Overflow Creaters, options for making the slots/holes in the top of the OF?

I have reasearched it, and if you could provide with a link to help, that would be great.

But I'd like to ask the people who have created/made an OF, preferably a C to C overflow- glass- for a back drilled tank.

HOw do I get nice, uniform slots in the top.

I know there are alot of over options, including having none and fishing things out of the overflow often- already talked to someone who does just that.

If I used acrylic (easier to notch), I've read that acrylic wont stick to glass that well? ?

If I'm doing a C to C overflow on my soon to be wet 180- it'll be a 6ft. piece of glass to notch!

I could put pieces of eggcrate is, parallel to the front on the OF, and held in place with small PVC pieces, or
I could use the plastic/vinyl gutter guard- which has a Ushaped grove down the length that snap over the upper outer edge of the gutter; this would snap down nicely over the top of the glass- like it does the upper outer edge of a gutter. Trim it to fit, etc. (I'm currently using one to wrap around my 'DIY intank overflow'

How have you done it? Any other ideas?

 

A router does a nice job, but some peeps use a table saw.

As for adhering acrylic to glass, I get what the "purists" are saying, however, in the "real world", silicone is fine, as the overflow doesn't need to be a structural bond...there's very little, if any stress on the overflow wall once the tank is running.

We have acrylic O/Fs on a couple of glass tanks that have been in service for many years. We use black acrylic, black silicone, and a black squeegee-on film called Water Colors to make it all blend together.

 

I also agree that an acrylic overflow sticks real well to a glass tank no problem, I have done this a couple times with nothing but success. Like said before I use black acrylic and black silicone so nothing stands out like an eye sore. Also it should be much cheaper to use acrylic in opposed to glass for your overflow

 

Thanks,

So, has anyone 'notched' the glass on a coast to coast?

 

I don't believe acrylic will be cheaper than glass.

Don't notch the glass. There is no need.

My plan with I do a CtoC bean on my next build is to use the darkest smoked glass possible for the front and sides of the overflow.
Use a clear glass for the bottom piece so the light can go thru it.

I think not notching the overflow would also increase the likeliness of making it dead silent.

 

We have a setup that uses a 1/2" slot as opposed to "teeth", but really haven't noticed any difference in overflow noise at all. Now, if junk gets caught up in the teeth, it tends to make a little noise due to the sump level changing.

 

FB- I've heard from othes that if they don't have some type of grate,
they are about daily picking things out of their Overflow, like snails, fish, etc.
Also, with 6 feet of overflowing water, I don't think there would be much sound of the water thru the slots.

HOw did you actually notch/slot it? I'm thinking of a grinder/cutter blade on a saw, to 'notch/slot' the top ot the overflow. I thought about lots of samall holes, but that would be too close to the edge, and wouldn't work well anyways.

 

Anyone else with a long of coast to coast overflow?

Do you just have a sheet of water going over it? And do you fish things out of it often?
Is it notched?

?

 

We had our acrylics guy make the slot when he added the external overflow to our 100 gal after we buffed it out. He used a router. I have since used a small router (that little Dremel router, IIRC it's called a Trio) for similar applications where I needed slots/cuts in acrylic.

 

Thanks,

I've been researching it alittle more, and may use glass, with some sort of eggcrate or gutterguard for the top to keep the larger things out- you know, rays, sharks, the occas. dophin, etc.

;-)
Todd