Schreiba's 83g Miracles Rimless [40x24x20]

I'm in the UK LOL. - I can only dream about the tanks made in the USA by Micracles and Reef Savvy Etc. Mine was built by ND Aquatics UK. My tank was restarted a few months ago; and I am yet to make a thread for it. But I do have a thread of it from last year I think.
 
New tank looks great. I'm considering getting my new tank from Miracles. I hear great things about them.
Thanks clowndude! Miracles is great though and I love the tank they built for me!
I'm in the UK LOL. - I can only dream about the tanks made in the USA by Micracles and Reef Savvy Etc. Mine was built by ND Aquatics UK. My tank was restarted a few months ago; and I am yet to make a thread for it. But I do have a thread of it from last year I think.
Ahh yeah I missed that! :p I've seen some of your threads in the past and your tanks always look great so I'll have to try and find this one again.
 
A real FTS!



I added 2 Barlett's Anthias this past weekend and plan on picking up another two sometime soon. I've also started transferring some corals over from the 60-f and they seem to be doing okay. I need to finish aquascaping as well since I'm not satisfied with the right island at all. One more issue is that the right island is getting most of the light from the halide with the left island being a little darker. I need to decide if I want to add some LEDs to my fixture to spotlight the left island or not. So many decisions and changes will be happening over the next month until I'm happy with where the tank is at. I am enjoying this build so much though and am excited for it to keep moving along. I'll try and take another picture sometime during the day that really captures the stand and floating canopy since they turned out even better than I had expected :)
 
Looks great! Keep the updates coming.
Thanks Patrick!

Looking really good. Can't wait to see it all stocked.
Thanks clowndude, I can't wait to keep adding some more fish and corals.

Looking really really good! :thumbsup: Will look super once stocked.
Thanks sahin!

ahhh the blank canvas...so many possibilities. Nice job so far
Thanks steve! I know and I need to finish up the aquascaping to where I'm happy with it.
 
Well since it snowed here in Northern Virginia today I figured I'd take a quick daylight shot of the tank!



I did a DIY concrete treatment to the floating canopy to give it more of an industrial/modern look than just painting it white. Let me know what you think! If anyone wants more details about it, I'd be happy to share :)

Things still left to finish that are visible in this picture:

1. Move MP40 to other side of the tank
2. Finish mounting side door to the stand
3. Finish aquascaping
4. Paint mounting hardware on floating canopy
5. Hide wire from floating canopy.
 
Love the look of the concrete on the floating canopy, very original and stylish, definitely custom look. The whole thing looks awesome, well done.

I had the floating canopy on my tank, had to give it up as it is in my basement rec room, just too bright when sitting and laying down on the couches.
 
I did a DIY concrete treatment to the floating canopy to give it more of an industrial/modern look than just painting it white. Let me know what you think! If anyone wants more details about it, I'd be happy to share :)

More details would be great. Did you use wire screen or a mesh to support the cement? To take your idea further, a clean rectangular stand with the same finish would look slick... The overall effect would look like lifting the lid off of a cement box to reveal the gem inside, nature and modern industry.

Interested to see your stocking list :)
 
Love the look of the concrete on the floating canopy, very original and stylish, definitely custom look. The whole thing looks awesome, well done.

I had the floating canopy on my tank, had to give it up as it is in my basement rec room, just too bright when sitting and laying down on the couches.
Thanks jroovers! And yeah mine is in the living room but it is behind the couches and TV and really hasn't been too bad. I'm also used to the light spillage though since my nano last rimless tank had a light fixture hanging over it.

More details would be great. Did you use wire screen or a mesh to support the cement? To take your idea further, a clean rectangular stand with the same finish would look slick... The overall effect would look like lifting the lid off of a cement box to reveal the gem inside, nature and modern industry.

Interested to see your stocking list :)
For the concrete finish, I used a product called Ardex SD-M which can be applied in very thin layers so not much additional weight was added to the fixture. With this finishing concrete no mesh was needed. I used acrylic sheets clamped down to the wet concrete to give it the polished finish (this was probably the 6th method I used before I finally got it how I wanted) and then used a chisel to clean up the edges. I should have taken more pictures of the process and written up a detailed DIY on it.

I thought about doing the stand the same way but I really like the combination and contrast of the white stand, glass aquarium, and concrete fixture. I'm also not sure if the finish would hold up well on the door since it would take more abuse from being taken on and off all the time. I would love to see someone do the whole thing in concrete though because I'm sure it would turn out great.

As far as stocking goes, I have two Barlett's Anthias right now and plan on picking up a third. The only other fish I really want is a pair of Genicanthus angels but I haven't decided on which species. Other than that I've considered a small school of Apogon leptacanthus but I'm really open to any suggestions!
 
I got started building my stand this past weekend and am hopefully going to be almost finished this weekend. I have done the structural construction of the floating canopy and just need to complete the finishing.


Shreiba,
I just hung my ATI 6x39w fixture over my tank and WOW, it is bright! :eek2: And the tank is right next to my desk so I think I need a floating canopy to block some of the light spillage out the side. My light is hanging from the ceiling so I was thinking I would build a canopy similar to your that will hang from the ceiling. Can you tell me some about how your built your canopy? Dimensions, structure..etc. Also it looks like it is open on the top and the bottom, correct?

Thanks!
 
Shreiba,
I just hung my ATI 6x39w fixture over my tank and WOW, it is bright! :eek2: And the tank is right next to my desk so I think I need a floating canopy to block some of the light spillage out the side. My light is hanging from the ceiling so I was thinking I would build a canopy similar to your that will hang from the ceiling. Can you tell me some about how your built your canopy? Dimensions, structure..etc. Also it looks like it is open on the top and the bottom, correct?

Thanks!
You're right it's open bottom and top. I did put a thin piece of plywood in the middle of the canopy and cut out a hole for the halide so I could mount the ballasts, wires, etc. up in the canopy.

As far as dimensions, it's 3/4" pine I believe. The box has a footprint of approximately 40" x 24" and is 7.5" tall. The corners are joined at 45 degree angles with those triangle supports in the corners as well to add some rigidity. I used a pneumatic nail gun to construct the outer box and then covered the holes with wood putty although that ended up not really mattering since I coated it all in concrete :p

I hope this helps and let me know if you have any more questions!
 
I got some more work done last weekend so I'll try and sum it up in parts:

Cabinet: I finished up the side door on the cabinet so it looks pretty complete. I might add some paneling in the back and wall-side to bring the noise level down but it is cosmetically complete. Also transferred over all the electronics and mounted them on the inside of the left side of the cabinet. I also added back my TLF Phosban reactor with ROX carbon to try and clear up the water and remove inorganics.

Livestock: I visited one of my LFS and picked up some snails and another small barlett's anthias to make a trio :) I think I'm going to transfer over the remaining corals today and tomorrow and finish taking down the 60-f. It makes me sad to see the little tank go but I know there's no way I could provide enough attention to both of them to keep them both thriving.

Lighting: I've also been giving more consideration to adding some DIY leds to my fixture, particularly looking at the dimmable DIY kits on RapidLED that I could hook up to my Neptune aquacontroller. With some small heatsinks, I plan on placing most of them on the left side to brighten up that rock but a few on the right side as well. What do you guys think?
 
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