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Innovative Marine Aquariums

20g of solid starfire sexiness


Kimberly63

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okay I decided I want to build my next tank so I thought about something I'd really like to have. Something around 20 gallons, rimless, and solid starfire. So I made it happen. I talked to a guy in our CAD department at work about doing up some drawings for the bottom plate of glass. I knew I wanted an internal corner overflow so I thought to myself: how will I do that? I don't have any experience doing anything like this but I'm not one to sit around and wonder.

 

I designed my bottom panel with the drain and overflow holes in the back corner. I made the panel 19.5 x 19.5 tempered starfire. Why starfire on the bottom you ask? Well why not? Just in case I ever go bare-bottom. Plus I wanted to be able to tell people SOLID BABY! So anyway. Finished dimensions for the tank are 20w x 20L x 12H. According to a volume calculator, it'll hold 19.3 gallons of water. Plenty big enough for my apartment because I don't know how long I'd be there. I had to figure the dimensions of the panels:

 

(1) 19.5 x 19.5 with two holes drilled, all edge grind

(2) 19.5 x 12 top edges polished, 3 edge grind

(2) 20 x 12 three edges polished, bottom grind

 

The bottom piece is tempered. The other pieces were going to be as well, but I quickly changed them to annealed. Why? because if one of the pieces gets a small crack or chip, the tank will explode into tiny pieces instead of just leaking. We don't want fish and corals flying across my livingroom! :o

 

So I put my glass order in and tell the production manager to rush it ASAP! lol not really, but he likes me so I had only 4 days to wait.

 

I had no idea what to do for my bulkheads. It was an absolute nightmare trying to figure it out. I needed someone to tell me exactly what to get and where to put them so after a long thought-out process, I decided on 3/4" return & 1" overflow. My holes needed to be drilled at 1-1/2" & 1-3/4".

 

bulkheads.jpg

bulkhead.jpg

 

So all I had to do was sit and wait for my glass to be done and think about how the heck I was gonna put the thing together. I decided on clear silicone. Yes black would look awesome but I leaned more toward clear.

 

When I got my glass, I was pleasantly surprised because I ordered it with polish on all exposed edges. What I got was every edge polished. :happy:

 

So the other day, I went to Lowes and got painter's tape and taped up the glass. I also wasn't thinking and used glass cleaner to clean up the glass. :scarry: I'll run a lot of FW through the system before I drain and add SW.

 

sidestaped2.jpg

sidesedges.jpg

sidestaped.jpg

 

 

Since when did silicone get so expensive???? :rant:

silicone.jpg

 

Bottom

bottompiece.jpg

holes.jpg

holes2.jpg

 

 

Now I ordered my last piece of glass for my corner overflow today. I designed it to be dark gray-tinted and have 45 degree mitres on the sides so it fits perfectly into the corner. The floor just finished it so I'll post pics of it later. :) It's 10" x 11-1/4"

 

If anyone has any advice for me I'd really appreciate it! I think I'm going to do a Gurgle Buster for the drain. I know I'm gonna do 2 Koralia Nanos and I think some sort of Eheim for the return pump (not sure what size). I still have to build a stand too. :rolleyes:

 

I'll post more later - I'm gonna start the build on thursday so wish me luck! :wizard: I'll have better quality pics too.

 

Oh yeah, and how do I keep the silicone from oozing out the bottom and sticking to my table?

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That looks like it is going to a very sexy tank! So you got the glass from where you work? That would be too cool, I would probably run out of space for tanks very quickly!

No big worries with the windex, when you wash it down there should be no residue.

You can just put down some clear plastic wrap or something on your table, then just razor off whatever oozes out. Remember not to squeeze the joints too much, just tape for "clamps" is plenty of pressure.

Can't wait for more pics!

 

Chris

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That looks like it is going to a very sexy tank! So you got the glass from where you work? That would be too cool, I would probably run out of space for tanks very quickly!

No big worries with the windex, when you wash it down there should be no residue.

You can just put down some clear plastic wrap or something on your table, then just razor off whatever oozes out. Remember not to squeeze the joints too much, just tape for "clamps" is plenty of pressure.

Can't wait for more pics!

 

Chris

 

Yeah I work at a glass company so I get good deals. After this build I won't have room for any more tanks - I'll have it and my biocube which is being used as a frag tank. :)

 

So I won't need to use clamps or anything after I silicone? I really didn't want to spend the money on them but I didn't know if tape would be enough.

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Looks good so far!

 

Those holes look pretty close together, did you check to make sure the bulkheads will fit without overlapping? If anything you can put one on the inside and one on the outside...

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Looks good so far!

 

Those holes look pretty close together, did you check to make sure the bulkheads will fit without overlapping? If anything you can put one on the inside and one on the outside...

