Down sizing. My new 240 rimless.

[JPMagyar]

Sadly the tank was damaged today. I had movers come to help take out the old and bring in the new, but I left some sand in the bottom of the old and when they pulled on the back of the acrylic tank with suction cups the top bracing came unglued in the area along the overflow. I have contacted an acrylic specialist and am planning on getting an estimate for the repair. If you are seriously interested shoot me a PM. There's nothing I'd like more than to see my old tank and stand go to a happy new home



Joe

[JPMagyar]

Lot's left to do. The light hangers are temporary as I am expecting steel bars eventually. The back will be all black once I get my sheet of acrylic. I'm working on hiding the Tunze. The overflow teeth need some widening, and most critically I'm looking for ideas to reinforce the seams. At the moment I am contemplating 1 inch by 1/2 inch glass glued to the outside corners, but I need to talk with some glass specialists, and I'll save that for another thread. Suffice to say all those who said don't do GlassCages can now officially say "I told you so". Anyways, its holding for now, and hopefully I have time to do a repair. Aside from that happy thought every thing else is fabulous. The tank is everything I dreamed of in terms of aesthetics and acessibility. The pictures do not do justice to the beauty, and I'm only sorry I waited so long to change from a tall acrylic to a short glass system. The aquarium really is neat to look at from above and from a seated position on the couch.

Joe

[Jar*Head]

Hello Joe, have you try to contact glasscages regarding to the seam issue? I have the same dimension cube i would like to share picture of my aquascape hope it will help





My friend built the light rack for me which fit 4 lumenarc mini, 4 x 36" VHO. I have been trying so many different to light that tank. The light rack or the solar circular mover work best for the tank dimension

[Jar*Head]

top down on the lighting


Video of my lighting on solar circular mover

[mattyice]

here is what im doing for my aquascape, i have the same size tank, i went with acrylic though



and here is the tank, Envision Acrylics made with 1" sides, 3/4" back, and a 1" eurobrace, this tank is bullet proof and has perfect seams

[ReefBum]

Joe-

It looks like you are off to a great start with the new tank. Doing a tear down is not a fun project but starting a new tank is always a lot of fun. BTW....the frags I got from you a few months ago are doing great.

Keith

[JPMagyar]

Originally posted by Jar*Head
Hello Joe, have you try to contact glasscages regarding to the seam issue? I have the same dimension cube i would like to share picture of my aquascape hope it will help

Nicely done Jarhead! I've been admiring your tank from afar for a while now, and it certainly helped me when I was making my orginal decision. I was concerned that I might be disappointed since I was "downsizing" from a 75 inch front panel, but when I saw the many great cubes like yours on RC my decision was easy


Yes, I have contacted GlassCages and Tom has been very helpful. I sent him photos of the seam and he said the glass had "moved" in transport and that's what causes the seam to discolor not airbubbles. He also said I'd "probably" be o.k. I asked if reinforcing the seams with strips of 1/2 by 1/2 inch glass would help and he agreed that would help tremendously, but he suggested putting the strips on the inside which would mean yet another massive teardown and temporary storage so I plan on asking about reinforcing the exterior of the seams and adding triangular wedges to the corners. I spoke with a local glass manufacturer and he did confirm that the discoloration of the seam is not unusual and "probably" o.k., but obviously I want a little more certainty then "probably" when dealing with my tank. There is no movement of which I can detect in the seam, so I believe I have some time to work this issue. In the end if I need to tear down I will, but for now I'm looking at every alternative possible. We'll see . . .

Originally posted by mattyice
here is what im doing for my aquascape, i have the same size tank, i went with acrylic though . . .


and here is the tank, Envision Acrylics made with 1" sides, 3/4" back, and a 1" eurobrace, this tank is bullet proof and has perfect seams

Mattyice,

I've never seen an acrylic tank with so little bracing. That is outstanding. If I had seen that before my purchase I might have reconsidered. And, I love your simple aquascape concept that should be gorgeous!.

Originally posted by ReefBum
Joe-

It looks like you are off to a great start with the new tank. Doing a tear down is not a fun project but starting a new tank is always a lot of fun. BTW....the frags I got from you a few months ago are doing great.

Keith

Great to hear from you Keith. Funny I just was asking Billy about you yesterday. You must have ESP or something Do you have any recent pictures of your tank?

Joe

[JPMagyar]

Keith,

I hope you won't mind if I add a link to your tank thread. It's my turn to be jealous Your tank is unbelievable. I especially love the pinks and reds!

Keith's Unbelievable Tank

Hmmm, maybe I can send Billy over with some hidden shears . . .

By the way what kind of camera and lighting did you use when you took that latest photo?

Thanks again,

Joe

[mattyice]

thanks for the compliments joe, my tank was actually extremely expensive and was more then what miracles in glass would of charged me for the same tank, braceless and with full low iron glass...but with the track record that i have seen with James' work at Envision Acrylics and the large displays the he has built for hotels and such, i think i made the best choice, the acrylic on the tank is 1" thick which is why i was able to go with such little bracing, i think its only 3" all the way around and comes out to about 8" around the overflow

i will get better pics of the tank when i actually get it in on monday, check out my build thread, also that rock work is much bigger then you think lol, i would say that once its cured that is over 220 lbs of LR and that large shelf piece on top is over 2' long

[Jar*Head]

Joe, i am going to order my future tank with Glasscages next month. They offered a very good deal for 72x36x25 penisula tank 3 sides starphire, 8 holes drilled, Eurobracing (starphire glass) for a little over $1800. I don't think i can find it cheaper anywhere else. My friend Jeff order a standard 240g tank from them couple years ago and he is very happy with it. IMO, rimless look sweet but i don't think i'll be able to have waveboxes.

