My 50g custom project

[Sinistard]

Well I filled up my 12g Nano Cube and have decided to start a bigger tank. My new tank will not be a Nano but I hope no one will mind me posting it here. I enjoy NR more then RC.

 

I have been planning it for the last month or so. I started out wanting to do an acrylic similar to Tigahboy's tank and decided it would end up costing me too much money. I found a used 55g RR AGA tank for cheap and decided to give it a go only to find it was to big where I was going to put it. My next thought after seeing winniebagel's very cool Sea Clear tank was to do a 40g Sea Clear. I rearranged the living room (which my wife was happy about) to fit in the Sea Clear and decided to upgrade to the 50g seaclear since it has the same footprint as the 40. So now I had the space and the tank figured out and got to thinking about plumbing and decided I would like to have an overflow built into the tank. I though about sticking a overflow in the Sea Clear myself but decided for not that much more I could have a tank built and get exactly the dimensions I wanted. After all this I decided on a 36x16x20 inch acrylic tank with a black back and internal overflow.

 

I was lucky to pick up some basically new equipment for a great deal (thanks Mai). So I have an Aqua Medic 250 watt Oceanlight, an AquaC Urchin skimmer and an Iwaki Md-30rlxt. Since I got such a good deal this had jump-started my tank aspirations.

 

My plan for lighting is to take the 250-watt MH and build it into a custom wood pendent, which will match the stand I am building, with 260 watts of PC lighting. I got a 260w coralife hood for cheap so I am going to gut it to use the lights.

 

Here is what I hope the stand and light will basically end up looking like. I barrowed the tank picture from weatherson on RC I hope he does not mind. It's a very beautiful tank and I hope mine will look half as good once it is up and running. Not that I will stick the same fish in my tank

 

I am still working out flow and plumbing. This is all new to me so I am going to barrow some plumbing designs for people like Tigahboy and winniebagel. Here is my flow plan as of now this could change.

 

I still need to figure out the sump/fuge.

 

Like I said this is a project and I would not be surprised if some of the plans change as I get into it.

 

Thanks for looking and comments/suggestions are welcome.

[DarkMazda]

Very fresh ideas my friend Can you explain to me what that purple rectangle associated to your closed loop is?

[Sinistard]

Thanks,

 

Well originally the purple box was a SCWD. I'm not so sure I am going to use one, maybe I will get an OM squirt but both are still up in the air. I'm "trying" to keep initial cost as low as I can.

 

On another note I ordered the tank today. They said around 3 weeks to build it. I need to iron out the plumbing so they can drill the holes for me, no extra cost so I figure why not have them do it;)

[Sinistard]

I have been thinking about how to do my sump/fuge under the tank and am thinking about doing them separate instead of in one with both sump and fuge. Basically I am going to have a 10g 12x12x16 fuge and a 10g sump dimensions TBD. The reason I decided to do this is to maximize water volume.

 

Basically I will split the overflow pipe from the main tank and run one line to the Fuge and one line to the sump. Around 75% of the water will be directed to the sump and the remaining 25% will go to the fuge controlled by gate valves. This way the water going through the fuge is much slower. I think I will use a dorso standpipe to drain the fuge into the return area of the sump.

 

Here is a picture of the basics of it, its not to scale and the plumbing will not be exactly the same. I still have some figuring to do as far as what will fit in my stand and pvc routing.

 

Any suggestions are welcome

 

[reef n ale]

Wow, that guy's got a nice looking tank! I like your ideas, Sinistard. My first thought is that you can get away without the OM Squirt or the SCWD. Careful aiming of the returns should give plenty of random flow. Second, depending on what pump you choose for the closed loop, you should consider 2 1" drain lines. That would give you less suction on each side = less likely to get blocked or suck something in. I like the sump/fuge drawing! I'm very interested to see how that plays out.

 

Rob

[Sinistard]

Rob

 

weatherson does have an amazing tank!

 

I would like to get away with out the OM or SCWD to keep the tank as close to the wall as I can.

 

1" bulkheads for the closed look is a good idea I will have to do that. Maybe I will get another big pump 700-1000gph and do 2 1" intakes and 4 returns with 1/2 closer to the bottom and 3/4 closer to the middle. Maybe this would keep the lower part relatively low flow with the middle and top higher flow.

 

Thanks for the input

 

Nathan

[reef n ale]

Nathan, that's close to what I'm going to have. About 700-800 gph with two 1" intakes and two 3/4" returns. No OM, no SCWD. That should be plenty for the closed loop. Put something like that with your sump/fuge return pump and you'll have big time flow.

 

Rob

[reef n ale]

Oh, that 700-800 gph is after factoring in head pressure.

 

Rob

[winniebagel]

If you're going to divert water from the overflow pipe, just make sure to leave enough room under the tank for some sort of Y connection instead of a using a T. I know the drawing isn't your final plan yet but I just wanted to bring that to your attention. It's always the simpliest stuff we tend to overlook (I've done that a lot of that overlooking stuff with my tank a lot ). Otherwise, it looks like a very solid plan.

[Sinistard]

Thanks winniebagel.

 

I though about that after I made the drawing. I figured a Y would work better, I need to make sure my stand is tall enough to hold everything I want to add:

 

I'm thing about bumping up the lenght of the tank to 40", it cost the same and I get a bigger tank:) I did a bunch of figuring and I think I can get away with 40"

[shao-lin nano]

Wow, great upgrade from the nanoCube. Who's doing your custom tank and is it acrylic?

 

Seems like everyone is upgrading from a nanocube, when is it going to be my turn?!?

