Converting 5.5 into all in one plumbing and overflow questions

[aclman88]

I am thinking of a a 5.5 gallon picoby converting a standard 5.5 into an all in one tank using a false wall made of acrylic. I saw that glass is possibly a better option, since it will bond better than acrylic, and I could use a coast to coast style overflow. I am a little unsure on how that would work. Wouldn't water just overflow in the return section and the overflow section simultaneously? I was referencing apost on R2R when trying to figure out plumbing since it was one of the only things I could find online.  I thought about posting a link to that thread but not sure if it is frowned upon.

My second question conerns the plumbing. I am planning on using the return pump from my waterbox 10 that I replaced with a sicce (uses 1/2 tubing) Would I just use the 1/2 vynil tubing and 1/2 loc line for the return plumbing?

I was thinking I could use the following for plumbing the return:

 

Thoughts?

[debbeach13]

You could check out sanddeeps thread for the AIO part of your project. There are also at least a dozen other threads of members that copied this thread.

My 5.5 pico with built in fuge. 10/04/07 in pico journals.

[jservedio]

First drill holes on the gray + to create the bottom left and right corners of the overflow and create a radius. Then, cut along the blue lines to cut out the rest of the overflow.

 

Coast to coast isn't an option for an AIO tank unless you only want a single chamber in the back. Glass works better, but acrylic is easier to work with. You can do what most tank manufacturers do and use both - first silicone in a piece of glass that is as tall as the bottom of the overflow, then glue your acrylic directly over the glass, sticking up past the glass up to the rim of the tank that has your overflow cut out of it. You get the best of both world - low flex and great bond with the glass, and you get to make the overflow out of acrylic which is far, far easier than trying to cut out an overflow from glass.

[aclman88]

On 9/30/2021 at 12:14 PM, jservedio said:

First drill holes on the gray + to create the bottom left and right corners of the overflow and create a radius. Then, cut along the blue lines to cut out the rest of the overflow.

 

Coast to coast isn't an option for an AIO tank unless you only want a single chamber in the back. Glass works better, but acrylic is easier to work with. You can do what most tank manufacturers do and use both - first silicone in a piece of glass that is as tall as the bottom of the overflow, then glue your acrylic directly over the glass, sticking up past the glass up to the rim of the tank that has your overflow cut out of it. You get the best of both world - low flex and great bond with the glass, and you get to make the overflow out of acrylic which is far, far easier than trying to cut out an overflow from glass.

Thanks.  After dilling the pilot holes, what would you recommend I use to connect them and cut the wier?  I know you mentioned a jig, but is there a specific one for dremel that would work?  If I decide to go teeth, would a miter saw work?   Thanks again for all the help!

[jservedio]

27 minutes ago, aclman88 said:

Thanks.  After dilling the pilot holes, what would you recommend I use to connect them and cut the wier?  I know you mentioned a jig, but is there a specific one for dremel that would work?  If I decide to go teeth, would a miter saw work?   Thanks again for all the help!

For connecting the pilot holes for the weir, if you have to use the dremel and don't have a router base, I'd use the mini-saw attachment and I would just use some really straight scrap 1x2 and a couple of clamps as a jig and keep it really, really tightly pressed against it while you cut. If you have a jigsaw, I would use that and use two 1x2s and clamp them tight on either side of the jigsaw shoe so that you get perfectly straight cuts - that'd work really well. A router using the same technique would be even better since it doesn't vibrate as much.

 

Basically use whatever you've got and get really creative building jigs so that you can get good results. Just remember when working with acrylic to use a fine-tooth blade, mask it very well, cut as slowly as you possibly can to prevent chips, and make sure that work piece and scrap are both clamped down extremely well since when you get to the end, vibration on the scrap piece can cause it to crack and chip.

 

Honestly, cutting weir teeth is not easy at all and is going to take a lot of work. An electric miter saw is probably not going to be able to cut teeth - the teeth are so thin and closely spaced the saw would probably just rip half of them off. You'd probably have better results using a dremel with a router bit and a good aftermarket router base then building yourself a box jointing jig. There are a ton of YouTube videos for cutting box/finger joints with various tools - so take a look through those. But, a box jointing jig is NOT something that's dead simple like using a couple of 1x2" to make a straight line and is a moving jig. Here is a decent enough example for building one for a router: 

 

 

 

 

[aclman88]

So I was able to use the mitre saw to get the teeth, and I cut a hole for a 1/2 in bulkhead.  I am not sure how to do the return plumbing.  I have a few options that I want feedback on.

 

Option 1:   +   + (Slip elbow into slip bulkhead, threaded locline)

Benefits -  allows easy removal of elbow if I need to clean or remove pump

 

Option 2:   +       + (Elbow threads into threaded bulkhead and threaded locline)

Benefit -  cheaper by 4-5 bucks and secure elbow fitting

Cons -  difficult to remove elbow fitting or pump since elbow would need to be attached in the tank since its on the sump side of bulkhead.

Option 3:  +   + 

Benefit -  low profile, could be intersting to try

Con - open, nondirectied flow

 

 

Second question is is there a benefit to having the locline split into two sections using this?  It is a smaller tank so not sure if it would look ugly having two longer return lines, but it would potentially distribute flow better and allow for using return only for flow.  Planning on using sicce syncra nano (~110gph) for return.

 

[jservedio]

For a 5.5g, I would definitely not split the loc-line - for sure just a single nozzle. Personally, I'd go with first option since being able to remove the elbow fitting to get the pump and heater in/out makes things a lot easier. Glue your stub of PVC onto the elbow side so you have the maximum amount of clearance. It's going to be like 2psi and underwater, so no need for it to be threaded. For the tubing between the pump and the elbow, spend the extra few dollars for silicone tubing - it's so much more flexible and far better at dampening vibration than the cheaper vinyl tubing.

 

Do you have a picture of the teeth you cut with the miter saw? I'm really interested to see how cleanly you were able to get it to come out using nothing but a miter saw.

[aclman88]

5 minutes ago, jservedio said:

Do you have a picture of the teeth you cut with the miter saw?

 

 

This was the jig I set up.  I also used the mitre saw to cut the acrylic to size.  It held up surprisingly well.  Only issue to deal with was it spun a very small amount of melted acrylic like cotton candy around the blade axle, but it pulled out esasily and didn't stick or anything.

 

Time will tell if the notches are wide enough to allow flow, but its a small tank so I am not overly concerned.