my 90g braceless/framless tank!! 36x24x24"

[tigerarmy90]

well as some of you may know I wanted to do a tank with these dims for some time! I had a 40g reef for about three years while I was living in a upstairs apt. so as you can probably guess a sump was out of the question!

About 2 years ago I bought my home and the planning started I knew I wanted a 36x24x24 design beacuse I have always loved the 24" wide tanks due to the flexability when aquascaping. I wanted the braceless look cause I really dig the clean lines and open top look with those polished edges.


here is what it started as

and here is what I got

 

[prow]

nice. what are your plans as for as closed loops, returns ect...?

 

[tigerarmy90]

thanks, the closed loop was designed with the oceans mothion 4 ways in mind. The tank is drilled with one 2" drain and four 1" returns so Ill be running a sequence dart with the 4 way with a version 3 drum!! Im going to plum it so the top to run then the bottom and continued.

 

[boozeman]

very, very nice

on which other forum have I seen this tank before?

 

[tigerarmy90]

thanks boozeman! proabably familiar with it from reefcentral, the 3d was made by another reefer that did a 36x24x18 without the closed loop so I got his permission to use and it made some changes to it

I also built my stand using a template from reefcentral, this thing worked wonders cause I am no great diy'er, lol
Reef Central Online Community - DIY Stands Template and Calculator

everyone told me not to attempt the flush door but I think it came out alright

 

[ragvette]

nice setup

 

[boozeman]

sure is sweet....now get 'er wet !!!

 

[tigerarmy90]

thanks fellas, I have been taking my time at being impatient about everything. I have ran into a small dilema when it comes to my lighting. I guess I thinking about my check book more then anything. I have a single lumenarc 3 reflector and 2x lumenarc mini's. I have two pfo ballast so I have the option to run both the mini's but I oplan on running 10k halides so I will def need some actinic supplimentation to ballance out the color. So if I go with the dual halides I will need more actinic to make it work and if I go with a single then just a 2 bulb actinic set up would do...since i jsut made everyone a little dumber for having read this let me simplify one halide will mean 2 actinic bulbs and two halides will mean 4 actinic bulbs. Im thinking I iwll either be going vho or t5vho

I really like the natural look so for me 14 or 20k are out of the question.

 

[BigAl07]

I got lost....

1 Mh = 2 Actinic
2 Mh = 4 Actinic

Why is that? I'd run as much as I could in order to benefit the tank... if you can fit 2 Mh + 4 T5 go for it. But if it's space then 1 MH = 4 T5 (or more)

 

[prow]

let me simplify one halide will mean 2 actinic bulbs and two halides will mean 4 actinic bulbs

lost me too? you mean one MH needs 2 actinic bulbs for supplement lighting and 2 MH will need 4 actinic bulbs???

 

[tigerarmy90]

thats it! I like the look of a nice balanced out 10k bulb, I bought a coralvue 10k , reeflux 10k and hamilton 10k and have tested them all on my pfo ballast and so far Im liking the hamilton the best. I still want to try out the xm to see if I like the look. When I fire both my hamiltons with two vho's the actinic comes through but not quite as much as I would like, I think they are getting overpowered by the mh. with a single mh it comes out to pretty nice color...Im also keeping my pg&e in mind! I will more then likely just give in and do both mh's and maybe 4xvho's. Ill add some pics of the hood I built and the reflectors in it later this week!

 

[AQTCJAK]

Greg glad to see you have made it here. Stand looks great.

BTW Michael_cb125 & anyone else who is courious about tanks I build this is one of them. As Greg mentioned it took alot of planning for this one

 

[mps9506]

Nice tank, I love the dimensions. Sounds like you think the way I do.
Are you worried about noise with your overflow setup that way?


BTW, do you do external overflows as well Jack?

 

[lcstorc]

Looks like you are off to a great start.
I assume you are going to hang the lights to preserve the frameless look.

 

[tigerarmy90]

mps, Im not too worried about the overflow, I plan to do a external standpipe with an airline to break the siphon affect so it should be pretty quiet...Im thinking Ill have to mess with it a little to dial it in but it should work out

lynn I will def be hanging the lights, I built the hood to be a hanging pendant that matches the stand! now I just have to figure our how to hang it securely and make it so I can adjust the height easily...here are some pics of the hoods progress

I routed the edges to match the stand

I had this mermaid imported from bali to finish off the look of the pendant

with the l3 reflector in it

 

[kyle1284]

ha she looks good!

 

[kyle1284]

any plans for some t-5s?

 

[tigerarmy90]

thanks kyle! as it works out I came across a icecap660 tonight with the bult in timer so ill be on the hunt for a wiring harness with endcaps and individual reflectors so I can run t5's. I may need to save up a bit though...

 

[kathywithbirds]

cool, love the mermaid!!

sooo.... lost the techie doofus. The t5s would be in addition to the MH/actinics?

 

[mps9506]

You're gonna like the reflector