A Customdusty Rimless Build
 

Well my new build has begun! I'm now in the process now of preparing the "fish room" - actually more like closet -which will house my sump, frag tank, and other equipment. Although my tank is not due for another week the remainder of my new equipment has been trickling in day by day. It's like Christmas every day when I come home and check to see what is at my door.

Here are some details of the plans for the new system:

The tank dimensions are 48 long x 24 wide x 21 tall for an approximate volume of 100 gallons. The tank is rimless and has two Starphire sides, the front and right side. It is pre-drilled for two 3/4" return lines and a 1 1/2" Glass-Holes overflow drain. The tank is being built by Miracles out of Toronto.

The initial plans I have for the tank will be a minimalistic, open aquascape which will house mixed corals. The left side of the tank will be planned for a low sprawling group of softies, zoos, and LPS - the right side of the tank will be an island consisting of all SPS. This may change slightly as I begin the transfer from my 90 gal, but it is what I have visualized so far.

The tank will be plumbed through the wall and into a closet behind it where a 50 gallon Rubbermaid sump and a 20L frag tank/refugium will be located. Because of the minimal aquascape in the tank, I will place additional live rock here and also grow cheato in a refugium area. The total water volume for the system I estimate will be about 120 gallons.

Lighting will be provided by a 48" Giesemann Infiniti with two 150w Radiums and a TBD combination of 4 T5 bulbs - most likely ATI Blue + and Pure Actinic. I have a dozen or more T5 bulbs to test in different combinations to see what looks the best. I will be using a Viper K-2 70w light for the frag tank/refugium.

My skimmer choice ended up being the Vertex Alpha Cone 200. I hope that it performs well as I am concerned that it might be overkill on this system. I initially purchased an SWC Extreme Cone 250 1A, but was not pleased with the size and build quality. It was huge in terms of size and the build quality seemed poor. When I discovered the amount of slop and misalignments in the plumbing and fittings during assembly, I sent it back and opted for the Alpha.

For water movement I will be using two Vortech MP40W in the display and two Koralia 4's in the sump. My return pump is a Rio Hyper Flow 32, which will supply the display tank and also the 20 gallon frag tank. I have had great success with the Rio HF pumps in the past, the consume less power and give off less heat than Mag Drives and cost almost half. They are a bit louder, but as it is in a closet behind the tank, the sound is not a factor. When adding up the total amount of GPH ratings of the pumps, it is in the ballpark of 10,000 GPH for the system.

Additonal equipment will be a Geo Kalkwasser reactor, battery back-up for the return pump, dual (redundant) 200 watt titanium heaters, and system control will be provided by a Neptune Apex controller.

That's a quick snapshot of my system plans. Check in with me later to follow my progress.

Pictures coming soon!

Sounds like your having fun. Are you using the 700 or the 1500 GH kit? Still waitng for my tank so I will follow along and live thru your build for a few weeks.

I went with the 700 GPH kit - nice and small size to it, allows me to put the return lines and the overflow box all in a small area in the middle of the back panel of the tank. The build quality of the Gl*******s product is really impressive, I was very pleased with how it turned out. Although I have not tried it yet, it looks as though it should perform very well and others have had nothing but great things to say about it.

I most of all like the way the run their business and present their products and support. I wish their were more outfits like this to do business with.

:thumbsup: for Glass-Holes

Well here are some pics of my progress. I had some issues with a few products I got that were damaged in shipping and my tank has been delayed another week.

This is part of a remodeling project in the house, so I finally got the area ready for where the tank will go.

Here is a pic of where the front of the tank will be viewable, from the kitchen and dining area.
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/q...y/000_0062.jpg

Here is a shot down the hallway from our family room where the right side the tank will be viewed. The door on the right is a walk in closet that goes all of they way down to the stairwell - this is where my "fish closet" will be for all of my equipment.
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/q...y/000_0065.jpg

Here is a shot of the Giesemann Infiniti fixture and the Oceanic Tech stand with stainless steel trim. It is a good match with the hardware and accents in our house, the finish of the fixture and stand are both very nice.
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/q...y/000_0048.jpg

Now for my preliminary layout of my sump and frag tank. I'm still deciding if this is how I want it to be long term, but I've set it up where I have some flexibility to move things later.
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/q...y/000_0007.jpg

I've learned with my previous tanks that it takes a while to get a feel for where you want things, what you need access to, and I've moved things several times to make maintenance easier and therefore done more often. This is why I chose to use some spa-flex PVC, the rubbermaid sump, and a siphon overflow box for the frag tank.

Turn that outlet into a GFCI before you get your stand in place. Good luck with the build.

GFCI is already in place, just did it earlier today. Thanks!

Looking forward to watching this build!

One of my major challenges was (and is) hanging a light fixture. You might notice in the photos the tank will be in a stairwell area where the ceiling happens to be 20ft high. I explored the idea of using some wall mounted brackets and also some bent conduit, but the finish on the conduit just didn't seem like it would look as good as I want. I ended up buying the Current USA Hanging Arm Kit for about $75, and gave it a try.

Here is a pic of the Infiniti fixture hanging from the Current USA arms.
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/q...000_0062-1.jpg

Another shot now of the stand and hanging fixture.
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/q...y/000_0061.jpg

Now even though everything appears to have worked out, I am still a bit concerned with rigidity of these hanging arms and might make some modifications to strengthen them. It seems that the Giesemann fixture may be quite a bit heavier than the Current USA fixtures that the arms were designed for. Decisions, decisions.

you should definently hang it... it would give it a real modern sleek look, my 02 cents

Looks great so far

Well the tank is finally on it's way this week. I've now got the stand and lighting fixture moved into place and I'm starting to get the plumbing and electrical layouts finished.