 

My CAD guy at work is such an awesome dude. I brought in my bulkheads and he took them and measured them to fit perfectly in the corner and giving me the most space possible so I wouldn't lose a lot of display area. When the bulkheads are in, they probably have about 2-3mm between them. Lol. He really took the time on this piece for me. :P

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I've often heard that too keep caulking smooth you want to keep the spatula (or dowell rod) wet with water, in normal cases it would be soapy water. I'm not sure if the soap would leech into the silicone or not, but I'd probably avoid it, and those little spatulas always make things easier for me :)

 

Looks great by the way :)

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I always used my finger. Corners can be tricky, but I always just smoothed them again in all three directions starting from the corner. No expert, just a handyman. Hope it turned out ok.

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Well, I got my piece for my overflow ordered and cut, polished and mitred on Tuesday. They rushed the piece for me so I could start it over the holiday.

 

Transparent dark grey glass:

 

order.jpg

 

Here's a pic of the glass and how much you can see through it.

 

overflowseethru.jpg

 

Mitre

mitreedge.jpg

 

Today was a hectic day but I found some time around 3pm to start laying out the glass and putting pieces of tape on the sides. Then I cleaned all the places where I would silicone with rubbing alcohol.

 

 

taped.jpg

 

 

Now let me just say that siliconing is a pain in the rear! I got dowell rods to smooth the silicone bead but my rods were too wide so they didn't fit down into the seam. :rolleyes: I had to use my fingers instead and boy it was everywhere. soaking my fingers in a bowl of alcohol helped get it all off though. I didn't think it turned out too bad but it was stressful trying to get it put together perfectly. I have some bubbles in the seams but I'm not starting over - that's for sure!

 

:D

siliconedone.jpg

 

next I siliconed the overflow in

 

overflow.jpg

 

I'm so glad I got it mitred because it was a perfect fit into the corner.

 

Done!

sideshot.jpg

 

frontshot.jpg

 

sideshot2.jpg

 

:happydance:

 

I guess now I just wait and worry that it'll hold water! I also have some silicone to trim up after it cures. I'll prob let it set for at least 3 days before water-testing it. Will that be long enough?

 

I went to the LFS to get a koralia nano and they were fresh out so I passed the coral tank and seen this baby looking bad in their tank so I bought it. Only $30! Can't see the mouths yet but they are neon green. :wub: my camera sucks but it's much prettier in person.

 

That's all for now! I just have to build a stand and figure out the plumbing and stuff. For a return pump - would an Eheim 1250 work?

 

newbrain.jpg

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Looks awesome Kim, have you decided on the lighting yet?

 

Thank you!

 

I want a Nova Extreme Pro or something similar. Definitely T5s though or a T5/MH combo. I'm going to have my PCs over it till I can afford a new fixture.

 

Nice tank. I love the grey smoked glass overflow. Most silicone will fully cure in 24 hours. It should say on the tube.

 

Thank you! The glass was the darkest we had at work. We don't carry a solid color - we would usually do a frit which is color that's baked onto one side. It's permanent, but would have taken too long. It was a toss up between the grey or a blue-green color.

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Thank you! The glass was the darkest we had at work. We don't carry a solid color - we would usually do a frit which is color that's baked onto one side. It's permanent, but would have taken too long. It was a toss up between the grey or a blue-green color.

 

 

Good choice to go with the grey. Do you have any plans for "teeth" to keep fish out of the overflow?

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Good choice to go with the grey. Do you have any plans for "teeth" to keep fish out of the overflow?

 

I think I'll use 1 row of egg-crating and krylon-paint it black.

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It looks really good. I really like the smoked glass. That would be awesome to do the back of the tank with too. Does it cost a lot more than clear?

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It looks really good. I really like the smoked glass. That would be awesome to do the back of the tank with too. Does it cost a lot more than clear?

 

I think so. I think we do 15-20 different colors and we even do a reflective surface on the colors too. I thought about doing that but I didn't want my fish to freak out at their reflection. :P

 

It would be so much easier to use tinted glass than to have to paint it.

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Okay so I'm trying to figure out a return pump for this tank. I have to build a sump yet - prob a 10g - and I'm just using flex tubing for plumbing (nothing fancy here unless someone has a valued opinion on it)

 

How do I figure out the GPH that I'll need? :huh:

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Wow, very nice so far Kimberly!!

 

Are you going for an internal, or externally mounted pump?

 

Thank you! I hope it holds! :P

 

I honestly have no idea what kind of pump! I just learned yesterday that external ones existed. :mellow:

 

Depends on what type of corals you'll be keeping. :)

 

I'm gonna be keeping all types.

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