kgk
Guest
After a ~6 year hiatus from reefing, I got back into it this February. I bought a tank off Craigslist, and have been hooked ever since. You can read about the first tank here.
So in March, I decided that I really wanted a rimless tank. I had never seen one before I got back into reefing this year, and I knew immediately that I wanted one. After a bunch of thinking & planning & scheming & re-planning, I ordered the tank from Glasscages. It showed up at the end of March, along with the stand. I spent the next two months accumulating equipment and procrastinating.
Over the last two weeks, I finally got a bit of free time to mostly finish the build, and I started the cycle tonight.
Equipment list
48x24x16 rimless tank w/ Starphire on the front & sides. Center rear overflow.
Glasscages stand
36"x16"x16" acrylic sump
2x Maxspect G2 110W LED fixtures
2x MP40w ES
SWC Xtreme 160 Protein Skimmer
Tunze Silence 1073.04 return pump
I have everything that could leak in the tank or sump, and I hard-plumbed both the return & the drain. The drain is 1.5" PVC w/ a home-built Durso, and the return is 3/4" PVC with a single piece of loc-line back into the tank. 3/4" was easiest to mate to the pump & loc-line & I didn't see much reason to change - the drain is a 1" bulkhead though. I also simply hung the lights from the ceiling - the Maxspect fixtures come with decently nice hardware for a hanging installation. I installed an 8-way DJ switch and a 12V DC fan (soldered to a 9V power brick) in the stand. The DJ switch is great, and the fan was needed as a vent because the entire stand is enclosed.
I picked up 60 lbs of live rock from FJW tonight. Dennis is a great guy to deal with & always has good advice. Great guy - if you haven't gone to see him, you should. I also "cooked" about 20 lbs of rock for 2 months from my other tank - that is in the refugium now. I haven't done any rock scaping; I'll get around to that when the cycle is close to done. Oh, and I used about 1.5" of Caribsea Reef-Grade sand in the display and about 3" in the refugium.
Without further ado, here are some crappy pictures.
Tank + stand + sump, with just the drain plumbed & the Durso installed.
Durso, painted with Krylon black. Great stuff!
Drain plumbing, as well as where the return hooks up. Glad I knew enough to use unions - I think cliner first recommended that to me, good advice.
And here is where I forgot to keep taking pictures...
Here's the tank as it stands now. Water is still cloudy - I rinsed the heck out of the sand, but apparently not enough.
Left side of the sump setup.
Right side of the sump.
Just the tank + a reflection of the 75 across the room.
So in March, I decided that I really wanted a rimless tank. I had never seen one before I got back into reefing this year, and I knew immediately that I wanted one. After a bunch of thinking & planning & scheming & re-planning, I ordered the tank from Glasscages. It showed up at the end of March, along with the stand. I spent the next two months accumulating equipment and procrastinating.
Over the last two weeks, I finally got a bit of free time to mostly finish the build, and I started the cycle tonight.
Equipment list
48x24x16 rimless tank w/ Starphire on the front & sides. Center rear overflow.
Glasscages stand
36"x16"x16" acrylic sump
2x Maxspect G2 110W LED fixtures
2x MP40w ES
SWC Xtreme 160 Protein Skimmer
Tunze Silence 1073.04 return pump
I have everything that could leak in the tank or sump, and I hard-plumbed both the return & the drain. The drain is 1.5" PVC w/ a home-built Durso, and the return is 3/4" PVC with a single piece of loc-line back into the tank. 3/4" was easiest to mate to the pump & loc-line & I didn't see much reason to change - the drain is a 1" bulkhead though. I also simply hung the lights from the ceiling - the Maxspect fixtures come with decently nice hardware for a hanging installation. I installed an 8-way DJ switch and a 12V DC fan (soldered to a 9V power brick) in the stand. The DJ switch is great, and the fan was needed as a vent because the entire stand is enclosed.
I picked up 60 lbs of live rock from FJW tonight. Dennis is a great guy to deal with & always has good advice. Great guy - if you haven't gone to see him, you should. I also "cooked" about 20 lbs of rock for 2 months from my other tank - that is in the refugium now. I haven't done any rock scaping; I'll get around to that when the cycle is close to done. Oh, and I used about 1.5" of Caribsea Reef-Grade sand in the display and about 3" in the refugium.
Without further ado, here are some crappy pictures.
Tank + stand + sump, with just the drain plumbed & the Durso installed.
Durso, painted with Krylon black. Great stuff!
Drain plumbing, as well as where the return hooks up. Glad I knew enough to use unions - I think cliner first recommended that to me, good advice.
And here is where I forgot to keep taking pictures...
Here's the tank as it stands now. Water is still cloudy - I rinsed the heck out of the sand, but apparently not enough.
Left side of the sump setup.
Right side of the sump.
Just the tank + a reflection of the 75 across the room.
Looking good!
