Should I drill or use HOB overflow on established tank

[crappie]

So I have a 40b and I’m starting to run out of room for additional equipment and I plan on adding a Neptune apex soon. The corals growth is making any equipment cleaning tough. I’ve already broken several pieces while cleaning the skimmer because the corals are growing so high. I would also like to have the equipment in a sump to cut down on the hair algae growth on the equipment because that’s really what I fight with the most.

So I need to add a sump to house all the equipment and I can’t decide if I should lower the tank water and drill with a chance of breaking the tank or chance a failure from an HOB overflow. I really wish I would have just drilled from the beginning and plugged it until I needed it but I had no idea the coral would grow so fast.

If I wait until I get the apex I know I can add fail safes to turn off the return pump in the event of a HOB syphon fail so I’m leaning towards the HOB but I would really like the safety of drilling if the chance of breaking the tank with everything in it is at 0.

It’s in my workout room and the stand was built for a 75 so I’ve thought about buying a 75 and making 75 gallons of water in a brute container in the event it did break I could quickly swap the tanks but that isn’t what I want because I’m sure I would lose something and that’s just a huge headache.

I’m looking for any opinions of what I should do (drill or HOB) and if anyone has experience in drilling the cheap 40b tanks from aqueon, (Petco).

Thanks in advance.

 

[19Mateo83]

Buy another tank, drill it and swap everything over once you have it plumbed. I would not risk drilling a tank with corals in it. There’s no real way of telling if the Petco 40 has tempered glass.

 

[crappie]

You can see that when I remove the return for the skimmer I have to be really careful for the monti!

 

[crappie]

Buy another tank, drill it and swap everything over once you have it plumbed. I would not risk drilling a tank with corals in it. There’s no real way of telling if the Petco 40 has tempered glass.

Well if I did buy a 75 to upgrade I could use the 40 as a sump!

 

[19Mateo83]

Well if I did buy a 75 to upgrade I could use the 40 as a sump!

There you go, get your new system built out . You will love having a sump!

 

[PharmrJohn]

Well if I did buy a 75 to upgrade I could use the 40 as a sump!

......And there it is! An upgrade!!! However, I've had a 75. I upgraded to a 90. And it was a much better tank (to me anyway!).

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

+1 on the 90g or 75g

 

[crappie]

I got lucky on a 75 gallon! Petco is having a sale on them! Tax included I only paid $79.24!

 

[kvansloo]

If you are going to drill a tank there are videos on you-tube of how to see if its tempered.

 

[Zelly]

Buy another tank, drill it and swap everything over once you have it plumbed. I would not risk drilling a tank with corals in it. There’s no real way of telling if the Petco 40 has tempered glass.

Some of them do some of them don't. There is a real way to tell which is by using the polarized sunglasses trick.