Sarah's 10gal "Rimless"

[saraswati]

Current Full Tank Shot

 

 

Current Livestock

• Assorted crabs and snails
  
• Cleaner shrimp
  
• Porcelain crab
  
• 1 Kenya tree
  
• 2 Pulsing Xenia
  
• 3 Feather Dusters
  
• 2 Awesomely colored mushrooms (one that won't attach to anything)
  
• 2 Green and red speckled mushrooms (thankfully, attached)
  
• 1 Pinkish mushroom
  
• A sweet-bazillion reddish mushrooms
  
• Red Favia
  
• Green, purple, and orange Ricordea
  
• Assorted zooanthids
  
• Magician palys
  
• Green palys
  
• Green trumpets
  
• Frogspawn
  
• Assorted Hitch Hikers (incl. one ENORMOUS bristleworm)
  
• Harold, the yellow-tailed Damsel
  
• Gobiodon Milosevic, the Yellow Clown Goby
  
• Pair of clowns. Want to say True Percs. Girl is a misbar.
  

 

So, I quickly ditched the 5gal hex idea when I realized I could swap out my freshies and put them in the hex, and then have 10 gallons to play with (and a lot more room for equipment, importantly.)

 

Ry05coupe convinced me that it would be safe to pull the rim off the tank (fingers are still crossed that he's right), and after a little bit of blood and foul language the rim is off. It isn't perfect, but it will certainly do. He also gave me some lovely chunks of rock from his sump, which came with a few baby snails and two tiny star fish, which have since camouflaged themselves nicely.

 

 

The light is a CL 96 watt I think, from coastie and makes quite a difference. He also gave me two little hermies, and some nice chunks of rock. With the new light, I noticed a tiny little kenya tree polyp that I hadn't noticed and some *******ing aiptasia on some older rock from ry05coup, that I'm now going to have to yank out. Yay for the kenya tree, arg for wherever the darn aiptasia came from.

 

 

 

 

Other than that, the tank has some really bizarre bubbly sand (maybe because it was dry before? Weird), some rock from Sandy's Pets, and that's about it.

[Coastie]

1) If that is a marineland stealth heater get rid of it.

 

2) Move that filter to the left.

 

3) Lets get the back of that thing painted.

 

4) YAYYYYY peeektures

 

5) Watch the rock from Sandy's they tend to have some bubble algae problems as well.... (Come to think of it why do I even go there?)

 

 

Oh and yes it is the 96W fixture.

[Gobby]

Quick question Coastie.....whats wrong with the Stealth heaters? I have a couple of them.

 

Gobby

[jgpico]

Quick question Coastie.....whats wrong with the Stealth heaters? I have a couple of them.

 

Gobby

 

They blow up!!!! There are a couple people who have had some really bad luck with these heaters on this site.

[Coastie]

Yup numerous users have reported them getting stuck on or exploding. I'd ditch it. It seems the common consencus is to get a jager. I have one and the accuracy of that thing is nuts.

 

 

Sarah you should get some UBER fine sandpaper and hit the rim of that thing to polish it up!

[saraswati]

Yup numerous users have reported them getting stuck on or exploding. I'd ditch it. It seems the common consencus is to get a jager. I have one and the accuracy of that thing is nuts.

 

 

Sarah you should get some UBER fine sandpaper and hit the rim of that thing to polish it up!

 

That's a good idea. I also got paint for the back, and I'll probably get around to that tonight when I get off work. The heater was free from ry05coupe, so I'll look in to eventually getting a different one. I'm definitely too broke this paycheck to get another So far, it's been working just fine. I'll keep an eye on it though.

[saraswati]

Here are some fun setting-up photos!

 

 

Chipping away at the rim! It is NOT glued only in the corners, just so you know...

 

 

 

Pouring in sand! I actually put WAAAAY too much in the first time (maybe 20#?) Too much.

 

 

 

This is NOT floating scum, this is floating SAND. Wtf.

 

 

 

The view from bed! BEST PART.

 

 

 

Mad sand is MAD.

 

 

 

Also, roomie just texted me, and apparently the power is out at home. Well, hell. Having her throw a blanket over it so it stays as warm as possible. Luckily it isn't January. And that I don't have fish. But crap.

[Coastie]

I wouldn't worry too much about the temp right now. I have accidentally unplugged my heater 2 times and everything is fine.

[ry05coupe]

I've had two stealth pros fail so far, but they just stopped heating so it was no big deal. Aparently there was a recall on them, but I haven't looked into it.

 

How much sand did you take out?

[herefishy]

I didn't know you could take the rim off of those tanks...it looks really good. Does anyone know if the rim could be removed from a 20g tall? Is it relatively safe if done carefully? I mean little risk of ruining the tank...I am getting ideas from this build. Uh-oh! Not good for the wallet.

[saraswati]

How much sand did you take out?

 

A bunch (technical term). About enough to fill up a gallon ziplock. Although the crabs and I keep throwing little bits of sand into the impeller, and I'm about to chuck that filter out the window. It quit at like 6 this morning and woke me up, so I threw one of the powerheads in. I'll fix it AGAIN tonight.

