Isla Escondido - invincible569's Rimless 300g

[invincible569]

Salt added. I added some extra pumps in here which arent in the pic for strong flow and salt to mix.

 

[longhornreefer]

Love the commercial (not for resale) Oceanic Sea Salt, you must have a friend at your LFS.

What skimmer are you planning to use on this system? MakoJ's Deltec 902 is running great on his A.G.E. tank.

 

[invincible569]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9145861#post9145861 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by longhornreefer
Love the commercial (not for resale) Oceanic Sea Salt, you must have a friend at your LFS.

What skimmer are you planning to use on this system? MakoJ's Deltec 902 is running great on his A.G.E. tank.

LOL!! Yes I have a friend at an LFS. He's a good friend of mine for many years.

I bought mako's RC500. I had a Euro Reef in the past and it worked fine. I've been tweaking this one and seem to finally have it down. Once I get it on the new tank, I will tweak it some more.

 

[slovan]

Thanks for the info on the current lighting.

I haven't seen any plans for your sump yet. Since you have set the standard for a braceless display, are you going with a braceless sump to match?

 

[Jar*Head]

Looking good Edward. For some reason i am getting excited over here hehehehe

 

[Jim_S]

:thumbsup:

The tank looks great! Nice and clean, and the PVC bottom just makes it that much more pimp...

Jim

 

[Fliger]

Looks incredible Edward, I expect nothing less than perfection from you. I remember every detail of your last build thread, your little girl has really grown. You're a real asset to RC! Now start a braceless thread somewhere with 100 pix of eye candy. :lol:

Welcome to the braceless club, I can't imagine ever having a canopy again. April can't get here quick enough.

 

[invincible569]

slovan, wow, thats a nice sump. Who made that?

reefer, you and me!

Thanks Fliger! I have a vision for this tank. Actually I had this vision for several years now and will finally make it to reality. The Aquascaping will be the fun part. The thing I noticed is that I cannot reach halfway in my tank. I felt the, Oh sh** factor! I will have to add some rock in the middle back so I dont have to clean that area. You know me, I like to keep the entire tank clean of any algae.

Well I have added my second bag of salt into the tank. It cleared up on the first bag, now its cloudy again. I added an extra pump for even stronger circulation since there is more volume of water in there since last night. The tank is 1/3's full now. I will most likely stop at halfway since the rocks and sand will cause the water level to go higher. I also have some water in those rubbermaids I have been skimming out. I may use that as extra since it has cycled already. My Ca Reactor is also ready. I just need to fill up the C02 bottle and start painting the back wall in the garage and start tearing things down to start from scratch again. All my new equipment will go in the garage again.

 

[dgasmd]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9147994#post9147994 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by invincible569
All my new equipment will go in the garage again.

A word of advise from someone that has done the garage equipment/sump for years. I know you have too, so take it for what is worth to you. One thing I have found is that regardless of what I have done in the past including massive ventilation, I have not being able to get rid of the "everything in the garage rust to no end factor". I decided that the next time I do this, I will cover the sump entirely so there is no water exposed to air here. My skimmer is so massive and draws in so much air that oxygenating the water should not be an issue at all. The other issue is that water tends to heat up making the chiller run so much more = more electrical use, especially in hot areas all year round like FL and TX. Covering the sump should insulate the water much better too lowering the ciller run time as well. A friend of mine in NC with a very large tank (about 1000g system too) already tried the covering the entire sump idea ad it has worked out great for over a year.:lol: :lol:

Although I do appreciate a nice looking set up and neat equipment/cable lay out, I think you and a few others have taken this to a whole new level. You concentrate more on the looks of the hardware than most do in their entire tanks. I for one concentrate on the tank looks alone leaving the equipment to functionality only. I do make things neat too mostly so I can easily deal with it when an emergency arrives, but I guess I do not go to the extent of obssession as some people go with grey/black tubing (which I personaly don't find any better looking than white). Don't get me wrong here. I am not by no means bashing/flaming you. It is just an observation, so please don't take any offense to it. I think I am plain enough to make it very very clear when I am trying to offend someone, and you I have no reason to offend. Yet :lol: :lol:

Keep up the good work!

 

[invincible569]

Alberto, you just offended me!! just kidding.

I didnt see any harm in your observations. I totally understand where you are coming from. Like you said, you want functionality, but I also want functionality and presentation. It's the same idea for the rimless effect.. I didnt have to get that and the corals would of been fine, but it takes it to a whole new level when your presenting it. By the way, the gray plumbing gives it more of a stealth look in my opinion.

Thanks for the tip on the sump. I never realized this. I will definitely have to try this out. What would also make sense if this is true is to get a thicker sump to keep it insulated even more. Now we are on to something. Excellent tip Alberto! If you have anymore suggestions, please feel free to comment. I take all of this as constructive criticism.

 

[Baros]

Invinc,
Did'nt you have a BK400 waiting to go on the new tank?

