RollaJase's Trip Off the Deep End - Custom Rimless 55G

[RollaJase]

Looks great, buddy.....Congrats!!

Thanks Jack . I'm really happy with how the tank turned out, excellent craftsmanship. I'll take some better pictures of it when I get the chance.

 

Haha, thanks Shaun .

 

 

I started mocking the sump up last night. Measuring all the glass that I had cut for baffles and labeling each piece to make the job easier. Everything was just great, 2 pieces were a few mm short but nothing some silicon can't fix. I tried to dry fit two of the larger baffles that span the width of the tank and they don't fit . Turns out the sump was made 1.5-2mm shorter in width then I had specified so these large baffles don't fit. I'm hoping that I can sand off the excess or grind it back a tad to make it all fit. I would like to avoid taking the pieces to a glazier if I could. Damn me and my precise measurements! I should have allowed at least 1mm either side of the baffles for silicon but it was something I overlooked at the time. Oh well, just a minor road bump.

[Sk8n Reefer]

Argh! That sucks on the sump size- hopefully you can adjust them.

[RollaJase]

Argh! That sucks on the sump size- hopefully you can adjust them.

Yeah a bit of a pain but of well. Worst case I'll clamp the glass to to a flat surface and run the Dremel with a grinding attachment along the edge to take off some of the extra material. I can use some water to cool the bit. I think hand sanding will take forever.

[Sk8n Reefer]

Yeah a bit of a pain but of well. Worst case I'll clamp the glass to to a flat surface and run the Dremel with a grinding attachment along the edge to take off some of the extra material. I can use some water to cool the bit. I think hand sanding will take forever.

What will sand the glass- a diamond bit?

[RollaJase]

What will sand the glass- I diamond bit?

Well, for polishing purposes people suggest a high grade wet/dry sandpaper, 400-600 grit. I was going to try like a 60 or 80 grit paper along one edge and see how it goes. Industrially they use a diamond bit with lubrication to grid edges, for cuts they usually score and snap the glass to size. Needs a bit more research I think.

[Sk8n Reefer]

Well, for polishing purposes people suggest a high grade wet/dry sandpaper, 400-600 grit. I was going to try like a 60 or 80 grit paper along one edge and see how it goes. Industrially they use a diamond bit with lubrication to grid edges, for cuts they usually score and snap the glass to size. Needs a bit more research I think.

Cool, sounds like it could be tricky- good luck

[RollaJase]

Cool, sounds like it could be tricky- good luck

I have a day off from work this Thursday (recovering from midnight screening of Star Wars lol) so I might just take the pieces of glass to my local glazier and see if they can trim 2mm off each pane of glass. The local guys have helped me out a lot and for the $10-$15 that they will charge it will be better than me paying $20-$30 for new glass if I mess up.

[RollaJase]

Started piecing the sump together last night, only managed to get a single baffle in. Will try to get a second one fitted tonight which would make the overflow/filter sock chamber mostly complete. I want to try and get as much of the glass in as I can before tomorrow so I can get any bits that don't fit trimmed.

 

So far I have only done the initial silicon bead on the contact edge of the glass. I like to do this so if I need to remove the baffle for any reason there is minimal silicon to remove. I then mask either side of the baffle and run a bead of silicon to seal the edges. This gives a nice finish and adds the strength the baffle needs to hold the weight of water. This essentially means I tackle each baffle twice which takes more time but is much cleaner than trying to slap on a heap of silicon at once and hoping for the best.

[RollaJase]

Sump is about done besides the lids for the filter sock and drain chamber. I got the two bits of glass trimmed down for me and when I test fitted they fit perfectly. I did the test of a 40c day though and when I went to silicon the pair in yesterday one didn't fit . I'm thinking the silicon expanded a lot due to the hot temperature and now that it has cooled down it is just a tad too snug. The remaining baffle is one of the two that goes between the refugium and return chamber. I'm in two minds if I even need this baffle and just make a grate/grill between the refugium and return chambers. Could even just add an overflow comb to the top of the baffle to stop any of the chaeto rolling over into the return chamber. This may result in me having a bit more work to do but it will give me a little bit extra space in the return chamber to accommodate a larger return pump if I ever need one. I might have to take another look at it all tonight and see what options I have available to me.

