Need help designing my Rimless Acro tank

[fishez4alivin]

No offense but you base a companies reputation on a tank that cracked like that. A whole host of things could have contributed to that. I can't imagine it had anything to do with construction. Was most likely either a defect in the glass that wasn't noticeable or a problem in how the tank was sitting.

no offense taken at all, I just happened to be reading that before, no first hand experience, although from what I have read, there are plenty of happy and unhappy customers. I think most of the unhappy are because of the quality of the silicone seams. Of course when you are buying an assembled tank for the price most would spend on just the material, you cannot expect to get an Elos quality tank.

Back to the OP's price quote. If you can budget a little more to get that tank, I'm sure by the time you receive it, the pain will be a lot less. I'm sure from the tanks I've seen built by them, when you see it, it will all disappear. <the pain>

 

[SPSEMPIRE]

I have a 4 X 4 ft shallow propagation tank from glass cages and I was impressed with the work from them.

 

[ReefRockerLive]

I've decided that I am going to accept their quote. I figure they'd want half of the money up front and the rest of it when it's done. Since it can take 4-6 weeks to build it, I can use this time to build myself a stand. I will be using RocketEngineer's DIY stand template and will take a trip to Lowes today and get the materials. This is will be the first time building a stand so I am a bit nervous about it.

 

[SPSEMPIRE]

Yeah, my only complaint is that they were a little bit slow on making my aquarium. I think they were about 2 week late. Good luck with building the stand.

 

[ReefRockerLive]

I won't mind if they delay the build as long as I have a tank to put on the stand by late May. Besides, I would get more time to recover from this expense and more time to modify my build plans.

 

[Acrotrdco]

So what's the finalized dimension?

 

[ReefRockerLive]

I am going with 36" x 24" x 18" 3-sides Starfire Glass w/ external coast to coast overflow. I just need to contact Derek and let him know I am ready to order.

For my light, I will be hanging it off of this kind of light rail, http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=20743 . It is a pricey hanging kit, can any suggest a more affordable alternative for my fixture?

 

[Acrotrdco]

That's a good dimension to work with, although I'd go with 20" tall myself

If your tank is set right near a wall, you could buy any of those hanging frame from home depot.

I've even seen folks using a VCR hanger to mount their 110w's, that way they can move it to the side when they need to service the tank.

 

[ReefRockerLive]

I'm doing some browsing around and saw some fixtures being hung off of PVC. That really seams like the affordable option, but I'd be worried that it wouldn't support the weight. Maybe the weight will be held if I drill the PVC to the stand for support. Thoughts?

 

[fishez4alivin]

Research 80/20 Inc, then buy it on ebay, there is a seller named 80/20inc...I've seen pendants hang off of trees made of it, looks nice and modern. I think after you have a custom tank, with LEDs, that will want something other than PVC to hang the light over.