One thing that I had kind of overlooked until now is some sort of padding/material to place beneath the tank on top of the stand. I've looked at using some of the insulation sheets, but they are a bit thick and obtrusive.

I was thinking of perhaps using a bunch of the felt tabs that I have used for my furniture on my wood floors and placing them all over the top of the stand. Any thoughts on that?

I found some dense rubber like material at Lowes, used as padding for runners, its gray and 1/2 in thick. Looks way better than the pink stuff and dense enough to hold up. Let me know how the hanging goes, still thinking about hoe to hang my lights, thought of sero edge kit but $260 alittle steep.

Your going to LOVE the tank.... I've been to Miracles on several occasions, and they do outstanding work! :D

IMO, I'd give Derek a call before putting any kind of padding/foam under the tank. When I asked him if I should, he said not to b/c of the way it was made.

On a lighter note, this is gonna be one helluva build thread! Your equipment is pretty (and so is the Benz in the driveway)! :lol:

Good luck brother, keep us updated with pictures!

Haha, thanks. It helps me get up in the morning and want to drive to work. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be doing much of any hobbies.

Well the tank has finally arrived! I'll post some pictures later today now that the tank and stand are in place.

Well the tank finally arrived, just a couple of weeks past due. Although arriving late, it game me time to focus on a few things that needed some attention that I'll get to later.

Here it is!

http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/q...y/000_0066.jpg

http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/q...000_0065-1.jpg

I got the chance to get a start on the plumbing layout and also to install the Glass-Holes overflow box. Jeez, this thing is so much smaller than the huge Megaflow Overflow box that came in my AGA.

http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/q...000_0077-1.jpg

http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/q...000_0071-1.jpg

very nice dusty. cant wait to see it filled and "living".

you designed the overflow and returns exactly the way I am going to have my tank drilled. the mega flow was a mega nono for us.

can you retake the picture from above, the side view. this view will show how much, or little, the overflow box actually takes. itll help keep me patient till I have my own tank to look at :D

thanks

I'll get some more pics of the overflow once I get my camera back, my wife took it for the weekend.

Here are some other recent shots of the progress. As I had mentioned, I had went with the Current USA Hanging Arm kit for hanging my Infiniti fixture, however I was concerned about how rigid it was. I went and bought some 90 deg. 1" aluminium and re-enforced the arms a bit, which helped out a ton. A simple $10 mod. Here are the pictures of what I did and the fixture all lit up.

http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/q...000_0082-1.jpg
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/q...000_0081-1.jpg
http://i435.photobucket.com/albums/q...000_0048-1.jpg

So today I'm in the final stages of organizing all of the electical cords and finishing the plumbing. I should be ready to start filling overnight tonight and test all of the plumbing tomorrow for leaks.

From there, I'll be ready to start getting the transfer of everything from my 90 gal. I'm not sure yet on how I am going to go about that process as far as waiting for some period of time, move it all at once, a little at a time... Any advice in that regard would be helpful.

Thanks!

Cool build indeed! I look forward to updates.

So I've had a set-back... Now that I managed to get the tank plumbed up and filled, I discovered a leak on the seal/gasket on the bulkhead of the Glass-Holes overflow.

The problem now being that the tank is hard plumbed through the walls and in place, I had no way to access this bulk head or do anything about the leak short of tearing it all out and having to start over.

Now, the tank has been drained and I have buckets and totes of saltwater all over the house, the plumbing has been cut out, and I have to order all new plumbing materials and will have to re-build about half of the system's plumbing.

I was hoping to have the tank transfer done already and the old tank torn down, but now it's just a total mess. I've had to call the contractors who were scheduled to continue the remodeling in the house and postpone all of it, again.

In hindsight maybe I could have been more precise and thorough when applying silicone inbetween the gasket and tank, but nonetheless, I find a shortcoming in the Glass-Holes product. The manner in which the bulkhead and overflow box is designed requires it to be tightened into place by using your finger tips to try and crank down the big 2.75" nut and compress 2 gaskets to create the seal. With my big bear paws for hands, it proved to be a major problem.

I've been spending my time now trying to design and build some sort of tool that can get down inside the box to tighten the nut. I've made a couple of prototypes and now it is off to the machine shop to fire up a lathe and mill and start making the real deal.

You can imagine how FURIOUS I was to be working against deadlines, being so close to finishing, and then having to tear it all out. I have to say though that despite all of this, I can't hold Glass-Holes or anyone else accountable. I'm pretty happy with their product, it is very small and operates very quietly - as advertised.

This weekend will be a big one for the build (or re-build?), I'll post more then.

Looking at the last picture, Does your 3/4 " return line fit underneath the 1 1/2 drain line?

The return line cuts across beneath the 45° (right in the area where the angle is) and then passes through the wall directly next to it as a 1" line.

The return pipes aren't affected by this problem, I will have to replace the bulkhead all the way through the wall and to the sump for the drain portion.

The new layout I plan to go straight back through the wall first with the drain line, then do one 90 degreee drop down to the sump rather than all of the 45's I have now. This way if I ever have to pull it out again, I can cut in one place pull the tank straight out and then re-connect later.

I'll show pictures later of what I had, and then with the new set-up in a few days.

Well it took a few hours last night but I was able to make a custom steel 3/8" thick 2.75" wrench to get inside the overflow box to torque down the nut.

I just got back from the store buying new fittings and pipes, now it's back to re-building the plumbing.

Pictures will be up a little later once the camera charges up.

Very nice build.

I have used 3 glass holes so far, a 300, a 700 and a 1500 and I have always been able to tighten the bulkhead by installing the elbow and turning it while holding the nut in place with my fingers or a big channel lock. This before hard plumbing obviously.
It takes a little finagling to get the elbow in the final orientation .