jedimasterben Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 (check the bottom of this post for a list of thread updates!) Hey everyone! Well, my first salty tank has been going for a few months, and everything is flourishing so far (minus an ich outbreak, it's a nightmare, and it's only just begun! ). I've been poking around the idea of a smaller salt tank to house some smaller fish and sexy shrimp that I've got in my 55g that just get lost in the sheer size. After seeing johnny roks' tank ( http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=269645 ), I want to sorta imitate that. Instead of having two tanks right next to each other, though, I think I want one to be higher than the other in the back left or right of the front tank. The waterfall will flow over the side of the top tank and curve around into the bottom tank over rockwork. As far as equipment, only thing I know I want so far are rimless tanks, most likely Do!Aqua 60-p and 45-30-45. As for overflows, I love the glass overflows that glasscages.com has. I emailed them asking if they would sell just those pieces. If not, I will see if my local glass shop will cut the pieces out and I will glue them together. Does anyone know of any other places that would have the Do!aqua tanks I'm after and also not charge more than the tank is worth in shipping? I was gonna get them from ADGshop.com, but they're out of stock, and I haven't gotten a reply on if they have an ETA or not. I'll update the thread in the next few days, I'm gonna try and get a sketch worked up in Google Sketchup, I'm just starting out in that program, though, and it's a lot to take in all at once (that's what she said ). Questions, comments, etc are welcome. UPDATES: 2/29/12 3:00PM 3/1/12 2:54PM 3/1/12 7:31PM 3/4/12 1:39AM 3/8/12 8:34AM Link to comment
brad908 Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Take a look at mr aqua tanks. Marine depot sells them Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted February 29, 2012 Author Share Posted February 29, 2012 Take a look at mr aqua tanks. Marine depot sells them You are a gentleman and a scholar. I just priced out a 17.4g, 24"x11.8"x14.4" tank and two 11.4g, 18.9"x11.8"x11.8" tanks on MarineDepot, and it came out to less than it would cost for the two Do!Aqua tanks! I think I will now do a setup similar to what I was thinking, but with two tanks on the top side-by-side and have them drilled and linked together or have them both flow down into the second tank separately. Also, I got an email back from GlassCages.com, and they had the balls to say "We can't ship those, they're made of glass so they'd break". They won't ship these, but they'll gladly ship tanks anywhere? I'm calling bovine feces on that one. Link to comment
Paleoreef103 Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Also, I got an email back from GlassCages.com, and they had the balls to say "We can't ship those, they're made of glass so they'd break". They won't ship these, but they'll gladly ship tanks anywhere? I'm calling bovine feces on that one. It's cool. You don't want to work with them anyway. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted February 29, 2012 Author Share Posted February 29, 2012 It's cool. You don't want to work with them anyway. Bad experience? Link to comment
JoelRHale Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Bad experience? Do some reading on glass cages, they have a horrible rep. Nice idea though, looking forward to seeing it come together. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted February 29, 2012 Author Share Posted February 29, 2012 Do some reading on glass cages, they have a horrible rep. Nice idea though, looking forward to seeing it come together. Hadn't really done any yet, found out about them earlier today, but didn't have a lot of time to research them, but now I don't have to. And thanks, I can't wait to get it up and running! Link to comment
JamesHL88 Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Dont you dare make my dream tank ! Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted February 29, 2012 Author Share Posted February 29, 2012 Dont you dare make my dream tank ! I'll race ya. Link to comment
siwelk Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Glass Cages is about as adept as an Alzheimer's patient. Link to comment
brad908 Posted February 29, 2012 Share Posted February 29, 2012 Your lfs can also order deep blue rimless cubes. They are inexpensive and good quality. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted February 29, 2012 Author Share Posted February 29, 2012 Your lfs can also order deep blue rimless cubes. They are inexpensive and good quality. It's $89 for a 6g rimless. I'd have to sell a kidney to afford the bigger ones. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted March 1, 2012 Author Share Posted March 1, 2012 Ordered the tanks about an hour ago from MarineDepot.com. Decided on just two tanks, both Mr.Aqua, one is a MA-720 (17.1g 23.6″ x 11.8″ x 14.2″), and the other is a MA-120 (13.3g 23.6"x11.4"x11.4" bowfront). Was ~$175 shipped for both. Rough sketchup: Front view Side view The backs of the tanks will both be painted black, and the substrate will be Tahitian Moon sand, which is black, as well. The brown is a stand that will hold the rear tank upright. The stand will be hollow and will have holes cut to allow the plumbing from the bottom tank to go right into it and down into the sump. The return into the top tank will just be clear tubing attached to a glass lily pipe. Link to comment
JoelRHale Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 Very nice plans, I couldn't quite visualize it but that sketch helped me. That will look pretty slick Link to comment
milk Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 This would be so hawt as a reef ledge Link to comment
kgoldy Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 I know you're new to sketchup... But show us how the water's going to fall. What I'm imagining now is a lot of spashing and salt creep since the top tank is so high. Link to comment
asting Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 If you drill in the middle or towards the bottom I think splashing would be minimal. Maybe you could be a little guide and drill a hole at the bottom. Obviously then you have issues if the power goes out though, so you'd either need a very strong UPS or another fail safe (such as the input for this drain having a tube that goes near the surface). Link to comment
Hoosierfan Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 This sounds really cool. Don't let the internet down... Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted March 2, 2012 Author Share Posted March 2, 2012 I know you're new to sketchup... But show us how the water's going to fall. What I'm imagining now is a lot of spashing and salt creep since the top tank is so high. This is as good as I can get it. The Jupiter/Deathstar combo thingies are what I like to imagine are rocks, and the hole for the bulkhead is right above them. I plan to have the bulkhead completely covered by rockwork on the outside and have the water flow down only the top/outer face of the rocks and not flow behind. I priced out (roughly) the LED kit it would take to light it, I was guesstimating ~12x LEDs per tank, , so that would be 6x white, 6x royal blue, 6x violet, 4x red, and 4x cyan/turquoise (yes, that's actually 13x LEDs per ). I'm also considering adding pink LEDs, they peak at 480nm and 620nm, adding a bit more to the spectrum. It's an extra $9, so it's not like it's gonna cost a whole lot more. The LEDs and drivers and wiring and stuff will cost me around $140-150, and then the aluminum channel to mount them on will be another $10, and then I've got to build some kind of... hood-thing to contain them and make them not look like poop in comparison to the tank. THAT will take some doing, I haven't really given a damn about what a fixture looked like til this tank lol. Link to comment
Deckoz2302 Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 It's $89 for a 6g rimless. I'd have to sell a kidney to afford the bigger ones. for real?!?!?! dude my LFS sells the deep blue pro 12" cubes for 23 bucks! tell them to shove it Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted March 2, 2012 Author Share Posted March 2, 2012 for real?!?!?! dude my LFS sells the deep blue pro 12" cubes for 23 bucks! tell them to shove it Yep. All their equipment is crazy priced (minus some of the bigger rimmed tanks), but he has amazing pricces and selection of corals, inverts, and fish, and gives me deals all the time on those! Link to comment
kgoldy Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Are you going to use foam/epoxy/sand in addition to rock to make the waterfall? Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted March 3, 2012 Author Share Posted March 3, 2012 Are you going to use foam/epoxy/sand in addition to rock to make the waterfall? Something along those lines, yes. I plan on sorta filling in the holes in the face of the rocks so that water will flow gently with no splashing. Salt creep is not my friend. Link to comment
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