60g rimless cube build
 

Hey all

Thought I would try and post my tank build on here. Extremely grateful to this site and all the wealth of information I have used.

New at this so please forgive any boredom you may incur.

Here is the tank. Previously was a planted discus tank. But much too small. Grew out 5 Rafflesia to about 6" and sold them. I just recently moved to Alaska and thought I would try my hand at saltwater with this tank. As a teenager (20 years ago) I had a small 55g saltwater tank that I sold when I went to college. Haven't experienced with saltwater since. Things have changed a lot since then.

Filtration
 

I was thinking a small sump with filter socks, protein skimmer, refugime, and return pump.

Attached is a 1/4 acrylic sump I had made here by a plastics guy. 15WX22LX16H. As you can see from the pic some of the welds aren't perfect. Seems like a few too many bubbles. Not sure how this will affect integrity of the joints. I was thinking that since the sump will have baffles that it won't be a huge deal. Thoughts?

Never mess around with anything in your house holding that much water! I'd recommend taking it outside (if you have an outside you can, if not someone you trusts place/yard?) and filling it with water, leaving overnight. Just for my peace of mind, I'd have to do that. :P


As for the tank setup, looks good so far!

There are tons of resources on the site about sump setups and placements. Don't skimp on your skimmer/equipment, make sure to get the right stuff the first time around. I made a mistake buying inexpensive powerheads and wound up buying better ones later. I keep the cheapo ones around for stirring up my water mix.

Thanks for the feedback Rover.

I designed my sump. See attached drawing. The exterior was built "professionally". I thought I would add the baffles myself to try and save money. Total cost was $350. Plus it was custom made to maximize space under my tank.

Adding the baffles. Used Weldon 3.

I watched a few Youtube videos and got some instruction from a friend. But much harder then it looked.

Purchased this large piece of acrylic from Amazon to make my internal overflow box and weir.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Great product and couldn't find a better price. Cut well and glued nicely.

After it arrived I decided to change things up a bit on my sump. Rearranged so that I could have two filter socks and figured I would use left over pieces from this piece of acrylic to adjust the sump

Built pictures.

I called around to a couple of local acrylic guys to get a quote on cutting a piece of acrylic for me with two holes in a piece of pre cut acrylic to fit my filter socks. $40-50 for just the holes. Which sounded crazy to me.

After some google search I tried using a dremel.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=908525
Some posters said it wouldn't work other said it would.

I thought I would give it a try.

I used the hole cutting guide attachment.
Shownn here: (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Dremel-C...FZJmfgoddRAJ-A)

First I drilled a hole in the center of the desired circle and inserted the cutting guide pivot. Then I drilled a hole at the edge of the circle. The pivot set inside the center of the circle and the drill bit in the hole at the edge. Finally I cut swiveling around at the pivot. I set the depth of the dremel to go halfway through the 1/4" acrylic on the first pass. Then increased the depth and finished the cut on the second pass. The speed was set at 15000rpm and I pushed it through the acrylic to keep it from staying in one spot too long and causing it to melt. Worked awesome! The holes were rough but sanded them down.

For some reason couldn't get attachments to upload on earlier post.

Here is a second attempt.

Here is the weir I cut.

I followed this guys table saw techniques.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZofJWyG7G_c

Drilled the tank. First time and didn't go to bad.

Picked up a set of drill bits on Amazon and watched a few videos on how to drill a tank first. Also tried a number of times on an old 10 gallon to make sure I got it right.

Only thing I would change is have someone constantly adding clear water to the area, as the glass cuts it clouds the water and you lose your landmarks.

Will plumb for the bean animal overflow. THANKS beananimal for your freely giving contributions to the hobby.

Bought this skimmer off Amazon. Bubble Magnus 5. Great reviews
It seemed like the best option for my system, and the footprint was small, which I really liked.

Also decided on the Jebao CT 4000. Had generous reviews, great output over 1000 gph, was a quiet DC pump, and super low 30W power usage. Since this pump will be running 24-7 that was important for me. And price range was reasonable. I'll let you know how it rolls out when I am finally using it.

Completed the sump with exception of adding on the filter sock piece. Everything fits in it as planned.

After checking for leaks there were quite a few noted between baffles. The welding of acrylic is much trickier then I thought it would be. I purchased some Weldon 16 and cut 1/4" dowls. I then glued/welded these in each of the corners. I am happy to say using the Weldon 16 is much easier then the Weldon 3.

For anyone looking to do this. With the weldon 16 you really need to get the right pressure. Too much pressure and all the glue gets pushed out. To little pressure and there is too much glue in the joint and when the glue evaporates it leaves air pockets. If you can use clamps that are gently nudged tight this works the best. The glue does fill in wider gaps easily.

