DIY tank bottem?

[smittyjr18]

I have a 55 Gal tank. I want to install a undergravel filter. What i want to do is drill out 3 or 4 holes on the bottem of the tank and then have that go to my filter. I'm thinking this would help with keeping the substrate cleaner and keep from having dead spots in the UGF. The tank was made by All Glass. Which the bottem is tempered glass. Which i know means i can't dill it out. Can i remove the bottem of the tank and replace it with acrylic to do this?

 

[RLG2182]

Is this going to be a fresh or SW tank? I personally wouldn't try it... you'd have to rip off the moulding, strip off the silicone, and since glass won't stick to acrylic well, there will be no real way to attach the two pieces. WAY too risky.

If this is a SW tank, there's no need for an UGF. If this is FW, and you did want to keep an UGF, I would just attach powerheads to each tower to help with flow. I would never rely on a glass-to-acrylic bond to hold water. Probably not the info you wanted to hear

 

[mentallylost]

Do you mean a under GRAVEL filter, or under TANK filter? Reading your post is leading me to believe that you intend to place the filter under the tank, not just the substrate. If this is the case then I would not drill the tank at all. I would use a normal commercially available filter. Either a HOB power filter, or a canister filter. If you are still concerned of the debris on the substrate and are up to a DIY project, then consider a under gravel jet system with a power head or 2 hooked up to it. You can build the UGJ system to point in the directions of your tanks dead spots, keeping the debris from falling into these areas and enabling them to be sucked in by the filter intakes. Just a thought anyway. I am all with RLG2182 in not trying to replace the bottom of the tank with acrylic though. Glass and acrylic do not seal well to each other.

 

[smittyjr18]

Ok with the problem of getting the acrylic and glass to adhere which would be better?

Do a whole acrylic tank and drill out the bottem or can i still use glass but get non-tempered glass to do it?

I want to remove the uprights that come with the ugf and create a filter media with the ugf and a canister. Look at the attached photo. Let me know what you think?

 

[smittyjr18]

I'm thinking the hold diam to be 1/2 or 3/4

 

[smittyjr18]

Bump?

 

[hashbaz]

I also think you would be best off buying a different aquarium (preferably acrylic) and drilling the bottom. But this still sounds questionable structurally. I do like your idea of keeping an UGF but ditching the ugly uptake tubes. But it seems difficult to implement.

If you do drill glass, I would suggest staggering the holes slightly instead of all in a line. This will increase the structural stability.

What is the normal tubing size for Hot Mag 350? If normal is 3/4" then three 1/2" holes should be fine. If normal is 1" then you should go with 3/4" holes.

 

[RLG2182]

:?
I'm still scratching my head over why in the world you would want to go so much trouble just to install an UGF. I would merely go with an UGF and the canister filter separate. Seems a bit risky to drill the bottom of the tank... who knows what would happen if a leak happend and your entire tank drained out. 8O

 

[greenmaji]

If your going to replace the bottom you need 3/8 in plate glass to do it.. I understand the idea.. but I think you should look into the posts on UGJ systems in the Cichlid-Forum index to see if that would fit your needs.. if your wanting to use your substrate as a bio-filtration medium I dont think its worth all this trouble.. there are much better media out there than what you would use as substrate as far as surface area is concerned.. Wet/Dry would be better for FW or SW..
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/