Mat's 255 Gallon Rimless Aquarium Build

The plumbing is pretty simple, I have the return pump plumbing going to both sides of the aquarium with endcaps, so if I need to add anything later, then I can just simply can and insert. This is a close up of the return plumbing. I used union's on the two returns so I can easily take off the main feed and modify it when I need too.
 
Thanks. WEll after getting the tank plumbed it was just a matter of waiting for the water to get to the top and start spilling over into the external overflow. I had previously tested the overflow drains for leaks and it passed the test. [smilie=clapping.gif] . I decided to wait and test the return after I got everything together. Since I cemented the return plumbing in top of the return box, I didn't see a need for pretesting. I cemented the pvc into the bulkhead. [smilie=wink.gif]

The next step was to filter my hands through the sand and pull out all the shells from dead crabs and snails. I must have pulled out over 100+ of them. I have had issues in my last aquarium with Rock crabs killing my cleanup crew, corals and fish. I really do not like those things in my aquarium, the also killed my prize anemone by cutting through it!

Since I didn't want to wait any longer I decided to take the live rock from the pail above and inspect each piece for rock crabs before re-inserting back into the aquarium. I'm pretty sure I had two left in the old aquarium, but I only found one. When I caught him, I took him to Bills. I'm wanting to have a show down between it and a mantis shrimp. I'm not sure who will win. [smilie=smirk.gif] I borrowed a heater from another member, thanks John, to get the water temp close to my bins in the floor. I then proceeded to take some of the rocks with corals on them and place them in the aquarium as well. The rock stacking was on! Not to mention the water level goes up every time I put a rock in there. [smilie=surprised.gif]
 
So after stacking the rock say like 20 times, my back was killing me. I had hooked up the calc reactor and GFO reactor on the aquarium hanging over the side to stablize the water. I then looked over at the corals that didn't have light for like 5days+ and I decided they needed to be in the tank. I tested all the parms on the tank, and they looked good. The calc reactor had been running for over a day, I had no amonia, nitrates, nitrites were low and ph was stable.

After stacking the rock the last time, of course I didn't like the stack at all because my first idea was to keep the rock stock off the back glass, but that didn't work out for me AT ALL.....anyway maybe I should have went bigger [smilie=wink.gif] . After getting all the rock all of the containers I filtered the water that it was in through 100micron filters and put it into the tank to get the water level up enough to start trickling into the sump. So basically I have about 80% new water, 20% old water.

Then I started to move my corals over to the new aquarium. Most of them opened up immediately since the light was on when I moved them. I had my actinics on. WOW this tank is clear! Its like having suspended water in the room. The starfire glass was way worth it on this thick glass! I should be much easier to take pictures now through non curved glass.
 
Well after placing the corals all in the aquarium....for some reason I like the stack now. It looked like crap before I added the corals. Go figure. Well most of the sps have lost allot of color. It seems that my deep water acros have actually grown significantly. REally weird eh. May need to perform an experiment here. Anyway, at this point I haven't really lost anything. There is a apple montipora that must have been getting stung by something since it really looks bad on half of it. Dont know what was going on there.

After I placed the corals in as mentioned before the zoo's just opened right up. They were waiting on some light. Now I'm wondering how long they could have gone. I'm sure they would have all been bleached out. After I placed them all in, I took a picture with my camera phone. This is what it looks like.
 
Well as you can guess the fish were starring at the new home and I felt sorry for them so I had to aclimate them over to the new aquarium. Once I got them in they started to act like their old selves within an hour or so. I thought my Tangs were going to be really mad at me and hid for about year or so, but they are really happy. I have been putting the lights on for extended periods so far to get the corals kicking again.

I thought of it like this. IF there was a big storm in the real ocean for a week when the sun didn't come out, the sun would not be cutting the corals a break when the clouds moved out of the way, so I opened the flood gates. The corals are loving it. Here is a picture of the tank with the corals and fish in it.
 
Mat -

With the tank being a rimless tank, have you thought about going wireless power heads? This way you are able to keep a nice streamline look going on, versus having wires hanging out of the tank due to the power heads like in your last photo. You can see the cords of the Tunze's hanging out.

How many pounds of rock do you have in there and do you plan on adding anymore rock to it? It definitely looks nice for sure. I will have to come by sometime and check it out and see the piece of beauty in person.

What carbon are you using?
 
Thanks. No I was unaware of any truely wireless powerhead. If you are reffering to a vortech its not wireless. I would rather have the wire up and out the way than outside the tank. I did the comparison for myself when I purchased my tunze's and since I have like 9 or 10 of them with no issues I decided to stick with them..,..that an may other reasons.

If one day there is a true wireless that produces as much flow as the tunzes and vortech's and I'm recovered from this adventure, I might contemplate exploring that... That would be pretty cool!

I"m not for sure how many pounds of rock I have in this setup. I can say its around 50lbs less than what I had in the 175bow. I will probably stack the right side up a bit when I break down the external fish tank and take the rock out of there, and I have about 50lbs in my garage that I may use, but overall I will not be adding much more rock in the aquascaping. I really like the look I have for now.

