Austin goes Rimless - Dudester's 203g mixed reef

[Dudester]

After having a 30g tank for nearly 2 years, I feel like I'm ready to move up in size. I love the look of the European and Japanese open-topped tanks, and a little closer to home the tanks of Invincible and Naka. With that in mind, I decided to join Club Rimless with my next system.

Here's what's planned. Of course I need to give credit to John and Brian of Kingfish Aquarium for helping me design and acquire most of the equipment.

First, here's a cartoon sketch of the overall system.



I'm not sure if I'll mount the controller into the door or not, but it's drawn that way for now. The small box to the left of the system is just a decorative covering for the chiller if necessary. That is, if my wife doesn't like the appearance of the chiller itself.

The tank's dimensions are 60 x 30 x 26.



The tank is made of 3/4" Starphire glass on the front and 2 sides, and it was constructed by Aquarium and Glass Exhibits. The tank has a PVC bottom that has been predrilled (machined) for Hayward bulkheads to support the overflow drains and returns, as well as the closed loop. The overflow contains dual 1 and 1/2" drains, a 1" return from the sump, and a 3/4" return from the chiller. Adjacent to the overflow is a 1 and 1/2" drain for the closed loop, and this will return via an OceansMotions 4-way to the four 1" bulkheads toward the front.



The back will be covered with a black material for the background, to go along with the black acrylic overflow. As you can see in the picture above, the overflow does not go to the top of the tank. This is to accomodate the wave that will be created by the Tunze Wavebox. The overflow is centered to minimize any sloshing sound.

This image shows the machining process for the PVC bottom.


And here's the bottom, completed.


More to follow.