Austin goes Rimless - Dudester's 203g mixed reef

[jnarowe]

well, static sticker stays on very well and can be easily removed for maintenence etc. It can be applied without the soap too. I use it to keep light out of my skimmer neck, and peel it off when I clean the neck with a magnet. Then I just put it back on.

[Dudester]

Jonathan - robster's got it pegged. I got mine at a LFS, and just bought it by the foot. We used Windex and coated both the back pane of the tank glass and the adhesive surface of the black vinyl material, applied the material, and milked out the bubbles with a credit card. A few minutes later it was stuck. It's 100% uniform in color, of course, and it can be removed as easily as it is applied. Thanks to Brian - great idea, as I didn't want to paint the back of the tank.

cbui - I'll never use any bulkheads other than Haywards - gives me piece of mind. They are solid!

GMFett - Dinner and brews were my pleasure, I'll have to have you over again when we're not in such a hurry. Thanks again for your help!

Reef Man - Yes, the 1.5" hole outside the overflow box is the drain for the closed loop. Here's the hole diagram again. The four 1" holes in front are CL returns. The overflow box contains four holes. Two 1.5" holes in the center of the overflow are the drains to the sump, the 3/4" hole is the chiller return, and the 1" hole is the sump return.


erics3000 - Thanks, glad you like it. Hopefully it will eventually stand up to the other rimless tanks out there.

robster -

[acropora nut]

love the setup.. Do u think they could make me a tank 10x48x30...

Keep it coming...
Mike

[Dudester]

acropora nut - Glad you found this ... I've been admiring your incredible tank since your 1st post, and looking forward to your TOTM write-up. Thanks for the compliment, and as far as AGE making a tank of those dimensions, I would bet that they could. You could contact the guys at Kingfish who ordered my tank (I'll send you a pm), and I'm sure they'd be happy to help you out by getting you a quote.

[GMFett]

Dude- give me some plumbing pics!

-Marcus

[thedude15810]

Mike is in Florida all week but we got a lot of plumbing done this past weekend.

He took some pictures so ya'll should have some new info this weekend.

John

[cbonito]

I don't know if this has been discussed yet, but I was curious on how they go about bonding the glass to a PVC bottom.

I see they machined grooves in the bottom for the glass, but is it still adhered with silicone, or what? I have been very curious regarding these PVC bottom tanks, but don't know of any who have them. Thanks.

[gkarshens]

It is an industry secret. They won't say.

[antiant]

this is gonna be a great tank.

[Kaiden]

The tanks look amazing! Only time will tell on the PVC bottom! I truly hope the bond is as strong as they say it is. The tanks a one off and everything so far has been nothing but positive. Keep the updates coming...

[Dudester]

GMFett - Plumbing pics on the way, my man.

cbonito - I don't know how they bond the glass to the PVC, and quite honestly I'm not concerned about it. Tom at AGE has a perfect record thus far of no tank leaks, as far as I know. If you need more info on the technique you could try and contact him but as Gabriel mentioned, I doubt he'd tell you too much.

antiant - Thanks, I sure hope so!

Kaidenjohn - Thanks, and I too hope that the bond remains strong. Updates forthcoming.

[cbui2]

i'm pretty sure their reputation is on the line and wouldn't sell anyone anything for the amount of money charge into building the display? i know i'm joining the rimless club for my next display in the poker room . please for the next post have the pics ready .

[Dudester]

Well, as thedude mentioned, I've been away for a week. We got some plumbing taken care of before I left. Thanks John and Clint for your help. I thought I had everything I needed before starting, but you know how that goes. Anyway, I'll show you what we got done so far. First off, here was the bait for getting some help.



No plumbing project should ever be attempted without these, IMO.



The first thing we did was to move the tank away from the wall to take down the mirror. Everything was re-leveled, then the plumbing on the closed loop began. Here's the CL pump, a Sequence Barracuda.



