juststartingout
New member
Hi fellow reefers, things are starting to slow up a bit, so I thought I would throw up my build thread.
A little history:
Started out with a 160 gallon acrylic tank built in Minnesota. The top seam failed on it, so when I called the builder he honored the "lifetime" warranty. I figured this was a good time to upsize, so I paid for the difference in tanks and built out a 450 gallon acrylic tank.
Tank was going great unit I reversed the input/output kalk mixer lines. Came down to the basement & seen the water was extremely cloudy and ph was in the 9.5 - 10.5 range. Using vinegar I brought it down and did several large water changes in a row (as quickly as I could prep 100 gallons) . All fish & two anenome's survived, but lost all of my coral. Most died right away, some had decined and had taken a couple weeks, I couldn't bring them back. Went with basically a FOWLR for a bit.
Back in November 2011, I noticed several white (cloudy) area's in the bottom/side seam in the tank. I tried several times to contact the tank builder in Minnesota and tried sending him pictures of the tanks seam, but he said he never recieved my emails. When I was able to talk to him on the phone, he said to send him pictures via email. Finally I think he may have recognized my phone # because my calls always went to voicemail, and he never returned any of my calls. I knew I was not going to get anywhere with him and I had a faulty seam in a 450 gallon box of water. :furious:
I asked the wife, "Do you want to stay with the hobby or get out"? We need a tank and its going to run several thousand $$. Being the animal lover she is, her reply was "since you have all of this money tied up already, and some beautiful fish, let's stay in". :celeb3:
Being a bit on the handy side, and after checking some pricing and dealing with the challenge of getting the tank in the basement. (The 450came though a window that I had to remove.) I figured the best solution would be to build it in place. The old tank was a 36" wide and I didn't want to go through that hassle again! Plus, I snuck in an extra 12" on the width, shhhh. :dance:
I decided that I was going to build my own. Afterall, my acrylic tank appearantly had no warranty, and some of the glass tanks I seen didn't have much either, plus you had to use their stand. Now thats fine for alot of people and there's nothing wrong with that, but I love a good challenge.
So on the the present:
The tanks dimensions are 96" x 48" by 30" the overflow height is 26.5". The overflow is at the right end (coast to coast) it's external with 4) 1.5" drains. The glass is 3/4" thick, actually 19mm as I think it is metric. I used Momentive RTV clear silicone adhesive. Wakesurfdan was a big inspiration to building this myself. After studying his technique and following his tips, I started the build.
I know the drill, pictures or it didn't happen.
A little history:
Started out with a 160 gallon acrylic tank built in Minnesota. The top seam failed on it, so when I called the builder he honored the "lifetime" warranty. I figured this was a good time to upsize, so I paid for the difference in tanks and built out a 450 gallon acrylic tank.
Tank was going great unit I reversed the input/output kalk mixer lines. Came down to the basement & seen the water was extremely cloudy and ph was in the 9.5 - 10.5 range. Using vinegar I brought it down and did several large water changes in a row (as quickly as I could prep 100 gallons) . All fish & two anenome's survived, but lost all of my coral. Most died right away, some had decined and had taken a couple weeks, I couldn't bring them back. Went with basically a FOWLR for a bit.
Back in November 2011, I noticed several white (cloudy) area's in the bottom/side seam in the tank. I tried several times to contact the tank builder in Minnesota and tried sending him pictures of the tanks seam, but he said he never recieved my emails. When I was able to talk to him on the phone, he said to send him pictures via email. Finally I think he may have recognized my phone # because my calls always went to voicemail, and he never returned any of my calls. I knew I was not going to get anywhere with him and I had a faulty seam in a 450 gallon box of water. :furious:
I asked the wife, "Do you want to stay with the hobby or get out"? We need a tank and its going to run several thousand $$. Being the animal lover she is, her reply was "since you have all of this money tied up already, and some beautiful fish, let's stay in". :celeb3:
Being a bit on the handy side, and after checking some pricing and dealing with the challenge of getting the tank in the basement. (The 450came though a window that I had to remove.) I figured the best solution would be to build it in place. The old tank was a 36" wide and I didn't want to go through that hassle again! Plus, I snuck in an extra 12" on the width, shhhh. :dance:
I decided that I was going to build my own. Afterall, my acrylic tank appearantly had no warranty, and some of the glass tanks I seen didn't have much either, plus you had to use their stand. Now thats fine for alot of people and there's nothing wrong with that, but I love a good challenge.
So on the the present:
The tanks dimensions are 96" x 48" by 30" the overflow height is 26.5". The overflow is at the right end (coast to coast) it's external with 4) 1.5" drains. The glass is 3/4" thick, actually 19mm as I think it is metric. I used Momentive RTV clear silicone adhesive. Wakesurfdan was a big inspiration to building this myself. After studying his technique and following his tips, I started the build.
I know the drill, pictures or it didn't happen.
Last edited:
