Lighting & Coast 2 Coast

[dan2x38]

Will be installing a 'V' Style Coast to Coast at the top it will be approx. 5" wide. Am thinking of painting the glass for C2C with Kroyon Fusion spray paint to match the back of the tank. This will conseal the bulkheads so the entire overflow will be less conspecus.

Laying in bed last night it dawned on me how much light will I loss? How much light is lost using C2C over flows? Would the V Style not painted allow that much more light to reach through? The angle would affect light pentration wouldn't it? Will this be a problem in any way? How do the rest of you position your lights if you have a C2C?

[groan]

I am guessing not much. The v shape still allows light down at an angle. If/when I do it I'll just use colored glass ( like what pat did).

[bitterman]

5" is pretty wide.... On a 16-18" tank thats alot! Mine is much narrower.

http://ovas.ca/gallery/531_13_02_09_8_26_38.jpg

B

[greddy]

Instead of using krylon paint, try looking into Black or tinted acrylic. Sometimes krylon paints can chip which I don't think would be too good in a tank. Also if it chips/flakes off it would be a ton of work to get it looking back to normal.

[JetJumper]

Instead of using krylon paint, try looking into Black or tinted acrylic. Sometimes krylon paints can chip which I don't think would be too good in a tank. Also if it chips/flakes off it would be a ton of work to get it looking back to normal.

Don't know how you would get the Acrylic mounted to the glass in the display to look nice.  Since Silicone doesn't bond to acrylic.

[Rybren]

Pat has an acrylic piece bonded to his overflow.  I think that he used a silicone adhesive.  Acrylic to glass bonding doesn't work very well under pressure, but for this purpose, I think that it would be okay.

The other option for a c2c overflow is to use a slotted pipe between 2 bulkheads.  I'm using 1 1/2" ABS pipe with a 3/16" slot.  It does a great job at surface skimming and doesn't cut down on the light (it's almost flush against the back glass) Plus, the back of the tank is painted black, so the ABS blends in really well.

The downside is that this type of overflow can be a tad on the noisy side.  I've gone mine tuned fairly well, so noise is minimal.  Plus, the tank is in a location where the noise isn't a big issue.

[dan2x38]

Bruce what are the dimensions of your C2C? What size is the piece of glass?

Like in my other threads on this topic the colour I want costs $125. I do not want smoked glass. I want an aqua colour and teh overflow to match the back. I've researched this for awhile now and a lot of marine hobbyists have used the Krylon Fusion has worked for them. You need to add it coats and let each dry. The product says to let it set for 7 days then it is chip resistant. I suspect few ppl wait long enough for it to set and run into issue. The other thing is cleaning the glass throughly rubbing alcohol is good for that.