[Sinistard]

Yup, I crammed more the enough into my Nano-Cube so I needed to go bigger. I have a bad habit of buying corals before I find space for them

 

I'm getting my tank from Ostrom Manufacturing, LLC

http://www.ostrommfg.com/ and it is acrylic. They are around 40 minutes from me so I can pick the tank up so no shipping charges. I decided on acrylic because its so mush easier to modify and more clear. I looked into starfire glass and holy crap was that expensive, like 4 times the price.

 

I will keep the cube up and running. It's been my first tank and I still like it, it's just to small. Some of the coral from it will probably get moved to the new tank.

[socalcreations]

I don't want to be pessimistic (sp?) as it seems as though you have everything planned out very well, but I do want to ask some questions about the tank you are ordering. As you may know we make custom tanks and in no way do I want to sound like I'm trying to sell you one of ours, I just want you to have a solidly built tank from Ostrom. Here's some questions you should ask them and be 100% sure they do, find out what brand of acrylic they use (ie: Cyro, Plexi, Spartech ect.), this is very important as you want to make sure they use a domestic brand of Cell-Cast Acrylic for your tank. Also make sure on your size they use 3/8", although from the looks on their website (3/8" on a 96x24x24, wow)I'm almost positive they are planning on using 1/4", which is way too thin and you will notice some serious bowing. Those are two of the biggest things I can see, other than that is seems as though you have everything worked out very well. Good luck!

[Sinistard]

Randy,

 

Thank you the info. I was actually thinking about calling you guys at socalcreations because your tanks look amazing but figured shipping from Cali to Ohio would cost more then the tank. If you would like to check into shipping one to me 43202 I may think about it. They have not started the tank yet so I could cancel but like I said I would guess shipping would be crazy.

 

I am 99% sure they said it was 3/8" acrylic but I will be sure to ask. As far as the brand I did not even think to ask but I think it's cell cast, i'm going to get my phone now. The one thing they were very expensive on was colored acrylic, It doubled the price to have the back made out of black acrylic so I just went with Oceanview tint.

 

I had one question about my stand if you don't mind. As you can see from my stand plan I am going to have a lip outside the 2x4 frame that is going to be trimmed with crown molding. My question is will this be a problem, the top will be ¾” plywood and maybe 2" will be outside the frame. I figured the plywood would be more then strong enough to hold the weight but want to be sure.

 

Again thank you for watching out for us noobs.

 

Nathan

[Sinistard]

I called they use polycast brand acrylic and it is going to be 3/8" on my sized tank. Any ideas on if this is a good brand?

[Pili]

sounds like its going to be an awsome tank. You sound like you have it pretty well thought out:)

 

BTW: I sent you a friend request on XB live.

[socalcreations]

Wow, Polycast huh?? and 3/8", sounds great to me. That's what we use and is the best on the market. I wonder why they choose to use such thin acrylic on their bigger tanks? Oh well, who knows. Sounds like your going to get a good tank then, not sure if our price with shipping would be better than theirs, if you want to pm me with thier price I'll let you know.

 

As far as the stand is concerned I see your dilema, but being that this is an acrylic tank you should be fine. All the weight of an acrylic tank is evenly distributed on that 3/4" top, so the weight on the edges is the exact same as that in the middle (where there is no underneath support). Hope this makes sense. Also, acrylic is quite a bit more forgiving than glass, if your tank was a glass tank then I would definatley say don't do it, but with a well build acrylic tank you should be fine, just try to keep it as close as *possible* to the supports. HTH??

[Sinistard]

PM sent.

 

I figured I would be ok on the stand. Like you said with a flat bottom the weight is spread over the whole top.

 

Thanks again for the help.

[Sinistard]

I found out that all there smaller tanks come standard with bent front corners. Do you think I shoud go with this option or should I get the squared off corners.

[socalcreations]

Thanks for the PM. That sounds about right for that size tank, and our price with shipping would be probably just slightly higher for the same tank, but with black acrylic back , so for the convience of picking it up I think you made a good choice with Ostrom. As far as the bend corners we do not practive that method, we join the corners and then round them with a router bit(if desired). Either way works, but from what we've been told the bent corners are actually weaker than a very good joint, as when the acrylic is bent, it streches the acrylic therefore the acrylic is thinner in the corner. Again, tank manufacturers have been doing it for years, so I'm sure it would be fine either way. Anyways, keep us updated with pics and if you have more questions just fire away, I'll be sure to keep an eye on your progress to see how everything works! Good Luck!

[Cesar]

This project is going to be very good. Can't wait to see the end results.

[Sinistard]

Thanks again Randy.

 

I have been trying to find a little more about there quality and found a forum where they said they use Novus 3 and 2 to get out there scratches and then Brillianize to finish off. I have not been able to find a whole lot out there about them but they have been around for 10 years so I guess they are doing something right.

 

Cesar, thanks I hope it end up look as good as it does in my head;)

 

I wonder what looks better bent or square corners?

 

I'll keep posting pictures and details on my progress, It is going to be a few weeks at least till I get the tank and the real fun can begin.

[winniebagel]

As I've only had a bent corner tank, here's my take on it.

 

pros: bent corners - nice seamed look to tank, easy to clean with magnet scrapers.

cons: socalcreations explained the slight weakness, distortion where the bend is when photographing, so no 45° angle shots of the tank.

[Sinistard]

Thanks for the input winniebagel.

[Sinistard]

Does anyone have any recommendations for my sump and fuge tanks? My thoughts are to just have only the skimmer in the sump with 3 or 4 baffles then the return area. Then in the fuge just some LR and macro and maybe a shelf to stick frags. Both tanks are going to be around 10-15 gallons with the fuge being 12x12x16 and the sump around 24x12x12 depending on the stand.

 

Thanks