[b_ack51]

i have only an aquaclear 300 on a 40 gallon tank. brand new from the warehouse and i'm setting it up. the old tank is gettin the boot to the basement (only 10 gallons). i have a whisper 2 which came with the tank, but i believe the aquaclear is far superior. so i have that on the tank. i wanted to use an undergravel filter to add more cleaning. but i decided it wasnt worth it cause i want to have black sand on the bottom. my question is i need only about half an inch more room for the back opening to make the 2nd filter fit. can i just drill the little half inch to make it work. i already have the tank set up with water and is cycling now so i dont want to empty the tank and then start the cycling process over.
any advice or anyone ever try it or anyone work on acrylic tanks could give me advice?

 

[Sir Nathan XXI]

I am not sure what you are trying to do, but I can tell you about cutting and drilling acrylic, if you cannot find blades and bits for acrylic use metal types, and use a liquid like water to cool the blade or bit during cutting, high rpm does best job, slow rpm melts the stuff too much, I use hole saws for big holes, and a jig saw for small cuts

 

[Sir Nathan XXI]

do you mean your tank is acrylic and you need to cut a 1/2" of the rim to make the filter fit?

 

[RhomZilla]

do you mean your tank is acrylic and you need to cut a 1/2" of the rim to make the filter fit?

Readding it twice, I think thats what he's trying to do. I understand there are alot of externals that wont fit on most tanks because of how each manufacturer makes tanks (or how old). But honestly, you should just get another filter instead of even trying to attempt to make the one you have fit. You'll have more problems in the long run if done incorrect. Plus you might want to upgrade and sell it in the future.

 

[GARGOYLE]

so true, just get an ac200 if you like ac's so much. I wouldn't cut the tank, even tho, I have a friend that did the same to his 125. He just cut the filter slots across to the circular hole, for the heater, and made his emp400 fit. He hasn't had a problem yet, but I wouldn't do it.

 

[b_ack51]

the only reason i didnt want to get a new filter like an ac500 cause the 300 is established and cycled on the tank already.
i just wanted to see if there was a way to take the back opening on the top of the tank which holds the filter and to see if i can extend it to allow the second filter to sit next to the other filter. so like you said the 2nd time nathan, i just wanted to drill about 1/2 inch farther to allow both filters to sit on the tank. buying an ac200 might not be to bad of an idea to add to the ac300. i just wanted to have more filtration w/o buying a brand new filter, but i might look for an ac200 soon.

 

[Sir Nathan XXI]

just go slow with the drill or saw as well

 

[b_ack51]

well i measured how much room i have available on the back, its about 6 1/2 inches. so i'm thinking that maybe adding an aquaclear 150 with the aquaclear 300 will do a good job. the whisper 2 is about an inch too long to fit, it came with the tank so i wanted to use it, so i threw it on my spilos tank for now. i have a filter sitting around which i used for my 10 gallon, a top fin power filter 10 which pumps 80 gallons per hour. its not much, but it does add some filtration to my tank. so all together on my one tank i would have the aquaclear 300 with the top fin power filter 10 to get about 380 gph. you think it would hurt just to add this power filter 10?