1100 set up

[Egon]

The above picture of the corner overflow shows 4 holes in the side of the overflow. Those are capped off and not used. They were for the supply lines coming from the pumps. I moved the pump supply's to the top of the tank to avoid check valve issues and other leaking issues caused by pump and or power failures. I hate check valves and pumps will fail. Learn from my mistakes.

 

[Egon]

Some lights and water.

 

[Egon]

A leak!!!!!!!

I forgot to tell you guys I'm dumb. I installed one of the bulkheads, remember there's 10, without the gasket. Thankfully the tank is 3 feet or so above the ground and there's no sump under there to get in the way. I pushed this gasket up and around the out side of the pipe, through the hole in the tank and was able to make a good seal with out having to cut the bulkhead out. Huge win for me. I was very disappointed with myself but at least I'm not one of those guys that uses silicone sealant on my bulkhead gaskets to stop leaks. I guess it just fell off some how and I didn't notice? I didn't even think to check?

 

[Egon]

The corner overflow set up. Overflows are very important, easy to underutilize and easy to just mess up. I'm going to try to explain my thoughts on overflows and how super awesome they are if set up right.
I fill my overflows with bio balls. To do this I put a grate on the bottom to keep the bio balls out of the sump. This makes a great bio tower. The next thing I do is put filter floss at the top of the bio balls to catch the bigger stuff. This is like a pre filter for the sump. Very easy to change out when dirty. The problem with this system is if your not paying attention that filter can clog and your tank will overflow and make a huge mess!
The large 2" pipe coming up the corner of the overflow is like an overflow itself. Its just a pipe that bypasses everything in the overflow and goes straight to the drain. If your filter floss material gets clogged this pipe is just above that and will drain everything straight down to your sump. It works I've tested this multiple times both with and with out this drain line. It drain line is awesome.
The next step I will fill this area with bio balls and cap it off with filter material. I typically buy huge rolls of the stuff and cut it to fit the area.

Note: I like to cut the bottom of the overflow at an angle to keep it from accidentally slipping to the bottom of the tank and causing a restriction of flow against the bottom of the tank. That angle will keep most of the pipe off the bottom of the tank. This time I also glued it to the corner, I had extra glue from the background install....

 

[Egon]

These are pictures of the corner overflows filled with bio balls and topped with the filter media. The overflow pipe is in the back corner.

 

[fishguy1978]

Wow, impressive build.

 

[Egon]

Aquascape: I wanted as much room as possible for the fish so I went with a very thin background and just a little decorations on the left and right corners of the tank. just in front of the overflows.

 

[Egon]

Added a bag of fish to cycle the tank and also test out a few angles for my viewing enjoyment!

Note: I did use a lot of water from the 450 to help cycle the tank also...

 

[Egon]

Every few days I would add a couple more fish. Slower is better.

 

[Egon]

Some of the Dats