My 30ish G custom starphire build

Y

ycrazyy

New member
Well my better half has been bugging me now for quite some time (since I set up my 24g nano last year) for a tank for her to have a pair of clowns and an anemone... so being in the glass business I decided to take this task on.

I decided on building a starphire tank since I have easy access to the glass and I was going to have my shop build the tank anyway. The tanks dimensions are 24" W x 18" D x 16" H (although this will probably become the sump... more on that later). The tank was built rather quickly, but then it came down to the stand. She was looking for something very particular which I don't believe is available in the aquarium industry, so off it was to find a cabinet maker.

This is what this (very skilled) man accomplished for us, almost identical to the piece that my girlfriend found and wanted to copy.
tank1.jpg

Front of stand. Don't mind the blue tape, she still has to pick out the knob / hardware to finish it off.
tank2.jpg

tank3.jpg

Shows the detail of the craftsmanship as well as the French "antique" finish that my girlfriend was so demanding about.
tank4.jpg

This last picture of the stand shows how I had him "sink" the tank into the stand so that when I put sand down it will come flush to the level of the top of the stand.

My equipment (on the way) is as follows:
Lighting - 24" Coralife Aqualight Pro HQI (150w MH + 130w PC Actinic)
Water movement - EcoTech Vortech MP40 (in tank) and MJ1200 for the return from the sump
Skimmer - Coralife CSS65 Needle Wheel
Heater - haven't decided, something around 150w though
Controller - won't have this quite yet, but planning on getting a ReefKeeper Jr.

As I said, the main tank that I built will probably end up being the sump since the cabinet maker made the sunken part of the stand a little too big and I want everything to look perfect. So I have to remake that and drill everything. All of the equipment will be housed inside the cabinet, there is a 4" open area in the back of the stand to allow for air flow where I may install a couple of fans.

Any comments or suggestions are appreciated. I will be updating this thread as I get further along. Thanks for looking.
 
Very nice woodwork there. And that's cool that your custom tank is not only made out of trimless glass but Starphire glass as well.

I'm looking forward to the progress.
 
Have you began to think about any hood ideas? Maybe a custom built hood to reflect the beautiful antique french look you have going in the stand.
 
I was originally going to have the cabinet maker create a hood as well, but so far my thoughts have stuck with just the Aqualight on legs on the tank. I suppose I could have him make a hood and then retro in the aqualight (since they have a retro kit). I would say at this point though that the chances of a hood are slim...
 
Hey ycrazyy, how is your trimless tank put together? I have a 10G aquarium and I'm thinking of taking the trim off to give it a very clean look. I can't find any information on if this is safe to do on a 10G tank. it's a standard 10G size, too: 20x10x12.
 
WarEagle: the tank is held together with just silicone. Basically anything 30g and under is ok to have no trim on. You can even go larger as long as you are using thick enough glass and don't make it too tall. The height of the tank is really what determines if you need bracing.
 
Nice!

I measured the thickness of the glass of my 10G and it looks like a little above an 1/8". How thick is the glass on your tank?

I'm really with you on this trimless thing on small tanks. Even though water doesn't weigh 10 pounds per gallon, we'll assume it does to get 100 pounds. 100 pounds of water is nothing on a ~600 square inches of surface area (~0.16 psi very rough calculation even though the force is not that easy to calculate) . I've very carefully tried pulling apart two panes of glass close to the silicone joint and the glass always breaks well before you can pull apart the silicone.

The fact is, I've never heard of anyone's tank breaking or coming apart. Do you know of anyone? My guess is either they used too thin thickness glass for a tall tank or didn't put enough silicone. These small tanks IMO have neither problem.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8300538#post8300538 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ycrazyy
WarEagle: the tank is held together with just silicone. Basically anything 30g and under is ok to have no trim on. You can even go larger as long as you are using thick enough glass and don't make it too tall. The height of the tank is really what determines if you need bracing.
Click to expand...
 
WarEagle: My tank is made out of 1/4" glass, and frankly I would never use anything thinner no matter how small the tank. I know that the major aquarium companies for a 10g probably make it out of 3/16" or thinner glass as it certainly costs them less money. But for my comfort, I stick with 1/4"+.

english83: Starphire glass is low-iron glass. Normal float glass has a green tint to it and low-iron glass is perfectly clear so that there is no color distortion when viewing your reef. It is more popular on larger tanks than smaller ones.
 
ycrazyy:

Your tank looks very elegant. I always thought about building a tank from scratch, and I have seen DIY instructions on how to do it. The only part that puzzles me is how to obtain the starphire glass. Do you know of any vendors who would send you starphire glass cut to your specification? I am sure there are custom aquarium makers who would make custom large tanks, but I am interested in building a only a 30-40 gallon.
 
threeiron: Any local glass shop can supply you with starphire glass. I mean if you truly want I could sell it to you and ship it to you (obviously that is not the purpose of my thread though). Just figure out your sizes and call up some local glass shops for prices which can vary greatly from shop to shop.
 
Well just an update. I finally got the new tank built, decided to do a 3/8" bottom since we were drilling it. Got the back painted black and stand all drilled. Just assembling the dividers in the old tank, now sump, to get that done. Next weekend should be the beginning of plumbing and then liverock the week after Thanksgiving since I don't want to start anything before that as I'll be away.
 
Starphire glass tank is the way to go,ycrazyy. n the "antique" finish of the cabinet is awsome:lol: any particular hood that comes with it? are u going for sps dominant tank or mix reef?
correct me if im wrong,its seem that there is no overflow box in the tank. you re planing to go sumpless?
nice:D
 
sahlan, the theme of the tank is going to be symbiotic relationships. The centerpiece being a RBTA with a pair of gold stripe maroon clown fish. Also there will be a pistol shrimp / randalls goby combo.

The tank will have a sump, it is approx. 30 gals as well. I am not having an overflow box, just a standpipe although I may have a box made. You can check the equipment that I am using in my first post.
 
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