Tank build question ?

[superclown]

As far as that goes I'f you had a bulkhead and didnt do a overflow you could just put one of these in

 

[cr500_af]

Tunasam13;730698 wrote: Maybe I could do two and two? Like the two drains in the center of the tank in the back and then one return on each end? But how do I make a over flow boxes?

You COULD, but no reason to. A single set (one each) will handle the flow for a 120g so it would be far more than adequate for a 55.

If you are thinking about getting flow at both ends, that isn't a bad thing... BUT, don't count on the water return to get your flow numbers. Get water movement with powerheads.

The less plumbing inside the tank, the less visible it will be because you will have less/smaller overflow boxes hiding it.

 

[tunasam13]

It's going to have live rock and stuff covering it so looks don't matter right?

 

[cr500_af]

Tunasam13;730722 wrote: It's going to have live rock and stuff covering it so looks don't matter right?

You'd have to build a solid, to-the-top wall of rock on the back to hide all that. Not only is that look kind of dated (which doesn't matter so much because it's subjective), but the big deal is that if you do that, with a 12" deep tank your fish will be swimming in a 5" wide alleyway along the front.

 

[tunasam13]

Well I was thinking of doing the drains in the middle of the tank and have a overflow box there and on the back wall up in each corner at the top put the returns? I have a small case of Odc lol so I don't like the offset look

 

[superclown]

I had that same issue when I joined the hobby but I quickly learned that I had to get over that. I understand what your trying to acomplish but if you want equal returns on both side of tank to get the flow you need if using just returns for flow with no powerheads is going to be really noisy aand give you other issues

It would serve you better to do a single return dead center of the overflow box a drain on the left and right all enclosed behind overflow then a power head in each corner rodi the tank this would not bother your ocd and give you a quiet system with less plumbing and more effective.

If the plumbing is not splitting off for return you can use a smaller pump to get the same flow less plumbing also