Mike's 158g Rimless Glass Box Build

[Mike.B]

Hey Everyone,

I’m starting a new aquarium after being out of the hobby for about 7-8 years. I am going to try and use as much of my old equipment as I can – at least for now.

Over the past few months, I have been working on getting it to where it is today and wanted to get a build thread started now that I am almost at the stage of getting the tank.

Tank dimensions will be 54” x 26” x 26”

Here is the concept upstairs with a basement sump.

Making downstairs wall load bearing and preparing basement fish room/utility room.

 

[Mike.B]

 

[Mike.B]

 

[Mike.B]

Adding water to the setup.

Adding rock from local reef shutdown, this tank will become the refugium in the future.

 

[Mike.B]

Getting my old rock ready and getting a rough idea for aquascaping.

 

[Mike.B]

Cycling the rock.

Storage for fresh saltwater and quarantine.

 

[Mike.B]

Building and finishing the stand. The plate was plasma cut and ¾" weighing in at around 300lbs. the legs are 3" by ¼" square tube.

 

[Mike.B]

Finishing that stand was quite the process, but worth it in the end.

 

[Mike.B]

 

[Mike.B]

 

[Mike.B]

I got some Radion Pro's Gen 3 used for a good price so I decided to go with them.

Getting plumbing downstairs along with Radion cords.

 

[Mike.B]

Cleaned up some wiring.

Before,

After,

I have to reinforce the floor a bit more before the tank comes, but I am fairly ready for the tank at this point. I still do need to decide on a return pump, but I basically have until the tank is here + 1 day while it fills up with RO/DI to decide. I plan to get 2 Mp40's for flow and I think that should be it for equipment for now. Anyways, let me know your thoughts, questions or comments.

 

[d2mini]

Sweet stand!!!

 

[solitude127]

WOW, very impressive. Keep the updates coming.

 

[elecbzerk]

Very impressive

 

[Aresangel]

Holy smokes! That is a professional grade job! The stand, plumbing, whole set up looks amazing. Great job!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bent]

This is my favorite part of a new setup.

 

[GQuinn]

Nice attention to detail. Who is building the tank? Is that your weld fabrication shop or did you have someone build the stand for you?

 

[Mike.B]

Thanks guys! I will definitely keep the updates coming.

Nice attention to detail. Who is building the tank? Is that your weld fabrication shop or did you have someone build the stand for you?

Neil Wilson is building it, he is local tank builder in the area.

Luckily I have a friend that his work has a fabrication shop and we were able to go cut the square tube/flat bar there. The steel plate was cut on a massive automated plasma table and all I had to do is provide the dimensions needed. Once we had all the pieces cut one of the welders at his work welded it up for me. Then it was off to my dad's garage where we finished it.

 

[Mike.B]

Finally, I have an update! The tank was delayed due to the builder having health issues, however, it was just delivered on July 17th. Given the delay, I made sure I had everything in place ready to connect to the basement setup as soon as I got it.

Yesterday I finished filling it up with RO/DI, added salt and brought it up to temp. Once this was done it was time to turn the basement pump on and connect it to the live system.

Keeping up with where I left off, here are progress pics below.

Tank being built.