help me plan by 29 bow front

[chodaboy]

ok im thinkin of making an overflow in a this 29 that i've been gazin at the petstore. i might try to do a center over flow or side. plans are to have my return inside the overflow so i can bring the pipes up and over, branch it using a sqwd to alternate flows to bolth corners. how close can the holes be cut you think? or should i run the returns through the back instead. if i brace the overflow with glass this should help the two drilled holes in the bottom. I was also thinking of running a small pump return through the overflow area and through the bottom of the overflow acrylic to criculate the debri near the sand a little better. im probably working on circulation, mainly i want to stay away from big bulky power heads, make somethin clean.

[wetworx101]

If you run the returns inside the overflows, you will have problems with the plan. First, you will have to have very wide overflows to accomidate the extra pipe in the center. I dont think you will like the idea of putting 2" standpipes in the corners of your tank, or in the center back. The other problem is that no matter what height the overflows are, your pump outputs will have to be higher (think about it), which means you will be making alot of bubbles. I would not drill the bottom. Instead, If you want two outputs and an overflow, I would drill the back in the center for the overflow. Maybe put a little box in... And then drill the upper back corners for your outputs linked to a SCWD.

[chodaboy]

yeah i was thinking about that too, it's one of my ideas. I was trying to see if i could do this without anything coming out of the back so it could sit agianst the wall. probably cant though. Heres another idea... you could also make the center over flow and instead of drilling the bottom drill the backside middle then have the return come up through the bottom. what do you think about that? the only diffrence between going up in over the over flow from putting the two bulkheads drilled in the back is only a little amout of height...right? it should only loose a little bit of head loss via difference in potential energy. which should be gained back in downfall but still the pump will have to work harder, agreed.

 

would you have circulation problems with the two returns in the corner? debri in the back just sits there.