Rimless Build thread - fast forward

[Montreal Ray]

Hi everyone,

I built this new set-up right around the end of August of this year. So this will be a build thread on fast forward J

I tore down my wall mount 120G to build this 55G Rimless. I downgraded because I wanted to move my tank to the main floor (120G was in the basement for the past 2 years) and I am limted in space.

This build will consist of:

- Rimless 54 gallon "œwaterhome" glass tank (39x16x20)
- Basement sump design
- Dual sump. 1 with a deep sand bed and Skimmer, 1 with cheato (Same set up that I have now)
- NO MORE Metal Halide lights! I'm going with 6 x 36″ T5 HO via a TEK Light fixture and Giesemann bulbs
- Mixed reef, mostly SPS with some LPS
- The stand is a modified solid wood buffet. The only way I was to set-up a reef tank on the main floor is if my wife liked the stand. So I opted for a piece of furniture rather than a typical aquarium stand. The stand is very well built, so it need on a little reinforcing...just in case.

 

[Montreal Ray]

I opted to go with a split return line. I used 1/2″ PVC and painted it flat black with Krylon Fusion.

We have water!

I finally got to filling up the tank! I padded the tank (between glass and stand) with 1/8″ rubber mat, before filling it up.

 

[Montreal Ray]

TEK lights are in!!

I have since replaced one of the 6000k bulbs for an Actinic +

My set-up is as follows from from to back. Giesemann AquaBlue+ 15000k, Pure Actinic, Midday 6000K , KR Fiji Purple, AquaBlue+ 15000k and the new Actinic+

 

[Montreal Ray]

I painted background black and finished plumbing the return and drain to basement sump

Here are some pictures and video of my dual refugium / sump with DSB, Cheato & auto top-off.

Dual 33G basement sump
Cheato
Deep Sand Bed (DSB)
Gravity feed auto top-off
Carbon reactor
Mag-18 return pump

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I have since replaced the skimmer. I purchased a Bubble Magus NAC7 because my Vertex in-180 was too much of a tight fit. In fact, I initially was going to put the skimmer in the same chamber as my return but I calculated my height wrong, I needed an extra 4 inches. The second sump was a tad lower but I still would not have enough height to raise it to the recommended water level. Rather than re-building the stand, I bought a shorter skimmer.
The cheato is now in the last chamber right before the return pump.

I will be posting the rest tomorrow. Thanks for looking!

 

[DIYnitemare]

wow that is nice looking setup is that overflow hang on back or is it just a small one with bulk head behind it?

 

[Montreal Ray]

wow that is nice looking setup is that overflow hang on back or is it just a small one with bulk head behind it?

Thanks man!

It's a single 2.5", the BH holds the overflow box.

 

[Montreal Ray]

It took roughly 10 hours to move everything from the old tank to the new rimless. The move went pretty smooth. One of only issues I had was with some moti caps, for some reason they were the only ones who did not adjust to well to the move. A couple of them started to STN. Oh and one of my clown fish took a death dive onto my living room floor.

Roughly 1 month after the move, I noticed that most of my moties had black bugs on them. I'm not sure if this was brought on by the move but I quickly fixed the problem with interceptor. You can read more about this here

Today, 3 months after the move, the caps seem to be doing fine once again and no more signs of black bugs.

Future plans:

Deltec PF501 calcium reactor (should receive this early next week)
Some sort of Aqua Controller
Vortec MP40

Here are some of my most recent pictures

Thanks for looking