DIY Glass & Acrylic Questions

[creefer]

This question is for all you glass and acrylic DIY'ers as I have little experience with either however not afraid to try. To make a long story short, I bought an AIO to get into reefing on a budget. Budget was blown and I'm 8 months in on my system and have realized that a sump would REALLY be nice. So here's the deal....

I have a 20" x 20" x 20" tank (solana 34g) that I would like to add a sump to. I need more volume and space so I can have an oversized skimmer and a place to hide all components that need to be hidden and essentially clean up the system a bit. The issue is that the back panel of glass has a recession in it for wires and power cords, etc. This recess in the back panel is 15" long by 1.25" high centered on the back panel. This makes drilling an issue because the water level would be excessively low. Since the intent is to remove the false wall, I have to find a way to deal with this recess. I think the way to do this is to have an external overflow. So I was thinking of what options I have and 3 came to mind.

1. Get a piece of acrylic and silicone it to the rear panel and cut slits into it for surface skimming.
2. somehow fabricate a piece of acrylic to fit into the recess. The acrylic would need to be thick enough to dove tail it to fit tightly over the existing glass of the rear panel.
3. Remove and replace the rear panel.

I'm not really thrilled about removing the rear panel. That seems like a royal PITA! I'm most interested in option #1. This way, I can have some glass cut for the external overflow box and silicone that together and put in bulkheads and I'm good. Considering this is an active, growing system, I have to temporarily put all inhabitants and LR into a Brute trash can while this is going on so I need to be able to do this relatively quickly to accomplish the goal of getting a sump.

Outside of this, I'm into a whole new set up and cash will not allow that right now with a second child on the way. This solution allows less money spent and I can continue to use my current lighting.

All thoughts, opinions, and advise are welcome.

Sorry for the long post!

[lemonyx]

add a sump underneath if you can, like a standard set-up

[NaplesAquatics]

Originally Posted by creefer

This makes drilling an issue because the water level would be excessively low.

Not really. Use an elbow and a pipe pointing up to raise the out flow to whatever level you want.

Jeff

[creefer]

Originally Posted by lemonyx

add a sump underneath if you can, like a standard set-up

That's the idea here.

Originally Posted by NaplesAquatics

Not really. Use an elbow and a pipe pointing up to raise the out flow to whatever level you want.

Jeff

I think I'm going to order some glass and build an external overflow box to keep my water level 1" below the rim of the tank. Then I can drill the overflow box to allow for an emergency drain. I'll have the glass fabricated to have teeth cut into the box for surface skimming.