Who/how to drill a tank at our home?

[marciemp]

Is there anyone in Calgary who we can hire to come to our home and drill our 92 gallon corner tank? Right now the tank is full of water, fish, rocks and sand but we could move them to our old tank. I am also looking for someone to plumb, and build or recommend a sump and all of the accessories needed to run one.

We have been looking for a sump set up for months but I have no time to figure out what size pumps , what type of protein skimmer, what overflow, it all seems very complicated to me. I am usually very handy and with it and have no problems figuring things out, but all of this SW fish stuff just can't get into my brain right now...GPH, head height, angles, all of the abbreviations, just to much for my mommy brain!

Is there a big risk of the tank breaking when it's being drilled? How do I know if the glass is the right kind to be drilled.

I have been going to a couple of the bigger American forums but I never get an answer there, just found this site, I have hopes that friendly Canadians can help me out more!

Does anyone know someone in Calgary who we could hire to help us out with this? It would be very helpful to have someone to drill the tank and set up the plumbing as well as help us out with what to buy.

Thanks so much for the help and opinions
Marcie

[Aquattro]

Realistically, if the tank isn't drilled now, I'd probably not worry about it. You can get an external overflow for not too much money and they work fine if taken care of. I haven't used one, but friends have used them for years without issue. Yes, there is a risk that the tank could break, and lots of the corner tanks used tempered glass anyway, which you can't drill. Keep the drilling in mind for the next tank (yes, there's always a next tank).

[Delphinus]

Hi, I saw your other thread too but I'll reply in this one for now... As for drilling, I can either help you out and drill a hole for you, or lend you my drill bits - but as Brad said I think the corner tanks have a better chance of having a tempered bottom. If you have polarized sunglasses, try looking at the glass with them on. Although I think you need there to be a fairly bright light available like direct sun when you do this. If you can see a checkerboard patterning, the glass is tempered.

Other alternatives are drilling out the back glass at the top for a "cup" style overflow. I'll use my FW tank as an example you can check out: http://canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=28505

The flip side is that, as Brad mentioned, there are external overflows. Here's an example: http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/details/overflows.php?product_ID=of-cs100
They do have a few drawbacks compared to drilling, but not significantly so, as mentioned if taken care of properly, these do work quite well in a pinch. And before you go out and buy one I suggest to put up a "wanted" ad because dollars-to-donuts someone will have one lying around that they're not using that you could buy for less than buying new.

I have only 1 two year old (and another on the way), I can only imagine what twins would be like. I think I just felt myself age just thinking about it. :lol:

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Heh. Tony, always giving me a good chuckle.

Regarding the tank...I just borrowed Tony's bits (drill bits, that is...haha, awkward)...and drilling the tank was really easy. I would recommend drilling the back pane if it's not tempered (like Tony's freshwater set-up, for example).

I bought a CPR overflow a while back from someone, and am pretty sure I'll never use it now (plans changed). So if you want to look into that, shoot me a PM.