No leaks after the extra support was placed. Now to finish the sump by adding the last piece where the filter socks will be placed.

Using the weldon 16 and dowls along the edges I was able to achieve leak proof placement.

The filter socks were sitting on the acrylic and a good of water was running under the plastic rim and bypassing the sock filtration. More then I wanted. So I used my dremel and slowly carved out a rim around the hole so that the sock would sit lower then the acrylic. After doing this the sock fit much lower and less water bypassed the sock. One of my rims was so snug that the sock actually snaps into place, no leak on this side. The other is a little looser and this is the only side that allows any water to bypass the filter sock.

Sump complete and fits under the 60g perfectly. The CO2 tank and regulator will be used for my calcium reactor. I need to find one that is low profile footprint or I will have to add an in sump one.

No onto weir placement and plumbing

Finished and installed the internal overflow box.

The box was made with two pieces of acrylic and I planned for it to run the entire length of the tank. The pieces of acrylic were welded together using weldon 16. And the final internal box secured in place with aquarium silicone.

The internal overflow box was made to be as low profile as possible. Which meant that the elbows inserting into the bulk heads are not removable from the box. May regret that decision later.

Well it has been a while since I posted and thought I would update this thing.

The plumbing was straight forward. I went with the bean animal setup with one difference. Bean in his set up had the second drain output larger then the rest. 1" to 1.5". I left them all at 1".

The bulkheads extended from the back side of the tank far more then I wanted. I decided to risk ruining them to cut them smaller to allow me to get the tank closer to the wall. I left the nut on the bulkhead so that after I cut them it wouldn't be hard to get it on. Which also mean I cut them while they were in place on the tank. I used a dremel and the cut went pretty easily. They melted mostly. But all in all I was happy with the results.

On to the plumbing.

I measured and calculated and measured. Still ended up with multiple runs to the local Lowes. All three bean animal drains drain into the receiving compartment of the sump. I know others like the emergency drain to splash into the middle compartment. However the "glug and gulping" of this drain would be load enough to alarm me and I don't have the room to for this pipe and its potential free flow of water.

After lots of cutting and building it is complete. The pipes and sump can be detached but only after some of work. Hopefully I don't have to do that anytime soon.

I used a gait valve as many here suggest to regulate flow of the first drain.

Here are the attachments

Water check

Ran into some problems as I expected.

1- the weir could not keep up with the return pump. I was able to drill with the dremel into each notch to create some depth. Not exactly as prestine as before but adequate. Before and after pic demonstrate water line at the weir.

2- The return pump also didn't have the water movement I was hoping for at full power, and I still need it to move water through my UV light and any media reactors. This will have to be fixed. And the weir likely fixed further.

3- I was hoping for dead silent. The bean animal is dead silent but there is some noise as water moves through the sump, splashes into my filter socks.

4- Finally I was able to modify the bean a bit. I rotated the second drain upward to allow a higher water line in the internal overflow box to prevent any noise as water drained through the weir.

I ordered a new pump and I will have to take out the weir and re cut grooves to handle the flow a little better. My siphon return is only about half open and I would like to get a little more flow through the tank. I will also need the bigger pump to run accessories.

But this shouldn't keep me from cycling the tank.

I also had some dry fiji rock from a long time ago that I threw in there for fun.

Couple of thoughts moving forward.

I have thought a bit about live rock and what to use. And all who read will offer mixed opinions and I respect that.

I know many of you swear by TBS for your live rock. I get that it is eco friendly and full of life. But also it is missing important aspect of real live rock; the porous structure and the authentic great shapes. Over time shapes can be masked with corals and like, but the porous structure is beneficial to filtration and this is what I am after.

I have visited my LFS here in anchorage and there is slim pickings for reef rock. They have a 4-500 gallon tub full of water and rock. But it isn't all that appealing and the shapes are dull, it looks like rock pulled out of the canyon or off the side of the road. The other rocks in their tank look nice but some of the tanks have ick and not too fond of introducing that.

The last time I bought live rock was in 1999. It was from Flying Fish. I think now liveaquaria.com. That stuff was flown in from Fiji and was amazing. Lots of life, lots of great shapes, and amazing colors. I came across livestockusa.org and was impressed with the owner, Mitch, after conversing with him. After placing my order I learned of the recent ban on rock in Fiji. I was pretty bummed and figured I would have to use TBS instead, apparently they were able to ship tock to Kodiac Alaska for ~$70. However Mitch was able to get a hold of his suppliers and there are still a few shipments coming out of Fiji. So I guess I will see what happens. Looking forward to the rock and will be sure to up load many pics of it so you guys can get a look at what the rock Mitch is shipping looks like.

Attachment 385614
I purchased this off amazon. Great reviews and I guess I'll see how it works out.Attachment 385615Attachment 385616


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