57 gallon oceanic illuminata rimless build

[Jesse_emel]

Well, I started my downsizing process. I purchased the oceanic illuminata rimless 57 gallon tank from aquatic dreams and have started.

Here is the new much smaller lighting ballast I picked up from KevinPo at aquatic dreams.

I set up a 20 gallon tall tank under the cabinets, There was enough room for a overflow discharge area. a fairly decent sized fuge, and the rest of the area gets taken up with the protein skimmer and the eheim 1240 pump which I hope should be fairly silent.

A couple more pictures:

I've got the display filled up with sand and hope to add water and rocks today. I'll take a few pictures as I proceed. Happy Easter everyone!

 

[DolphinLVR]

Well, I started my downsizing process. I purchased the oceanic illuminata rimless 57 gallon tank from aquatic dreams and have started.

Here is the new much smaller lighting ballast I picked up from KevinPo at aquatic dreams.

I set up a 20 gallon tall tank under the cabinets, There was enough room for a overflow discharge area. a fairly decent sized fuge, and the rest of the area gets taken up with the protein skimmer and the eheim 1240 pump which I hope should be fairly silent.

A couple more pictures:

I've got the display filled up with sand and hope to add water and rocks today. I'll take a few pictures as I proceed. Happy Easter everyone!

Nice!!!!! In the second picture, where did you get those ceiling mounts? do they allow you to move your fixture up and down?

 

[Jesse_emel]

DolphinLVR....yeah they have a small coupler in the center that you can push in and adjust the height. They came with the lighting ballast along with 2 timers. Kevin hooked me up as always.

 

[Jesse_emel]

All the plumbing is done.....

Filled with sand.....

My son is helping me on Easter Morning.....

 

[DolphinLVR]

DolphinLVR....yeah they have a small coupler in the center that you can push in and adjust the height. They came with the lighting ballast along with 2 timers. Kevin hooked me up as always.

I would really like to know more about those as that is what I am looking for instead of using hooks in the ceiling! Do thy act like the yo-yo's? I want to be able to adjust the height of my rack at a moments notice, thus i am looking for something that I can pull down on the rack and go either lower or higher (Hope I am making sense)

 

[dailydriven911]

Looks like a great build! I really like these tanks and the price isn't to bad either...

 

[jake65]

looks great jesse, is this tank downstairs where the other one was?

 

[JIvePhotography]

Just curious, what's the purpose of the eggcrate in the tank under the sand? I was thinking that its for when you put rock in it will sit on that instead of the glass...?

Also, is that how high you're going to keep your light or its just up high while you were setting it all up?

 

[Jesse_emel]

I would really like to know more about those as that is what I am looking for instead of using hooks in the ceiling! Do thy act like the yo-yo's? I want to be able to adjust the height of my rack at a moments notice, thus i am looking for something that I can pull down on the rack and go either lower or higher (Hope I am making sense)

no it's not like a yo-yo you have to push the center coupler and either feed the braided steel wire in or out of the cover. it requires 2 people to adjust the height. one to hold up the light and provide slack the other to feed the wire. So it's not counter balanced or anything like that.

 

[Jesse_emel]

looks great jesse, is this tank downstairs where the other one was?

No this is on the opposite side of the basement. in the bar. The other tank is still up and running while I'm building this one. I'll take some more pictures tonight. I have it filled and circulating right now. Hardly any cloudiness since I was careful when i filled it up actually looks pretty good. I used a lot of the water/rock and a little sand from the main tank so the cycle on this one should be really short. Just new sand is all.

 

[Jesse_emel]

Just curious, what's the purpose of the eggcrate in the tank under the sand? I was thinking that its for when you put rock in it will sit on that instead of the glass...?

Also, is that how high you're going to keep your light or its just up high while you were setting it all up?

You are correct the eggcrate provides a little piece of mind when setting rocks. you can push them down as far as you want and not worry about hitting the bottom.

No the lights are adjustable and will hang a few inches above the tank when I'm done adjusting the rock and putting in some live stock.

 

[Jesse_emel]

Looks like a great build! I really like these tanks and the price isn't to bad either...

Thanks for the comment. As soon as Kevin showed me this tank I think my eyes bugged out and I said order it before i even knew anything about it. Very Impressed with the construction so far. It also came with all the plumbing parts needed for the overflow. You can also get it with no overflow if you desire. I painted the back gloss black to kinda hide the overflow a bit and it looks really good so far.

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

Nice, i saw when Kevin got that tank in, they are very beautiful especially the perfectly beveled edges

 

[Jesse_emel]

Nice, i saw when Kevin got that tank in, they are very beautiful especially the perfectly beveled edges

Thanks MGDMIRAGE, yeah right when it came in i got super busy and he had to hold ot for an extra day. Here is a pictures of it filled with water, a few rocks and 1 emerald crab hitchhiked his way in. A few fuzzy mushrooms, 1 hammer coral and a couple tiny kenya trees made their way in. So far so good with the corals, they are opened wide and loving their new home.

Pictures.....

I really like the look of the open top.

 

[MGDMIRAGE]

Looks great i love the big rock on the top right

 

[jgalvin]

how much of a sandstorm are you getting with that sand? looks really fine, and wondering if its blowing around a lot.
- james

 

[Jesse_emel]

how much of a sandstorm are you getting with that sand? looks really fine, and wondering if its blowing around a lot.
- james

When I first turned on the system i had the jets pointed down and it moved around a little. But I adjusted them and am not getting any movement. I picked that sand up at Aquatic Dreams in the Spokane Valley. Kevin still had a bunch left when I was there last week. I actually thought of getting some broken coral/shells to put in the bottom too to help break up the surface of the sand a little but not sure where to get that stuff.

 

[willandcorina]

great looking setup can't wait for more pics

 

[Jesse_emel]

great looking setup can't wait for more pics

Thanks for the compliment. So far the only problem I'm having is keeping the water a consistent temp. I'm getting a new heater and hope that solves the problem. It's always hard to go from a big system to a smaller one. Less room for error. Also the timers that came with the lighting system don;t seem to be working. I got a programmable outdoor power strip that I hope will act like a mini reefkeeper for the lights, 2 K1's and the moon lights.

 

[DBM Reef]

This is one really nice downsizing project man . I really like the rimless look .
Looking good and glad to see that you are still in it (your other tank was really nice to!!)