DIY tank

[ScubaSteve]

Originally Posted by NIVLEM09

so,according to the aquarium building calculator for a 36x24x22 tank,i'd need a 10 mm thick glass panels.what are the pros and cons of an external overflows ,as well as internal?

Personally I prefer external overflows. They look better and give you more precious real estate. I'm my opinion they also offer better surface skimmer (I won't go into the fluid dynamics of it, but trust me on this). Problem with them is that they stick out the back of your tank, so it occupies real estate outside of the tank. If you've got the room to have an overflow hanging out the back, go with the external. If you're more picky and want everything self-contained withing the foot print of the tank, go internal.

I would love to come give you a hand as I love building tanks, but I am unfortunately balls deep in trying to wrap up my PhD as well as launch a new product. However, if you have any engineering questions about tanks feel free to PM me. I'm pretty good at designing the overflows (in fact look for some of the beananimal overflow threads and you'll see all the calculations and such) and can definitely give you a hand there. For glass, try Niki Glass. They do decent prices. If you can, try to deal with the factory out in Burnaby rather than dealing with their shop in North Van. The chick who runs the NV studio is a total **** wit.