I"m not using any carbon or filter sock or anything of that sort. I'm just running my protein skimmer which hasn't pulled out much of anything thus far. It went to work when I added a bag of sand to the aquarium, but other than that I have about an inch of waste in the colleciton cup. I will probably run some carbon in a week when the water murks up a bit.
 
Well at this point I have just finished the wiring underneath the aquarium. Since this is my first metal stand I decide to use the great powers of magnetics to help me with ease on this build. I used a couple power strips with metal housings and connected to my metal frame like this to hold the electrical. This was an easy install and the magnets are super strong! I didn't mount my apex strip like this since it has electronics in it. I just screwed it to the top of the stand which is a piece of 3/4" plywood. ONce I had all the power strips mounted it was just a matter of plugging everything in and getting rid of all the cords I had on the floor.
 
Next step is to start working on the skin around the tank stand. My goal is to have this tank seemless all around. There are no lips on the aquarium. The stand top sticks out 3/4" for the outer sking to fit flush with it. I went to home depot and purchased some 3/4" maple plywood and starting ripping it up. Once cut I have three panels that will go across the front of the stand and two for the ends.

This is my nice brand new maple pieces for the front. Ok something had to go to the waste side and its the yard for now. [smilie=itwasntme.gif]
 
Ok sticking with the magnetic them, I decided to put embed magnets in the wood to hold the doors on. So I got my bor bits out and put counter sink holes in the wood to fit the magnets nice and tight. Here is the bit and holes that I put in the wood. I put one magnet in each corner of the wood. This was pretty much over kill because the magnets are really heavy duty. I guess it will never fall down.
 
WEll this is the dry fit on the aquarium for one panel. the little gap you see will be filled with edge banding on the edges and a protect cap on the bottom to keep the wood from flairing when you remove the panels.
 
Thanks. To tell you the truth, the tubs would have been allot cheaper. I wonder if I could have put a small piece of starefire glass in the edge of one [smilie=thinking.gif]

Ok. Well I have finished putting all the holes in the front covers for the magnets. I placed them all up on the aquarium for a dry fit to ensure I had the correct measurements and I'm right on. Thank goodness. I purchesed my edge banding today so now I just have to place it on the edges of the wood.

I decided to put rubber on the bottom of the doors as an edge band. That way it will not scuff the floor and it will not get wet. I just dont know where to find what I want now. Guess its back to home depot. I may end up using weather stripping on the bottom.

Here is a pic of the dry fit.
 
Stopped by Neptunes and couldnt resist this nice blueberry gorgonian. I decided to add this one to the other ones I have purchased from him over the years. I have never tried one of these before, so I figured it would be a nice addition to the new setup. The other two I have encrusted themselves to the rock before I broke down the aquarium. I'm hoping this one will do the same.
 
Well I havn't spent much time lately on the tank stand, but i have been battling the brown algae on the glass and some on the sand. I'm just going to have to wait this thing out. [smilie=dull.gif] Cleaning the glass every day really sucks.

Well my lawn mower blenny is really happy. The tank is pretty stable. I have everything running on it now. I have been adding more rock each day trying to get all of my rock in there. I think I'm done for now. i'm going to let the fish and corals recover a bit before I start re-arranging everything again..

I did my weekly rounds of the stores this weekend and low and behold, one of the fish that I have really been wanting for a while was sitting in Neptunes Cove. Yep its an Achilles Tang! This little guy was a little skimmish at the store and wasn't too interested in eating, but I took a gamble since he was nice and fat and looked very healthy..... Oh and not to mention... he had only been unbagged from shipping for a couple of hours. I figured he is probably sea sick from bouncing in bag from the air plane.

Any way. I got him home and i dipped the fish and slowly acclimated him over to the tank in an two hour process. Once all fully dipped for internal/external parasites etc... I placed him in the aquarium. In the morning it was fighting time with my two yellow tangs. He has held in there well and now is getting along with the other tangs......some what [smilie=thinking.gif] and he is eating off the rocks and starting to eat the floating left overs from the veggie clip. I'm excited. He has a few new bumps and bruises from diving in and out of the rock work, but that was expected. Here is a pic of my new little TANG.
 
Well I guess its been a while since an update, but I havnt done a whole lot lately except add a bunch new fish and let things settle in. I did however start to finish my stand. I got some wood putty and started to fill in the imperfections in the wood and sand them down to a smooth surface. After getting the surface fairly smooth, I purchased some wheater stripping from home depot and placed it on the bottom of the panels.

The wheater stripping is water resistant and will keep the doors from getting wet if there is any spills and most importantly, it will keep the wood from splintering on the bottom when you are removing them. The wheather stripping goes on with an adhesive sticky back. You can see the installation below.

The close up shows a better picture of the footing I placed on the bottom of the wood and the magnet inserts that hold up the back of the panels. Now I"m just trying to find a company that will match the stain I want to put on the panels. Home depot does not match stains, so I'm currently in the hunt for such a place.

Mean while I guess I will keep adding TANGS to my aquairium [smilie=clapping.gif]
 
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