Notching glass for external overflow

[Trevor W]

Just curious if anyone has notched a pane of glass for an external overflow using a dremel. If so any tips or advice?

Also I know that the depth of the notch will determine the height of the water but how high will the water rise above the bottom of the notch when you put some 1/4" spaced acrylic teeth infront of it. Hope that isn't a dumb question hahaha

[reeferfulton]

Just curious if anyone has notched a pane of glass for an external overflow using a dremel. If so any tips or advice?

Also I know that the depth of the notch will determine the height of the water but how high will the water rise above the bottom of the notch when you put some 1/4" spaced acrylic teeth infront of it. Hope that isn't a dumb question hahaha

not sure on how to notch glass.

but i had the same questions in regards to overflow teeth requirment and how high the water would rise going through them.
I believe RC has a calculator for determining flow through overflow teeth.
What i discovered was ... it really depends on your return pump and overflow design. try and find that calculator and see what it says .

I believe thats why some people have a valve to restrict there return pump. to help them adjust water height. .

For me , when i fired my tank up with the mag 9.5 , i found that my teeth and overflow combo was to restrictive and forced the water level way up the teeth.. I broke a few teeth out and the level dropped

[Myka]

Egg crate restricts flow a lot less than teeth do. Personally, I would do a horizontal 3/8" slit instead of teeth or egg crate. Easier to do, looks better, and doesn't restrict flow like teeth, or to a lesser degree, egg crate does. You can use the same linear length as you would with egg crate. The only thing you have to consider is to not buy snails that are smaller than 3/8". You should be making this same consideration if you used egg crate on the overflow.

[mark]

on reefs.org there's a overflow capacity calculator (http://www.reefs.org/library/downloads/) that gives height above lip.

For notch take a look through Dez's build. Also seen pictures where you drill will hole saw, connect bottoms of the holes for the lip, then up the sides to top. The radius so no stress in corners. |0___0|

[toytech]

I bought some tile cutting carbide bits and the flush cutting head adapter so it sit flat on the glass .Clamped a straight edge to the tank and cut away. I had a garden hose running on the glass the whole time , its slow and very noisy but not hard . The glass will crack when you get to the end of the cuts if you don't support the piece being cut out

[Trevor W]

not sure on how to notch glass.

but i had the same questions in regards to overflow teeth requirment and how high the water would rise going through them.
I believe RC has a calculator for determining flow through overflow teeth.
What i discovered was ... it really depends on your return pump and overflow design. try and find that calculator and see what it says .

I believe thats why some people have a valve to restrict there return pump. to help them adjust water height. .

For me , when i fired my tank up with the mag 9.5 , i found that my teeth and overflow combo was to restrictive and forced the water level way up the teeth.. I broke a few teeth out and the level dropped

Thanks for the info!

Egg crate restricts flow a lot less than teeth do. Personally, I would do a horizontal 3/8" slit instead of teeth or egg crate. Easier to do, looks better, and doesn't restrict flow like teeth, or to a lesser degree, egg crate does. You can use the same linear length as you would with egg crate. The only thing you have to consider is to not buy snails that are smaller than 3/8". You should be making this same consideration if you used egg crate on the overflow.

Thanks Mindy! I never thought of just cutting a horizontal slit for the overflow. Have you talked to anyone that has done this method and used it for an extended period of time? Just curious if there is any draw backs to this method. I think this would be a really clean look.

on reefs.org there's a overflow capacity calculator (http://www.reefs.org/library/downloads/) that gives height above lip.

For notch take a look through Dez's build. Also seen pictures where you drill will hole saw, connect bottoms of the holes for the lip, then up the sides to top. The radius so no stress in corners. |0___0|

Thanks for the link! Thats what I was initially thinking of doing. cutting the corners with my hole saws and using my dremel to cut the straight lines and supporting it with tape as I go. Was also given the idea by Andy on the canreef facebook page to use my angle grinder and a diamond cutoff wheel.

[byee]

Have you thought of just buying a comb like this one - http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/product-info.php?product_ID=am-ofcomb

Definitely a lot easier than notching the glass.

