Possible solution to vortech and acrylic tanks

[triggerfish1976]

Ever since the WWD came out for the vortech I have been wanting to try them out on my tank. Unfortunetly for me, the tank is 1" acrylic so the Vortech as is will not work. I asked around and contact Eco Tech directly for some info on if they will ever make a vortech for 1" tanks and the response wasn't promising so I inquired as to ideas on how I might make them work on my tank.
Two ideas were proposed by various people. The first one was to route out areas on the sides of the tank thinning the acrylic from 1" down to 3/4" to allow me to use the pumps. I wasn't comfortable with the idea of thinning out areas of my tank and I would also have to thin out several spots on a side in order to give me some flexibility on placement.
The 2nd option was to build dry boxes (similar in construction to overflow boxes) made out of thinner acrylic. At first I almost gave up on this idea because I was going to have to install boxes on the inside of my tank and the heat issues that may arise from having these in an small semi-confined box in the tank.
After considering both options I decided to go with the drybox idea since this methods positives out weighed the negatives.
I contacted my Tim @ EcoTech and he gave me some design ideas for the boxes and I then had my LFS build them for me.
Here are pics of the boxes when I first got them:





Tim suggested that the boxes have multiple facets in order to give me more flexibility in regards to positioning. They allow me to not only point them straight but I can also angle them left or right. The boxes were also made big enough to accomodate multiple pumps.



I finally got around to installing the boxes in the tank and they actually don't look as bad as I thought. I had been using waveboxes in th tank for the last year and the new boxes actually blend in better with the tank. The heat issue I was initially worried about ended up being a non-issue and I have yet to notice any increase in the tanks temp. due to the boxes. I have tried various flow patterns even full constant speed and the heat sinks do a nice job of radiating the eat up and out of the boxes.

Here are pics of the boxes installed in the tank:





Its only been two days but so far I am very happy with the flow produced by these pumps. I have tried almost every powerhead on the market and I was a huge Tunze homer but these pumps may change that. I am currently running four on my tank and I eventually plan on adding 4 more if everything continues to go well.
I will keep everyone updated on how the boxes work out.