 

I didn't know you could take the rim off of those tanks...it looks really good. Does anyone know if the rim could be removed from a 20g tall? Is it relatively safe if done carefully? I mean little risk of ruining the tank...I am getting ideas from this build. Uh-oh! Not good for the wallet.

 

I have no idea about the 20 gallon. Ryan, what site did you use? It wasn't *too* difficult to take the rim off; a box cutter did the trick (watch your fingers!) It is sealed all around the top, just to let you know. I could definitely use to clean up the top a little (I'll try the sandpaper trick), but it doesn't look too bad, and it beats buying a new tank! Tell me about the wallet thing! Even with a bunch of presents from friends, I'm still on wallet lock-down for the rest of the week

[ry05coupe]

http://www.natureaquariumclubofutah.com/Ho...Rimmed_Tank.pdf

[thatoneazn]

you know, the rim does serve a purpose....it is okay to do that will smaller tanks i guess, but larger tanks it would be a bad idea unless there was a brace put in motion....

[gulfsurfer101]

Looks pretty cool with out the rim but reaming the edges with some fine grit sandpaper would be wise. Nothing fun about scaping your tank and having to go the er for a slit wrist. I removed the rim from a 20l to use as a terrarium for a bearded dragon before and it took less than 10 mins, not so much so for a ten gallon. I know the work the went into that little job so cheers to you and your tank.

[saraswati]

Looks pretty cool with out the rim but reaming the edges with some fine grit sandpaper would be wise. Nothing fun about scaping your tank and having to go the er for a slit wrist.

 

Hahaha, truth! I cut myself twice taking it off, and I count myself lucky at that! I do need to sand it though, for saftey's sake.

[roland36]

Just me chiming in... I did the same to my 10gln and

All was good until i tried to hang the skimmer and the

Hob filter at the same time, the tank crack and needless

To say i failed haha so the moral of this story is

be careful.

[saraswati]

Just me chiming in... I did the same to my 10gln and

All was good until i tried to hang the skimmer and the

Hob filter at the same time, the tank crack and needless

To say i failed haha so the moral of this story is

be careful.

 

 

 

Sweet baby jesus.

 

I don't plan on hanging anything besides the filter, and that's actually jammed between the tank and the wall, so it's not really hanging much, but now I'm paranoid. I've thought about using clear tape to go around the top *just in case*. Maybe I'll try it and see how ghetto it looks.

[roland36]

 

Sweet baby jesus.

 

I don't plan on hanging anything besides the filter, and that's actually jammed between the tank and the wall, so it's not really hanging much

Well you should be good dont go ghetto

[sandcruiser]

nice looking tank

it makes me want to do something similar...

one fast and easy way to make it much stronger would be to measure the rear dimensions, then get a 1/2" wide strip of 1/8" glass cut to that size. silicone it in across the back, on top. Like a little shelf.

 

it would make the rear wall much (much!) stronger for your filter. it would also help (a very little) to keep the ends from pulling themselves outward.

 

if you did the same along the front, it would be less pretty. In the front you could just get a 2" triangle to gusset the corners. it would add quite a bit of strength without looking too cludgy. A glass shop shouldn't charge much to make those bits-- they probably have scrap laying around from which to cut it.

 

regarding your sand-in-impeller problems: if you put some rubble near the intake of the filter, it'll help keep sand-storms from swirling up when a hermit or whatever is fooling around there. I used a handful of empty shells under mine- does double duty of keeping the sand from swirling and also works as a little 'pod shelter while making sure that my hermit has shells available to upgrade.

 

What size HOB filter is that? It seems to me that it might be a little light in terms of overall flow in the tank.

[saraswati]

one fast and easy way to make it much stronger would be to measure the rear dimensions, then get a 1/2" wide strip of 1/8" glass cut to that size. silicone it in across the back, on top. Like a little shelf.

 

 

regarding your sand-in-impeller problems: if you put some rubble near the intake of the filter, it'll help keep sand-storms from swirling up when a hermit or whatever is fooling around there. I used a handful of empty shells under mine- does double duty of keeping the sand from swirling and also works as a little 'pod shelter while making sure that my hermit has shells available to upgrade.

 

What size HOB filter is that? It seems to me that it might be a little light in terms of overall flow in the tank.

 

 

That's a pretty good idea. Come next paycheck, I might just do it!

 

The impeller seems to get stuck if a single GRAIN of sand gets in... a lot of times it's just me moving stuff around that does it. I put a bit of screen in the intake to try to cut down on it, and it seems to be working alright (at least it didn't stop at 6am again) but it did seem to cut down the flow a lot. It's an AC30 on a 10 gal... When I had it as high as it could go, it really was too strong and blew away all my sand. I dunno, I'll fiddle with it more and see what I come up with.

[saraswati]

Construction pics!!!

 

Moved the rock around a bit, and took some pieces out, then painted the back black!

 

I see a clear aquarium and I want to paint it black?

 

 

 

FTS for now. Getting some goodies from Ryan tonight, so all will change!

 

[KidCNU]

Looks Nice!

[saraswati]

Looks Nice!

 

You're really from Front Royal? I lived in Flint Hill last year. Tiny tiny world.

[sandcruiser]

the black looks classy!

[Coastie]

Looks great!!! flip the heater and stick it in the corner.... I think it looks a bit distracting the way it is. That piece from Sandy's looks pretty good.