[RollaJase]

Merry Christmas from the future everyone . Hope you all have a fantastic day with family and friends .

[4x5]

Merry Christmas man! Hope you have a great day. Looking forward to seeing this beast with water.

[RollaJase]

Merry Christmas man! Hope you have a great day. Looking forward to seeing this beast with water.

Thanks Shaun, hope you had a great day also . Tank is almost ready, so close I can taste it.

 

 

Out of everything left on my list of things to do the largest job is the plumbing. The sump is 99% done with me only needing to mount the filter sock holder and drill the holes through the lid for the drains. The ATO reservoir just needs to have the pump grate installed (keeps the pump stationary). Once the work on the sump and ATO reservoir is done I can wrap the rear and sides of each in black vinyl to prevent too much light spill. Then I can move onto the plumbing which I have planned out, it is just a matter of buying what I need and putting it together. Dad had some input on this and I think we were able to design a simple yet effective return manifold which wont effect head pressure too much. I'm leaving myself between the 2nd and 6th of January to get everything installed and moved over. I'm back at work on the 6th so I'll have 4 day in total to do what I need to do.

[vlangel]

Thanks Shaun, hope you had a great day also . Tank is almost ready, so close I can taste it.

 

 

Out of everything left on my list of things to do the largest job is the plumbing. The sump is 99% done with me only needing to mount the filter sock holder and drill the holes through the lid for the drains. The ATO reservoir just needs to have the pump grate installed (keeps the pump stationary). Once the work on the sump and ATO reservoir is done I can wrap the rear and sides of each in black vinyl to prevent too much light spill. Then I can move onto the plumbing which I have planned out, it is just a matter of buying what I need and putting it together. Dad had some input on this and I think we were able to design a simple yet effective return manifold which wont effect head pressure too much. I'm leaving myself between the 2nd and 6th of January to get everything installed and moved over. I'm back at work on the 6th so I'll have 4 day in total to do what I need to do.

Sounds like a good plan and I will be anxious to see pics!

[RollaJase]

Sounds like a good plan and I will be anxious to see pics!

Unfortunately things didn't go 100% according to plan but there will be some pics

 

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year . Unfortunately my plans of getting the tanks swapped over on the 4th January wasn't too well thought out as I totally missed that it was a Monday and that my brother would be starting his new job on the 4th. So as a result the change over date has been pushed back to Saturday the 9th. This worked out for the better as the plumbing took longer than 2 days for me to do (finishing it off now) and will allow me to finish off a few other things before then. I mainly want to get a mesh top made for the tank so the few extra days should allow that to happen.

 

I'll be posting a few update over the next few days to catch you all up .

[RollaJase]

Stand Build - Finishing Touches:

Over the Christmas break I have tried to get as much stuff finished off on the tank as possible, and I did, until I tried putting it all back together again lol. I ran into a few issues here and there, tidied a few things up and now I can happily say that the stand is totally complete with the exception of the window on the left side panel.

 

I added another strip for cable management and some cable clips for the fan cables.

I also added a few hooks internally to hang cleaning things.

I realised that the holes I had cut to allow cables to pass from inside the stand to the outside just weren't accessible with the ATO reservoir installed so I cut a new one under the doser shelf. I also had to trim the cable management channel as well as the power board mount to make the ATO reservoir fit correctly.

I added some eyelets to the control box cable management to make it a little easier to cable tie things in place.

And lastly I cut the hole in the left side panel for access to the control box. I will add a magnetically attached acrylic lid or something similar at some stage.

 

And that's it, stand build is now complete. Now onto the tank .

