My 90g braceless framless build!

[tigerarmy40]

Hello all, I thought I would share a little baout amy current tank build! I worked nonstop for a few months trying to do research on bracless tanks and trying to figure out what size to go with. After some time debating and looking at teh size of my living room I decided to go with a 36x24x24! I have always wanted the deeper tank so i could do some cool aquascaping.

I had a 40g reef that was awesome to me but was all hang on filtration due to starting the tank when I was still in my apartment. Well I bought a house about 2 years ago and this instantly started me on the idea of an upgrade but didnt want to get rid of the 40g! A few months ago I had a 14 hour power outage and it pretty much knocked out my tank all together! I lost the majority of my livestock and awater perameters went way out of wack so needless to say it came down...the tank is now on my nephews house looking better than ever before!

On to the goods, I found a local guy that ordered tanks through vizio and asked him if they could do what I wanted. I put together a 3d of the tank with the help of a member of rc. The tank is drilled for a closed loop wioth one 2" draina dn four 1" returns. the overflow is horizontal with three 1" holes! One for return and two for drains.

The builder came back with a go, so I placed the order! It took about three weeks for the tank to come in and when it did there was some damage to the polished edges and where the holes for the cl had been drilled so I had it sent back and rebuilt! this is what I recieved the next time around!

Perfectly built! to specs and all...

 

[moortim]

Very cool looking tank tigerarmy40 and welcome to Reef Frontiers!
I can't wait to see what that looks like when it is up and running.

Tim

 

[Krish]

Very nice! This should come out nicely!

 

[jezzeaepi]

How thick is the glass? Looks thin for a 24 inch braceless tank. Either way it looks like it will be a lot of fun!

 

[Katchupoy]

how much for the custom tank?... thats is like a breeder but better.... wow i love those dimensions...

 

[tigerarmy40]

thanks for the comments guys! the glass is 3/8" wich is right about where it needs to be! I could have gone a little thicker but the price was getting out of control fast! I probably should have done a 1/2", I also picked up my skimmer about three weeks ago. I bought a euro reef cs 6-2+rc, it pretty much a rc135 when it comes down to the specs...

 

[pitmam01]

I have a Euro reef 135 on my 90 gallon and it works great!!!

 

[tigerarmy40]

love to here that! what are the dimensions for your sump? thisn is something I am still trying to plan out and with this skimer and only 36" to work with its not going to be easy...

 

[pitmam01]

I know whatcha mean. I recently removed my old (only 4 months old and a piece of shiot) sump and skimmer. I had a custom made sump designed so it would fit. With the under cabinet room I have, the skimmer just barely fits, height wise, lol. I can remove the canister but have to slide it over to the end of the sump to get it out. No biggie for me, I have small hands so it's easy to manuver but my hubby kind of bumbles around so he's ok with this being my hobby. Here are the dimensions:

Length: 32"
Width: 15"
Height: 17"

Refugium and 5 gallon auto top off resevoir.

Best of luck!!!

 

[tigerarmy40]

well the next step was going to be building a stand and hood! I knew what I wanted in a stand and how I wanted it to look but really have no experience with wood working. I have helped buddies out before but never ran a project like this. I came across a thread on rc that broke down all the math on how to build a stand frame. if it wasnt for this thread I dont think I would have tried...

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1169964

So I hit the local hd and here is what I came up with!

this was the easy part, caue no one would ever really see it so it could be a little messy! but with a square and a level we did our best to make it nice!

 

[pitmam01]

Good job!! What kind of wood finish are you going to use??? Mine is a cherry finish so it looks like a really nice piece of furniture. Most expensive piece of furniture in my house, lol!!

 

[tigerarmy40]

thanks, I wnet with a dark walnut. The wife says it has to match all ht eother furniture in the living room and dinning room I would have liked to do something a little different but its coming together nicely! for someone who is the most non diy'er in the country...this is the look I was going for and when I sent this pic off to builders they came back with quotes of 5-700 bucks for a simple stand

needless to say this helped me make my decision on who was going to do the build!!!

 

[pitmam01]

We just recently did a remodel on our 10 year old house. When I went to get new furniture, I made sure it matched my tank cabinet. How sick is that....ha ha ha. My husband had to come to the realization that I was officially addicted to this "hobby".

 

[tigerarmy40]

Well I cant say My house is any different!! here are some shots of the almost finished product! I still need to stain the stand and hood a little more and polyeurothane it but its pretty much there!

I bought a mermaid for the hood! it will not be the average canopy, its going to hang above the tank like a matching wood pendant! I built it to fit 2x luminarc mini's and possibly 4x39w t5's. Im not sure on this yet as I may go with pc's...

heres a shot of the hood

and with the mermaid sitting on it!

so lets here it guiys what do you think? not bad for a first time diy'er!? let me here some opinions on the lighting scheme too, I dont know if I want to spend the money on the luminarcs or go with a pfo 36" reflector and save about 150 bucks...also any opinions on the t5 vrs the pc's would be appreciated!!!

 

[pitmam01]

Wow, you're really gettin er' done. Love the mermaid, nice touch!!

 

[jezzeaepi]

Go with the lumenarcs and T5's for sure.

 

[tigerarmy40]

Im leanming this way...and its what I had in mind when I built the hood! Im thinking two 250 xm 10k with a mixutre of actinic and blue for the suppliment...if I didnt go this route it would be two 96w pc's or just the two halides with reeflux 12k's! heres a shot with my nephew holding the hood over the tank!

 

[moortim]

I have two 250watt reeflux 12k's without any supplementation in a PFO 36" parallel reflector and I absolutely love it! I don't plan on ever adding actinics. With that said I wish I could fit the lumenarc mini's over my 55 but they are too big. If you want to add actinics I second the Lumenarc mini/T5 actinic setup, I think that would look great.

Tim

 

[tigerarmy40]

thanks for the input tim!! do you think yoiu could add a few pics of your tank so i can get an idea of what it looks like? maybe of the lights with the reflector all lit up? I would def appreciate it...

 

[moortim]

thanks for the input tim!! do you think yoiu could add a few pics of your tank so i can get an idea of what it looks like? maybe of the lights with the reflector all lit up? I would def appreciate it...

Sure, I haven't taken any yet, I am just getting setup and my live rock is not aquascaped yet. I have only had water in my tank for about a week but I can certainly show you my setup. I will play with the camera tonight after work

Tim