The drain to the pump is 1.5", and critter protection is provided by this strainer. The pipe is double male threaded and screws into the bulkhead and the strainer. This elevates the strainer 6" off the tank bottom to keep sand from being swept up into the closed loop.



Notice in the image above that the Barracuda was resting in the pan. I didn't like that since any drips would accumulate in that pan, and I didn't want the pump to be submerged. The pan is 2 and 1/4" deep, so we just elevated the pump temporarily on a few scraps of 2x4. To account for the extra thickness needed for vibration control, a few layers of drawer liner material was added to both the top and bottom of the 2x4's. Eventually I'll make a more suitable base for the pump to be affixed to, but this worked in a pinch.



Notice all of the turns that the drain pipes take? This is not ideal, I know, but I really wanted the pump fan to blow out the back of the stand toward the wall, to dissipate heat instead of blowing it into the cabinet. This also made the return plumbing a little easier. Here's another view.



And finally, a close-up of the 4-way with SUBV's at each outlet.



Not pictured is the plumbing inside the overflow box, both the drains and returns. For the drains, I went with CJ standpipes due to the experiences of greenmako and others.



It doesn't look like much was accomplished, but it actually took a while, especially when you include the unwelcome but almost expected trip to Lowes. At that point, progress was severely halted due to a lack of gray spa-flex and not enough gray 1" fittings. I ordered everything I thought I would need and, alas, I still haven't received the spa-flex in the mail. Hopefully it will come later today, and if not then early next week. As always, I'm happy to hear your comments.

[cbui2]

looks good to me, but the only bad things was more drinking was done then work.

[jnarowe]

good to see you got the baldor motor.

[tanya72806]

If you move the sequence 90 degrees so that the outout was right under the return you would have the room for the fan and only need 1 elbow instead of the 3 JMHO

[Bax]

Looks great Dude, I have an older Cuda, great pumps.

I have to think,Tanya72... may be on to somthing there, if the pump was tucked into the end it might save a lot of room under the stand.

[Dudester]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

tanya and Bax - Great point, and we tried that as an option, but it won't work. With the 40" sump covering almost the entire surface of the black starboard, there's not enough room to attach a fitting to the outlet of the pump if it's rotated 90 degrees. We also entertained mounting the pump vertically, but that seemed like more work than it was worth, so I settled for this configuration. Do you think all of those turns are going to significantly hinder the flow?

jnarowe - Are there non-Baldor barracudas out there?

[jnarowe]

not sure about that. I know there were some Sequence pumps that were built with other motors, thought to be of lower quality. I wasn't even aware that the Baldor units were still available.

[ThomasinKind]

How long do you plan to allow this system to 'mature' before adding livestock? Looking great so far, can't wait to see your plans materialize.
-Thomas

[erics3000]

looking good so far...NICE beer selection

[Dudester]

Thomas - As far as maturing the system, the rock I'll be adding will be fully cured, and I'm also using 100% live sand. I didn't want to spill the beans on this just yet, but since you asked I might as well. I also plan on using Zeovit from the start, so that should make the tank hospitable reasonably quickly due to its probiotic effects. The first occupants of the tank, aside from the cleaner crew, will be my true percula clownfish pair that I've had in my 30g for more than a year. Actually, now that I think of it, I'll probably add a "tester" fish before risking my beloved clownfish pair.

erics3000 - Although Jonathan probably doesn't approve of the selection, I thought the offerings were quite tasty. The 2nd one ("Ringmaster") is a home brew that my friend made. Delish! I see you're in Palm Bay -- that's where I was all last week.

[jnarowe]

Heck, I don't "approve" of Corona, but I sell a crapload out of my store!

[erics3000]

HAHA ...CORNA ....YUMMM..Yeah I live in PalmBAy. I am at training in California for the month. I started my build got the wall up and had to leave. Palm bay is a very laid back area, were you visiting family..

[GMFett]

Excellent my friend.

I really liked the Tilburgs.