I hope everything workout for you with the seams. Goodluck bro.

[Rickyrooz1]

Jar*Head, how do you make your waves? Do you have a Tunze wavebox or do you have two Tunze's aimed at eachother?

[Jar*Head]

Hello Rickyrooz1, i have tunze wavebox and extension.

[ReefBum]

Originally posted by JPMagyar
Keith,

I hope you won't mind if I add a link to your tank thread. It's my turn to be jealous Your tank is unbelievable. I especially love the pinks and reds!

Keith's Unbelievable Tank

Hmmm, maybe I can send Billy over with some hidden shears . . .

By the way what kind of camera and lighting did you use when you took that latest photo?

Thanks again,

Joe

Many thanks for the great compliment Joe. I'm lovin the open top tank and I'm sure you will as well. You can be first in line for some frags in a few months when things will need some pruning.

The camera I have is an Olympus Evolt 510, which I just picked up a couple of months ago. It is a 10 megapixel digital SLR and it takes awesome shots. I also have a macro lens that rocks. As for that last shot, I didn't use the flash so I just relied on the Halides and T5s for lighting.

[ITR]

Joe,

Excellent looking tank. When I was at your house for your frag sale and you stated you were downsizing, I couldn't understand why any reefer would go smaller. After seeing pics of your new setup, I can certainly understand why.

Downsized but certainly upgraded. Well done!

BTW - All of the frags I purchased from you are doing excellent. I hope you make it an annual affair.

Regards,
Jason

[JPMagyar]

So my plan is to silicone 1 inch strips of glass to the outside corners tomorrow. I'm nervous about the plan since I've never done any glass work before, but we'll see. As part of the process I invested in some large wood clamps to stabilize the tank while the reinforcement dries.

Meanwhile, I'm running into a minor nuisance algae outbreak on the LR that was not already coralline encrusted, but nothing I can't get past with a few weeks time. I'm still blown away by the overall pleasure I get when looking at this tank. Once I get the black backing up I'll have to find a better camera to take some quality pictures.

Seems like a never ending process though. My "To do" list seems to stay the same length day after day . . . ah well . . .

[spleify]

Looks awesome!! Great job!!

[JPMagyar]

I posted my question in the DIY forum as well, but haven't gotten any response yet so I thought I'd ad some info here as well.

My original idea was to beef up the "weakest link". I was working under the assumption that the side panels which are supported by the shear strength of the silicone bond were the weakest link, and that by siliconing 1 inch glass bars to the outside corners I would be adding a bond that is supported by tensile strength for the side panels and thereby significantly improving the strength.

Any thoughts?


Thanks a bunch,


Joe

[JPMagyar]

Not really sure what is going on, but 2 months into my new tank, and I have to say I am blown away by the results so far. I am getting phenomenal growth, color, polyp extension, mating fish, and just plain enjoyment from the new set up. My tri-color is purpling up like mad. My yellow tort is changing from yellow polyps to blue polyps, and what's really wierd is I'm getting some of that paler pastel effect on some corals like the Zeovit boys. Not in a bad way mind you, but rather in a really cool way. I changed so many aspects of my reef and reef keeping routine so I'm not sure I can point my finger towards any one reason for my success so far but here's a list of changes that come to mind so far:

1) maintaining higher Mg levels, was 1150 now 1350
2) maintaining higher pH was 7.8 now 8.1
3) Tunze's now cycle every 3 seconds from high to low
4) removed my DSB and now I clean the shallow sand bed weekly
5) basement grow out tank is barebottom and cleaned weekly as well
6) reduced amount of Rowaphos but now I change it every 2 weeks
7) changed from three 400 watt 10k MH to four 250 watt MH with 2 x 10k and 2 x 20k
8) reduced my calcium reactor output and began using some B-Ionic 2 part.

I'm still waiting for Christmas to get a new digital SLR so I can take some decent macro photos, but here's a couple I took today that came out o.k. Hope you likee!

[atty]

great tank mate, looks great!

[invincible569]

I have to agree! The corals look great!!

[tanya72806]

Very nice


Jarhead are you talking about GQJeff ? If so his tank came out great yet I know some that hate theres its a doubleedge sword

[JPMagyar]

Thought of more changes worth mentioning:

9) significantly reduced the number of corals I am keeping
10) increased the overall open space hopefully increasing the flow around individual corals
11) reduced my 10k MHs from 10 hours per day to 6
12) removed 1 Iwaki 100 from my system and halved the flow from sump to tank
* note - I had 2 Iwaki 100s, but now I think my Tunze is enough



and here's a shot I posted in the SPS forum of the yellow w/ blue polyp stag. When I brought it home from the LFS the polyps were all yellow, but now the new growth has blue polyps. They don't show as well in the photo as I hoped, but I think its visible



Joe

[JPMagyar]

Even my venerable Oregon Tort seems to be doing better! Something I would never have thought possible. This colony started from a tiny 1/2 inch frag I bought from Rick Souta of Souta's Saltwater (who I belive got it from the owner of Waves in Oswego, OR which was the "original" colony - or so I've been told) Anyways, its still my favorite


Some sad news to accompany my great photo. I am experiencing one of the major draw backs to an open topped tank. I have lost 3 fish and a melatremus eel to over the top suicide. Looks like some form of sliding canopy will now be in my springtime plans. I knew it was a possibility; I just never expected my critters of 3 years or more to be the ones.

[JPMagyar]

And, my H. Mag clone is doing well also

[tinknocks]

nice tank!