[RollaJase]

Equipment:

Below is a list of all equipment that I will be using in this build. Some of it is new, some will be brought over from the current tank and some of it I have had sitting in boxes for a while now with the intention of using it.

• Tank: 31.5x24x18" (800x600x450mm) - 10mm glass (Low Iron front and two sides) with overflow
• Sump: 20x15.5x15.5" (535x400x400mm) Custom Sump
• ATO Reservoir: 7x12x15.5" (180x300x400mm) Custom Reservoir
• ATO: Tunze Osmolator Nano
• Stand: 31.5x24x39" (800x600x1000mm) DIY Stand With Cladding
• Lighting: Aqua Illuminations Sol Blue & Gen 2 Controller (Building a Custom LED Fixture with NanoBox V3 Arrays)
• Flow: 2x Jebao RW-4 Wavemakers
• Backup: APC BK650-AS (650VA) UPS
• Return Pump: Jebao DC-3000
• Heaters: 1x 300W AquaOne and 1x 200W Fluval Heater
• Skimmer: Tunze 9004 (upgrading to Bubble Magus Curve 5)
• Reactors: 2x FistaFiltration Nano Reactors (GFO & Carbon)
• Dosing: Marine Color MCD-3-M Triple Head Doser (Alk, Cal & Mag Supplementation)

Flow, lighting and heating I believe will be sufficient over all. Once it is all together I will be planning on adding a few more fail safes when it comes to battery backup and temperature monitoring.

 

 

Equipment - Tank, Sump and ATO Reservoir:

Now to the good stuff . I know I promised pictures of this ages ago but haven't had the time to get around to it until now. The tank looks great, the sump is built and the ATO reservoir is complete.

 

The Tank:

The tank in all it's glory. Even thought the wait was longer then I had anticipated the build quality was excellent as expected. The edges have been nicely finished to give the tank a nice look and feel. The overflow was well built being made of glass before being clad in black acrylic with the toothed comb all around. They forgot to make me the removable combs but oh well, just ended up being another saving for me. The back is covered in a black sign writers vinyl and is a very thin but strong material. Similar to what you would see on shop windows and some cars for advertising.

 

Also, just a pic to show the difference between the standard glass rear of the tank and the low iron side.

 

The Sump:

Overall the sump changed slightly from the original renders. The only real change was the baffles between the refugium and return chamber. When the pieces were initially cut both baffles were too long. I had them trimmed down locally and when test fitted both went in fine. I did the test fitting on a 40c day though so when the time came to silicon the baffles in only one of them fit. I opted to make an overflow style comb to run the length of this baffle. It effectively provides the same features as the intended baffle while also giving me more space in the return chamber for a larger pump in the future or for something like an in sump reactor etc. I'm really happy with how the sump turned out. From the initial design to reality it is all very similar and exactly what I was looking for. The black automotive vinyl on the rear and left side I added to help block out light from the refugium entering the ATO reservoir to help prevent algae growth.

 

The ATO Reservoir:

The ATO reservoir looks very similar to the sump in terms of visual aspects. I went for the same design of the black lid and the black vinyl black out. I made a pump guard for the inside of the reservoir, something I made for the inside of my ATO chamber in my current sump also. This stops the pump moving around and the cut outs allow ample water to flow to the pump. I actually just used left over overflow comb from when I made it for the sump. I also made some acrylic cable clips to guide the power cable and water tube out through the notch in the lid. This is just to keep things neat.

 

Lastly, just a few pics of how they both look sitting in the stand. Pictures taken before any plumbing was done, that's the next update .

[Arce]

Looking good, great job with the stand

[RollaJase]

Looking good, great job with the stand

Thank you . I am really happy with how things turned out. I could have been a bit more accurate with my measurements but over all everything fits well and I think it looks pretty good also.

[justinfox]

Solid update!

[RollaJase]

Solid update!

Thanks Justin . I'm hoping to have an update on the plumbing situation over the next few days .