 

[clownnrnd]

Edward, as Alberto said I think totally enclosing the sump from the rest of the garage is a great idea. I know others have had problems w/ things rusting in their garage as well. Would it be possible to build a wood box big enough to cover everything? If it were to get too big you could add caster to the bottom so it would roll away/on to the sump area. Also if it were on a Ext. wall you could vent it outside. Might not even need a fan but in the long run would probably be a good idea to help w/ mold/ rot type issues to the wall being covered.

Just thinking out loud


Chad

 

[invincible569]

baros, yes. It was with me for a period of time but not anymore due to undisclosed circumstances.

Chad, definitely an idea. I have some thinking to do on how I want to handle this. Alberto's idea is promising.

 

[Oldtimer]

Awesome tank. I'm excited to see this setup develop. I've been interested in doing a rimless tank ever since Naka's 180 hit the forum, but I always wanted a 6 ft long tank. I never expected to see a 6ft rimless tank though! Thx for being my guinna pig! I'll be watching closely. I think a SFILIGOI fixture would look amazing on that tank and the Infinity should offer great front-back coverage.

 

[CAreefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9148047#post9148047 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dgasmd
"everything in the garage rust to no end factor".

I can certainly attest to that. My 90 gallon frag tank/plumbed into main system is in the garage, as well as the upper canopy of the display venting into the garage. My garage is >1000 sf and nothing like watching thousands of dollars of worth of Snap On tools and a 67 GTO rusting away faster than you can keep up with. I plan on doing like chad said and enclosing the frag tank with a walls and door and venting the whole shebang outside. My system (340 gallons) evaporates ~6 gallons per day @78 degrees. Our summers are relatively mild here with low humidity.

Edward, with the increase in system volume of your new set-up, this may become an issue you didn't encounter with your previous system. Just a heads up.

Marshal

 

[JB NY]

Beautiful tank Edward. I really wanted a rimless on my 270 but AO wouldn't make it with a 36" depth. I think the PVC bottom helps out. Good Luck, looks to be awesome!

 

[invincible569]

Oltimer, I agree. I think the new Sfiligoi Stealth may look good over this tank. It's razor thin, but not long enough. Im still keeping my options open. I dont want to rush into anything and regret it. It has to be the perfect light. I was also surprised that AGE was able to build a 6ft rimless tank. They had no issues what so ever going rimless. Like you said, I am the guinea pig.. this is pushing the envelope. Supposedly there are tricks to making a rimless tank. I did get to see a 220 rimless tank recently from Oceanic, but it was tempered. Oh and it had 1/2" glass too. It was setup as a freshwater tank, but it looked amazing. It has been setup for 3-4 yrs. That made me feel better. Since Tommy used to work for Oceanic, that led me to believe he has done this in the past? Thats probably why he was confident on my rimless 300g.

marshall, I will have to figure something out. Now Im glad I made this thread as everyone is now brainstorming. I also had the rust problem. All my tools are also covered in rust. Makes me wonder if all the things in my home will rust now with my rimless tank??

Joe, I hear you. Either way your tank will look awesome. I've been following your thread too. I also think the PVC bottom helps. It definitely stabilizes whats sitting on it. My tank feels solid. The water is halfway up now and having seen any signs of stress.

 

[dgasmd]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9155179#post9155179 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by invincible569
I also had the rust problem. All my tools are also covered in rust. Makes me wonder if all the things in my home will rust now with my rimless tank??

Not likely to happen inside the home. Like me, you live in very warm weather. Your AC takes out a ton of humidity out of the home daily. At least mine does. I have 2 units in my house and combined they put out about 30+ gpd of water from their drains. Even more in extremly rainy and humid days.

I had major ventilation and air flow going through my garage and kept the doors open 14-18 hr/day. This still didn't help. There is only so much you can do when it is also humid out. After having to deal with this stuff for years, I ahve come to the conclusion that I would be willing to do it all over aain in a garage the same, but the only thing I would do differently is to completely cover the sump with lids and have all the pipes coming in and out of the sump go through bulkheads at the top of the sump. I would leave a section of the sump, as big as possible, with an easily revomable lid for maintenance and such. I would still vent the garage regardless as it will suck out a lot fo the heat fromt he equipment that will accumulate there. Ballasts, pumps, etc do add considerable heat at the end of a day. A small fan with very little electrical draw blowing on the will also be nice.

OK, enough of that. Back to the tank.............

 

[invincible569]

I have a question for those of you who mixed your salt in your tank... I added 2 bags of Oceanic salt labeled as 125g each. My water is halfway up the tank and its showing no signs of clearing up after 2 days. The water is very cloudy still. I know the concentration is high, but when I placed my first bag in, it cleared up with only 1/3 of the water filled. So now, I added a skimmer to clean out any powder that may be the culprit. Am I just being impatient or do I need to dilute the saltwater even more? Here are some pics.. You can see on the last pic how cloudy the water is still. Circulation is strong. OH, i measured SG and its at 1.05.

 

[invincible569]

alberto, thats good to hear. I was worried. I love your ideas. No reason to hold it in. You can talk to me about it. I also had ventilation in my garage, but over time, my tools were all brown. I had to live with it.