Vic's 120 gallons of rimless starphire goodness. - Pics updated: 9.26.08

[Lepomis]

Very nice looking so far. I will be following this one closely. I have looked at picking up a tank from them from one of their stops in the past. After seeing several rimless tank threads I definitely wan't one for the next tank. Such a clean look.

[Uhuru]

I wonder if they use stronger silicone for their rimless tanks.

[Withers]

I hope so, because I'm pretty sure their reverse euro-bracing doesn't do a damn thing. Danskim has a 300 gallon rimless glass cages tank, and if can hold water, I think my 120 will be fine.

[eddie29]

nice.

 

Can someone tell me why they use a glass overflow, and then cover it up with an acrylic cover?

[supernip]

man. glasscage? well I, for one, will be rooting for you ladyparts

[Reef Aquatics]

No, glassscages doesnt do any quality control check..

 

They dont care about quality...and when you complain they

hang up on you.. I know someone who went through a nightmare

with them...

 

I wouldnt give glasscages the time of day..let alone my money..

[marlon]

Nice!

 

Can you show the constructions of the stand?

[Withers]

No, glassscages doesnt do any quality control check..

 

They dont care about quality...and when you complain they

hang up on you.. I know someone who went through a nightmare

with them...

 

I wouldnt give glasscages the time of day..let alone my money..

 

Well, this tank is built just fine, and surprisingly, the people I spoke with were very nice and helpful. I also didn't speak with the same lady who's always so rude this time around, so that may be the issue. If I have an issue and she picks up the phone, I'll simply refuse to speak to her until she puts someone else on.

 

Trust me, you're preaching the choir here. I tried to order a tank from them years ago and had them hang up on me after I requested too many special features. But having spoken to a couple of people who have their rimless tanks, I decided to give them a try again. This tank cost less than a 1/3 of what most other people were charging for a tank this size with low-iron glass.

 

I can't post a build log of the stand since it's already done, but I'll snap a few pics once I'm done painting it to show how it is built.

[ajroy03]

Lets get back to Vics amazinnn 120!! Have you finished painting the stand yet?

[Withers]

I'll post some pics later today hopefully. I'm working on plumbing everything and water testing it today.

[eddie29]

Vic do you know the answer to my question by any chance? Is it more of a cosmetic thing then anything else?

[Withers]

Vic do you know the answer to my question by any chance? Is it more of a cosmetic thing then anything else?

 

Acrylic doesn't bond well to glass, so it's safer to make it out of glass, then cover it with acrylic. That's the only answer I can come up with. I'm pretty sure All-Glass uses acrylic overflows on their glass tanks though, so who knows?

[Uhuru]

Glass overflow > acrylic overflow on a glass tank

[wav3form]

Acrylic doesn't bond well to glass, so it's safer to make it out of glass, then cover it with acrylic. That's the only answer I can come up with. I'm pretty sure All-Glass uses acrylic overflows on their glass tanks though, so who knows?

 

I have an acrylic overflow on my glass 20L and it's held for quite a while. I'd say it's mostly that silicone doesn't stick to acrylic as well as glass. No problems with my setup so who knows. Even just a plain glass overflow with no cover would look nice. ADA does it.

[Uhuru]

I think oceanic tech tanks and for sure deep sea aquatics tanks also use glass lined overflows, their reasoning is the acrylic can pull away from the back over time

[eddie29]

I think oceanic tech tanks and for sure deep sea aquatics tanks also use glass lined overflows, their reasoning is the acrylic can pull away from the back over time

 

I can't confirm that, but I can confirm that the Oceanic Ultimate series do not have a class lined overflows

[Uhuru]

Look inside this overflow box (tech tank) you can see the glass lining below the slits

 

[CL_]

hey vic, sorry for getting off topic, but I noticed your little fsm thing in your sig. we just did a report on fsm in our religion class.

back on topic- I cant wait to see this starphire tank up and running. Tank looks great!

[wav3form]

Forget the tank. I want to know what you talked about in religion class about ye with noodley appendge.

[Withers]

That's a great religion class then!

 

I only snapped a couple of shots of the stand. It's pretty simple. We scratched the all-3/4" plywood design and gave it a 2x4 frame with more openings for easy access. I'm about 90% done with the plumbing, so I'll post a pic of that next. I just need to drill a hole in my refugium and I'm basically done.

 

 

Doors on:

I'm going to be adding some trim to them since they don't quite sit flush with the rest of the stand like I had envisioned.

 

Doors off:

[Withers]

F*CK

 

 

 

Here's the damage:

 

I've sent an email to Glasscages, but I know it's pointless. There's no way in hell, with their track record, that they're going to be any help at all in this situation.

 

 

I basically walked out into the garage today to find that the tank had chipped on one of the seams. I hadn't even touched the tank in a week.

 

On a positive note, my ZeroEdge Lamp tree might actually come in by the end of the week. I placed the order for it on the May 7th. Christ this tank is cursed.

[wav3form]

Man that sucks Jason. How do you think that happened?

[gsprat69]

I chipped the edge of my 120 getting it home. I was lucky and my chip was not very big. All I had to do was fill it in with clear silicone and trim it with a razor. Noboby notices until I point it out.

[Withers]

I have no idea how it happened. It's not like glass tends to chip on it's own. I know that nobody touched the tank, and nothing was out of place in the garage.

 

Now I don't really feel comfortable placing another order through GC, and everybody else charges an arm and a leg for a tank like that, so I'm at a loss as to what to do

 

If I could be positive that the chip didn't compromise the strength of the tank, I could still use it, but I don't really feel confident in it's ability to hold water at this point.

[Nellis]

I have no idea how it happened. It's not like glass tends to chip on it's own. I know that nobody touched the tank, and nothing was out of place in the garage.

 

Now I don't really feel comfortable placing another order through GC, and everybody else charges an arm and a leg for a tank like that, so I'm at a loss as to what to do

 

If I could be positive that the chip didn't compromise the strength of the tank, I could still use it, but I don't really feel confident in it's ability to hold water at this point.

 

 

Only one thing to do. You KNOW they're not going to take it back. So... fill it up, wait a week or two. Maybe patch the interior and exterior near the chip with some silicone first. At best you still have your tank and a barely noticeable hairline.