New Tank 210 Glass cages

bmcq · #1 09/09/2007, 03:19 PM

I had a 90 gallon reef tank set up for about three years .... everyone loved it! Decided to sell it because I had to be away from home alot. Now my life is stable again and I want to set up another tank. I am looking strongly at a Glass Cages 210 gallon (96x24x25) I will order it with stand and canopy and 65 gallon sump. I will have it plumbed with 2 - 1" overflows and 4 - 3/4" returns. I still have a little giant pump left over from my first tank and plan to add another. I also have 2 - 75W MH left over from first tank and plan to add a 250W mh. I am undecided on flourescents at this point. T-5's, 110 VHO's? I also plan to run an AquaC 240 in the sump. I will also have a 20 gallon refugium gravity fed back to main tank. Any input on this would be helpful before I break out the checkbook!!!!

hopper · #2 09/09/2007, 03:47 PM

I have a 210 with the same dimensions and was wondering if you are planning on using 2-4' T5's or will you go with the 3'. I am thinking of using 2-3' T5's with 8 bulbs in each one. I have dual 400 watt MH's right now on a 110 that is setup and thought about using this with the addition of a third 400 watt MH to balance out the light. The problem with 3-400 watt MH's is the money it will cost to operate. That is leading me to lean in favor of T5's or even the Solaris LED's. The Solaris is very pricey, but I wonder if it will pay for itself in a year or so in electricity costs.

bmcq · #3 09/09/2007, 04:00 PM

I am leaning toward 4' VHO's probably 20,000K. 4 to start and possibly add another 4. My tank will be mostly soft corals and lots of live rock.

ccorpse27 · #4 09/09/2007, 06:04 PM

You might want to do some research on glass cages before you start doing any business with them.

mflamb · #5 09/09/2007, 07:22 PM

I would do research also. Start with me and check my thread.
I LOVE MY GLASS CAGES 390...96x31x30...Tom and Beth were a pleasure to deal with. I had them put 3 overflow boxes and 8 holes in my tank, along with complete double layer eurobracing and 2 double cross braces. They built it EXACTLY to my measurements. I'll definitely do business with them again.

bmcq · #6 09/10/2007, 03:17 AM

Thanks for the input mflamb. Your tank looks great. Since I haven't ordered my tank yet, I am now looking into the OM 4 way for a closed loop.

RokleM · #7 09/10/2007, 07:22 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by bmcq
2 - 1" overflows and 4 - 3/4" returns

If you're going to have 4x 3/4" returns, you need more than 2x 1"overflow or else you will have overflow literally

I won't get onto a glass cages rant, but you'll find they are extremely hit or miss. I had a small frag tank made by them, and it was scratched, made out of dozens of pieces of scrap material, an absolute piece of garbage. It didn't resemble the product on the website what so ever. It wasn't worth the price that I was charged for shipping.

Personally, I would go with a couple of MH instead of VHO for the main lights. If you wanted to go for actinic supplementation, T5's or VHO would work.

ccorpse27 · #8 09/10/2007, 03:03 PM

Here's a link to a glass cages story. I personally have a 65 gallon acrylic from glass cages for a fresh water setup and have had no issues. However, it is a stock tank with no mods.

http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=16698

RayAllen · #9 09/10/2007, 03:25 PM

I think you made a Typo, on their site its a 240g. When I do the calculations on the tanks dems you listed 96x24x25 I get approx 250g not 210. I have a 210g which is 84x24x24. On another note a bought a 125 from them a few years back and was happy with it, but boy was it heavy!

bmcq · #10 09/10/2007, 05:32 PM

RokleM .. Is there a calculator for figuring overflow size to return? I will be using 2 Little Giant pumps rated at less than 1300 gph@4' head. They have 1" inlets and outlets and I plan to have Valves on the inlet and outlet. One will also have a 1/2" valved supply to my refugium. Each 1" return will be separated down to 3/4". Maybe use 1-1/4" or 1-1/2" overflows?
RayAllen .. yes that was a TYPO .... should be 240!!
I would also like to add a closed loop using the same Little Giant pump with an OM-4. Where is the best place to plumb that supply from? Should it be in one of the overflow boxes to make sure no creatures get sucked inti it?

mflamb · #11 09/10/2007, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bmcq
Thanks for the input mflamb. Your tank looks great. Since I haven't ordered my tank yet, I am now looking into the OM 4 way for a closed loop.

If you have any questions about OM, go to their website, get the 800 number and call. Ask for Paul, he's the original designer, a lot of help. I picked his brain before I set up my system. When I first got it, I completely disassembled it to become familiar with it. Well engineered and well built.

RokleM · #12 09/11/2007, 07:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by bmcq
RokleM .. Is there a calculator for figuring overflow size to return? I will be using 2 Little Giant pumps rated at less than 1300 gph@4' head. They have 1" inlets and outlets and I plan to have Valves on the inlet and outlet. One will also have a 1/2" valved supply to my refugium. Each 1" return will be separated down to 3/4". Maybe use 1-1/4" or 1-1/2" overflows?
RayAllen .. yes that was a TYPO .... should be 240!!
I would also like to add a closed loop using the same Little Giant pump with an OM-4. Where is the best place to plumb that supply from? Should it be in one of the overflow boxes to make sure no creatures get sucked inti it?

