New 75 gal Tank!

Hey Everybody,
So I just got a 75 gal tank from a friend of a friend. Very excited to upgrade from my 20 gal. I know I have loads of work ahead of me, but I thought I would ask a couple questions.
1) The black plastic top rim is cracked in a few places and the center brace is broken. I believe this rim serves as support, right? I've done some googling but can't find much, anybody know where I can get a new one, or if I even need to replace it?
2) I want to get the tank drilled with an overflow, durso type standpipe, for the sump I'll be building. The bottom glass has a sticker "TEMPERED DO NOT DRILL". Sucks...
So would this mean the whole tank is tempered, or just the bottom pane? If the rest of the glass can be drilled, anybody have experience with a durso coming in from the back glass and turned up on a 90 from the bulkhead? Doesn't seem like it would flow as good as straight down the bottom glass...
Any advise/opinions would be great.
Thanks guys and gals,

 

Not sure about the black plastic cross brace at the top. I have a nano and don't have anything like that on mine but as far as drilling, DON'T do it. The tempered glass sticker is for the entire tank. Any drilling will shatter the whole thing. You could look into getting an overflow box.

 

man, I was hoping that wasn't the case. I've heard alot of bad things about overflow boxes. But I guess that may be my only option...

 

What have you heard about overflow boxes? They dont function much different than an internal overflow other than they dont stop sucking if the power goes out. If you allow for enough room in the sump this is not a big deal. I run an overflow box on my 6 foot 125 with a 55g sump. I have never had an issue.

 

Some of the LFS can order a replacement top support for it. If not and the frame is in good shape you could get a piece of plexi and repair. I wouldnt drill. i would run an overflow box like anpgp suggested. I would not fill until center brace is repaired though. It was there for a reason. Without a center brace it could bow out and break. Thats alot of water on the floor.


My 72 bow was 7 yrs old and had an OF box on it its entire life. No issues

 

It's actually the opposite I've heard bad about. Not so much overflowing the sump after a power outage, like you said I could make enough room in the sump for that. My concern would be the return pump overflowing the DT if the overflow box were to ever lose syphon.

 

Thanks for the advice Yamaharider,
Getting a new rim is the first thing on my list, I kinda figured it was there for a reason.

 

You could try contacting the the company who made the tank sometimes just the bottom is tempered.

 

Thats what I wanted to do but the only thing on the tank is the sticker that says it's tempered, and most of that sticker is missing and hard to make out. I can't find anything else that would tell me who makes the tank.

 

+1, lots of tanks are tempered just on the bottom because that takes all the weight of the rock etc.

I've heard of people "patching" cracked trim with some type of epoxy or weld-on or something, I forget what exactly they've used or how good a job that does, might be worth looking into. Taking the trim off and replacing sounds like a pain.

Also for overflows if you find you can drill the tank on the back do a search here on 3reef and google for the "herbie method", IMO it's the best way to do overflows, silent, fault tolerant, and no salt creep from bubbles/splashing in the sump. Takes a little more work/plumbing but it's totally worth it IMO.

I wouldn't worry about maxing out your flow through your drain either, 1" plumbing can accomodate far more flow than you need for a 75gallon tank so if you have some inefficiency in the drain plumbing it's no big deal, just make sure you put a gate valve on the return pump line so you can dial it back, you really only need 300-400gph going through the sump.