't do much for total overflow size. Depending how high you high you want water in the tank I'd personally do without that black overflow, use rocks or Krylon fusion paint if you don't want to see the pipes in there (yeah it's "reef safe")

3. bevy = large group/collection of. Basically any sort of pod population will have a colony in there, in fact might not be a bad place for a refugium, toss some chaeto in there, you got tank light that'll probably be shining in, golden!

4. Well my view on returns, and looking at the picture you showed, is there really doesn't seem to be any benefit about drilling for a return inside the overflow box, you'll still have to come up over the overflow with piping to get water back into your tank, so why not simply bring piping up the back of the tank and over the edge?

A. Yeah painting the outside of the glass do at any time, not a big deal, besides if you do things right it'll probably get covered in coraline as it stands (which is another reason I might not even bother with painting the overflow, simply wait out the visible pipes or pile up rocks along it)

 

[dadstank]

interesting....

 

[SnowManSnow]

I would think the larger diameter hole in the overflow would be for your DRAIN line.

You always want the drain to be able to handle a little more than what your return pump can pump back up. Other wise you'll overflow your tank.

OH, and i second the idea about taking off that black thing around your overflow. Those teeth are so small they will be clogged with algae in a month or so.

 

[Ben1]

But dont leave no teeth or you will end up with fish in the overflow. I would atleast use lighting grid stuff over the top to prevent the fishes from going. Or snails.... forget it if a snails walks in there and then in the overflow piping.

 

[Anonymous]

If you're that worried about fish/snails, I'd put a thin strip of eggcrate around it, because man that overflow really restricts water the way it's shown in the picture

 

[yellowfiji]

3. The pipes should be slightly lower than the MD water level to create a waterfall effect for surface skimming.