75 build..... need help

[Chago09]

Ok Big als had a great deal on tanks, it was $69 for standard 75 gallon perfecto tank and of course I bought one lol I have been claiming for a while now that I am going to start my first reef although many things keep slowing me down. Anyways I am officially starting now.

I am building a beautiful stand right now which should be done by the end of the coming weekend. My buddy has come over tonight though and I wanted to take a break from the stand to complete the drilling of my 75 gallon. I bought an undrilled tank because my tank is going to be a room divider and I wanted to put the holes on the one side of the tank and not on the front or back.

Now I know all the techniques on drilling I have read all the threads. Although I have a few questions about the whole set up of the over flow and the holes. Please help because I wanted to get the drilling started.

1.) For the overflow basket, does it need to have the teeth at the top??? can it just be a flat edge???

2.) Ok I see eveyone is making these Durso pipes. I obviously can't drill the bottom glass because as every other tank it is tempered. So I am going to drill the side glass. I see guys drilling the holes down low near the bottom and making a big stand pipe and a overflow basket the height of the tank. Why is this??? Would it not be easier to just drill like 3" from the top make a little basket around that??? My old 150 gallon freshwater was like that.

3.) With the Durso pipe style the bulkhead is well underwater, isn't that a leak threat??? if the bulkhead is up high and has nothing on the front of it then water would just pour into the bulkhead and there would be no preasure or needed seal making it leak proof, isn't this better???

4.) For a 75 gallon tank I am going to be drilling 2 holes for the drains. What would be the best size holes and best size bulkheads for this set up???

5.) Are certain bulkheads better then others??? I dont want to have cheap ones leak on me. Any brands anyone recomneds???

I have been reading a lot and I have this science down I think although this whole overflow set up is really confusing me. I have seen links for making standpipes and all that but its not answering what I want to know. I do not want to make a low hole with a large standpipe in a large overflow box if I don't need to. A small basket in the top corner would be just as good unless someone can explain to me why I shouldn't. Thanks in advance for the help

[drillsar]

Teeth is so Fish, etc wont go into sump, I would go with teeth.

[fraggin]

here is my 75 i did this year


bulkhead is near the bottom of the overflow, with the external durso setup. i realize now tho that i could have went with a overflow 1/2 the hight.

[Apercula]

Here's a picture of my diy overflow on my 75g, its 1.5in bulkhead, and the interior overflow is 2inch reduced to 1.5in.. The cap on the 2 inch is to prevent fish from going sump diving. I drilled 3 rows of holes around the top of the reducer/cap to surface skim while keeping fish out. It is NOT a quiet drain like a durso would give you, but it handles a large flow.



And an exterior/back shot of the drain down to the sump. I used the "sanitary" elbows and tees since they have the smoother bend, but you have to go heavy on the pvc glue with them because the sockets for the pvc are shallower than standard fittings.