So I came across a 30x30x20 rimless braceless with starphire glass on 3 sides with center overflow and with plumbing for closed loop for $450 brand new, good deal? My wife might let me splurge on it.

I would jump on it personally.

Did I mention it's new?!

Sounds good, that's not much more than the glass itself would cost.

It's a pretty good deal, but I never like impulse buys.

How thick is the glass? I'm not sure if you are aware, but speaking from personal experience... low-iron starphire scratches a LOT easier than normal.

How does it scratch compared to acrylic? It's really not impulse as my wife has been wanting to upgrade since she caught "reef fever."

1/2inch.

Do you know who built it?

Lee-mar

Cool

good deal.lee-mar makes good custom tank!

\

Here's an image of the tank.

Thats a sweet tank man! And a sweet deal too! You'd better be puttin corals made of gold or something in that lol!

Ok, so we got it! It is real starphire, went down to a shop to take a look at what ot looks like and did some research on here to compare pictures of it. My father-in-law and I will be building a custom stand and custom acrylic sump for it. So far this is what I have in my head for equipment:
Lighting- 250 watt metal halide, 150 watt metal halide with t5, t5, or a custom diy led system.
Skimmer- I'd like to have a cone skimmer but I would be happy with a regular one, I'm thinking a swc cone or eshopps cone skimmer. Any recommendations?
Return pump- Something that puts out 900-1,,000 gph, maybe an eheim?
Heat- Most likely an ebo-jäger, pretty positive I won't need a chiller.
Wave maker- trying to decide between koralia or vortech.
More to come later.....taking suggestions.