[vlangel]

Things are shaping up beautifully. This tank should run like clockwork and be so easy to maintenance. Great job and very nice craftmanship.

[RollaJase]

Things are shaping up beautifully. This tank should run like clockwork and be so easy to maintenance. Great job and very nice craftmanship.

Ease of maintenance is definitely something high on my priorities. Having the room to move within the stand will really help that and keeping everything neat and tidy will be of great benefit. I've never built something like this before so I am really happy with what I achieved with my meager tools.

[vlangel]

Ease of maintenance is definitely something high on my priorities. Having the room to move within the stand will really help that and keeping everything neat and tidy will be of great benefit. I've never built something like this before so I am really happy with what I achieved with my meager tools.

After maintenancing tanks for a lfs for 5 years I am a firm believer that for a home aquarist a maintenance friendly tank should be high on the priority list. Too many tanks get neglected just because what can be enjoyable becomes drudgery. I serviced some of those types of tanks but at least I was getting paid, ha ha!

[RollaJase]

After maintenancing tanks for a lfs for 5 years I am a firm believer that for a home aquarist a maintenance friendly tank should be high on the priority list. Too many tanks get neglected just because what can be enjoyable becomes drudgery. I serviced some of those types of tanks but at least I was getting paid, ha ha!

I totally understand where you are coming from there. My current sump and stand are so cramped that I put off regular maintenance as it takes a long time to remove things for a proper cleaning. It all works but probably isn't efficient as it should be. Putting off maintenance and then doing it all in one hit I find takes the fun out of the hobby also. Something that should take 1-2 hours a week ends up taking a whole day of valuable weekend time when you eventually get around to doing it. My aim was to create a more user friendly system with ease of access to all the important components. I think when you see how my plumbing turned out you will be fairly impressed .

[RollaJase]

Equipment - Plumbing:

Time for a run down on the plumbing side of things. I spent a lot of time looking into this with dad and I think we came up with a pretty good design, particularly on the return side of things.

 

Both drains are set up to be 20mm pipe running through 25mm bulkheads (3/4 pipe through 1" bulkheads). The return is all 15mm pipe through a 20mm bulkhead (think that is 5/8 pipe through 3/4 bulkhead). Only reason It worked out this way was because I told the builder I wanted to run 20mm drains and 15mm return. I could always scale up the pipe at a later date it I wanted to but this diameter should move ample water.

 

I started off by mounting some pine pieces to the rear of the stand. There is a piece of 5mm thick foam between the pieces of wood and where they mount to the stand to absorb some vibration.

 

Here you can see how to return manifold mounts to these wood pieces. I used some saddle clamps and placed some more of the 5mm foam between the manifold and where it mounts to these wood pieces.

 

The return manifold has been set up to be able to feed 3 reactors if ever needed. Initially I only need 2 of these feeds for my current reactors so the 3rd has been capped off for the time being. The fitting going into each 'T' piece is threaded to make things easier to remove if I ever have to.

 

The pipe between the pump and manifold is 19mm in internal diameter, slightly larger then the hard line. I did this because the ID of the smallest fitting that came with the return pump was way too small.

 

The completed return manifold all plumbed up to the bulkhead.

 

And the drain side of things completed also.

 

 

For plumbing internal of the overflow box I started by breaking a few of the overflow teeth off and filling the surface down a little.

 

The rest of the piping went in next. I painted the top portion of each pipe with some black paint so they would blend in with the overflow box and the rear of the tank. The return is glued to the bulkhead but the two drain pipes are just pressed into their slip fittings. I'm uncertain if I should glue them or allow them to seal over a few days as the slime coat builds up around the join. Not gluing them will make it much easier to service the drains.

 

Made a small grill for the emergency drain.

 

And lastly mounted the return nozzle. I believe this particular nozzle is a replacement from one of the Red Sea systems.

 

And there you have it , plumbing completed. Now she is ready for water .