Here is a RC calc that might come in handy. The short of the matter is, you should always have slightly larger (at worst) capacity on your drains than you do your returns. The last thing you want to do is pump more water back into your tank than your drains can handle. Even if you are putting on weaker flow pumps now, that doesn't mean you won't want to upgrade in the future

JPA · #13 09/11/2007, 07:42 AM

Do any of you actually own a tank from GC or are you just going by something you read somewhere? I own three, 375, 240, 40 and they have all been fine. You get what you pay for. If you want great customer service and someone to pat your bum at every step them pay 2x the price.

ccorpse27 · #14 09/11/2007, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by JPA
Do any of you actually own a tank from GC or are you just going by something you read somewhere? I own three, 375, 240, 40 and they have all been fine. You get what you pay for. If you want great customer service and someone to pat your bum at every step them pay 2x the price.

I said earlier that I own one, a 65 gallon. I'm just appalled at some of the stories i've been reading and the examples of crummy craftsmanship. My acrylic tank from them is fine but the work is sloppy.

eyebedam · #15 09/11/2007, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ccorpse27
Here's a link to a glass cages story. I personally have a 65 gallon acrylic from glass cages for a fresh water setup and have had no issues. However, it is a stock tank with no mods.

http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=16698

It amazes me that everytime someone mentions glasscages someone is always waiting to bash them. I have a 180 with starfire all the way around. The silicone was not sloppy at all & All the edges were polished. If there was any place to complain on silicone it would just be the euro bracing on top & they used a little much. However its covered by my canopy. Ive been very happy with my tank. The only suggestion I would make is the either have someone else make your overflow covers for you because there not really wide enough where they put the teeth in them.
ccorpse27 You even said that you had a tank from them & have had no problems. Why would you try to hurt someones else buisness who has evidentally sold you yourself a good product which you have had no problems with.

ccorpse27 · #16 09/11/2007, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by eyebedam
It amazes me that everytime someone mentions glasscages someone is always waiting to bash them. I have a 180 with starfire all the way around. The silicone was not sloppy at all & All the edges were polished. If there was any place to complain on silicone it would just be the euro bracing on top & they used a little much. However its covered by my canopy. Ive been very happy with my tank. The only suggestion I would make is the either have someone else make your overflow covers for you because there not really wide enough where they put the teeth in them.
ccorpse27 You even said that you had a tank from them & have had no problems. Why would you try to hurt someones else buisness who has evidentally sold you yourself a good product which you have had no problems with.

I'm not trying to hurt their business; i'm just suggesting he make an informed decision. I can only comment on my tank and it's not built all that well but it's functional so i'm happy with it. I'm not happy with what i've been reading about them lately though.

bmcq · #17 09/11/2007, 07:25 PM

I appreciate all the replies .... it seems that for the price Glass Cages seems to be overall a pretty good deal. If I decide to order from them I have to drive 4 hours to pick up the tank. I figure at best when I get there I can look at all the things you have mentioned to see if the tank meets what I expect from the tank and go from there. A reef aquarium from any vendor is a costly endeavor ..... but we also have to look at if what we purchased fit our requirements. The same can be said for pumps, lights, skimmers, etc. Try to keep that in mind when you are evaluating any vendor.

RokleM · #18 09/11/2007, 09:07 PM

When you deal with opinions, you always have to remember that it's common for someone that has had a bad experience to jump on it and vocalize their opinion first. I know I had a bad experience and am more likely to jump in on a thread and put my 2 cents in there than I am to jump in on a thread where I had a decent experience and a couple of people have put in their opinions of the manufacture being ok. If you see 10 success stories and one catastrophic failure causing massive damage and loss of livestock, which one is going to jump out at you? Hopefully you see what I'm saying...

Another thing I disagree with is having to pay twice the normal cost to get what was advertised in the first place

That seems like a completely ridiculous comment in my opinion and supporting and encouraging a business to not do things properly... but I won't take that any further heh

That being said, it does appear as though in the last year or (especially with glass), they have been doing a better job. You also have the major advantage of being close enough for pickup as mentioned. I would absolutely do that to ensure what you're getting is worth the money. If I was at their location (instead of shipping it like I did) and saw the piece of garbage that they gave me, I would have laughed hysterically and walked out right there.

Did you figure out the overflows?

MarineGirl411 · #19 09/12/2007, 02:04 AM

Make sure to post when you get it. I'm very interested.

bmcq · #20 09/12/2007, 05:07 PM

It will still be a couple of months before I actually place an order. I want to make sure I have all ducks in a row before I jump into this. RokleM .... as far as the overflows go I think I have pretty much decided to go with 2 - 1-1/2" overflows, have 2 - 1" returns in the bottom inside the overflow boxes for a closed loop system using 1 1300 gph pump up to an OM-4. For the returns from the sump, I will use 2 1300 gph pumps through 4 - 3/4" fittings spaced in the back of the tank. I just have to decide if I want the 3/4" returns at the top of the tank, or do I want to go about half way down and let the OM-4 feed the top of the tank. I will have ball valves on all pump outlets to allow me to control the actual pump output.