Sent from my GT-P5113 using Tapatalk

[mark]

believe the plan is just one large single notch to get the water out, not making individual teeth

[lockrookie]

Sent pm I have notched glass and made overflow teeth on both my tanks as long as glass is not tempers and you have patience and don't rush the cuts it's definitely able to be done

Personally I don't like egg-crate and find it breaks easily and rots away faster over time egg-crate is a brittle plastic and just not my fave thing to work with

[Spyd]

Personally, I would go this route:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjL9U6sXI7w

This is the ghost overflow. I think it is a fantastic idea on only requires holes to be drilled instead of cutting out a section of glass.

[mark]

^ any idea the price?

[Spyd]

It's not cheap. Somehwere around $200 US is what I have read. It is made by reefsavvy. You would have to email them and find out. I believe it comes with all bulkheads, etc as well though.

[Trevor W]

believe the plan is just one large single notch to get the water out, not making individual teeth

Yes thats the plan. Just your typical external overflow where you have the box mounted externally and a notch or slit cut into the tank to allow the water to flow into the overflow box.

Sent pm I have notched glass and made overflow teeth on both my tanks as long as glass is not tempers and you have patience and don't rush the cuts it's definitely able to be done

Personally I don't like egg-crate and find it breaks easily and rots away faster over time egg-crate is a brittle plastic and just not my fave thing to work with

Thanks Lockrookie, PM sent!

Personally, I would go this route:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjL9U6sXI7w

This is the ghost overflow. I think it is a fantastic idea on only requires holes to be drilled instead of cutting out a section of glass.

Thats a really cool idea, too bad they don't make the external box itself taller. Also the cost itself is well above what it will cost for me to just notch or cut a slit in the glass. Thanks for the link

[duncangweller]

I like that ghost over flow. Looks pretty sweet and an easy way to add an external overflow onto any tank

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[mark]

rather than notch have seen similar in idea to the Ghost OF (just holes, no notch).

Piece of glass about 5-6" wide, length the same as the tank for a coast to coast lip. Glass is siliconed at an angle, holes drilled through back glass (no bulkheads needed) and external overflow box constructed.

[duncangweller]

Wouldn't fish/snails and such end up in your overflow box with just holes? I was thinking of that earlier.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[reefmandan]

I've seen this done before: to cut the notch, you essentially cut two holes as far apart from each other as the length you want the notch to be. Then you use a glass cutter to score the bottom part of one circle to the other, and break away the glass.

[StirCrazy]

using a dremmel sucks the big one, I used a glass cutter then used the dremmel just to smooth out the cut. you need running water to keep it cool, and you very well might destroy your dremmel, or at least the flexable wand part of it :redface:

if I had to do it again I would drill two holes one on each end of the cut out, the using a glass cutter scribe to conect them, bust out the glass and smooth it over.

Steve

[Trevor W]

I've seen this done before: to cut the notch, you essentially cut two holes as far apart from each other as the length you want the notch to be. Then you use a glass cutter to score the bottom part of one circle to the other, and break away the glass.

Thanks for the input. That was my plan with drilling the corners of the notch and then using my angle grinder and a diamond cutoff wheel.

using a dremmel sucks the big one, I used a glass cutter then used the dremmel just to smooth out the cut. you need running water to keep it cool, and you very well might destroy your dremmel, or at least the flexable wand part of it :redface:

if I had to do it again I would drill two holes one on each end of the cut out, the using a glass cutter scribe to conect them, bust out the glass and smooth it over.

Steve

Yea I was starting to think that a dremel would not be the best to use and was considering using a rotozip, then I just realised I have a angle grinder and a diamond cutoff wheel. Yes my plan was to do this on my front lawn with the hose running constant water over it.

Check out this guy using his dremel wand/flexible shaft underwater to do some fragging....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxeFJ7N7c34

[StirCrazy]

Check out this guy using his dremel wand/flexible shaft underwater to do some fragging....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxeFJ7N7c34

well that shaft is toast now...:mrgreen: