# drilling 10 gallon tanks for overflow



## beetlebz (Aug 2, 2007)

sooo heres my nifty idea.

I got my hands on an old bookshelf im reinforcing for storage and a place to put my 10g betta sorority tank. I got thinking what the heck, ive always wanted pygmy cories, not to mention golden white clouds, sparking gouramis, you name it. SO why not make it strong enough for 3 10g tanks 

my idea is to drill out overflows onto all 3 tanks, and arrange them so that tank 1 overflows into tank 2, which overflows into tank 3, which overflows into a wet/dry filter, then pumped back up to the top. 

how stupid is my idea, how hard would be to drill out 10g tanks for overflows (its only 12 bucks a try lol) and how could I make it flood proof?


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## Cody (Dec 22, 2007)

Hmm, interesting. I think you may be able to do it without drilling. You could add overflow boxes to all tanks (one inside with a U-Tube leading to one outside), and then the outside overflow going down to the sump. You could connect all 3 plumbing things together even, so you have one pump going down into the sump (so it makes like a 3-way "y" thing, if that makes sense).

And then you do something similar for the outflow. You would need a pretty powerful pump/powerhead for it to go three ways though.

Some one more experienced should be able to confirm this/prove it wrong. Thats just my two cents.


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## herefishy (Dec 14, 2006)

Bad idea. If disease strikes any one of the tanks, the whole system is sick. Been there, done that. Result.....sick tanks.


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## FuzzAz (Oct 22, 2007)

I have thought of doing that myself, I think a bookshelf full of fish tanks would look awesome. and with the close proximity and thanks to gravity you could intergrade them into one filtration system. It would just take some engineering, the system would have to be 100 percent reliable or you might end up with 30 gallons in one 10 gallon tank.

Not to offend, but I have to say I disagree with herefishy. Thats a good point to consider, don't put all your eggs in one basket right, however, how are three ten gallon tanks that share the same water different, in that respect, from one thirty gallon tank? if you only have one thirty gallon tank and sickness breaks out than the whole system is sick, same story. So I don't think (note the word choice, this is just my opinion) combining 3 10 gallon tanks is any more dangerous than having one 30 gallon tank. 

I'm not sure I would drill the glass, Glass is difficult to drill. you will need a drill bit for glass available at any hardware, then drill slowly, and pour water over it as you drill to keep the glass cool. you will be lucky if the glass cracks less than half of the time. 

Maybe some combination of siphons and pumps would be better.


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## Shadowhawkiv (Jan 13, 2007)

Use overflow boxes on the insides of your tanks and use tubing to siphon water out of them and down into your sump. Bam, problem solved, and if you overflow boxes are fixed, you never have to worry about your tank draining below the top of them if the power kicks out. You'd have to restart the siphons and make sure that the flow from your sump to the tanks is balanced, but all that takes a bit of tweaking with flow valves.


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