Noob's 55gallon

[Noob]

I contacted Rodney Hick's in March to have a custom tank built and had it delivered early this month. My tank dimensions are 42"L x 18"W x 17"D. it's 10mm low iron glass, pvc bottom, corner overflow w/ 2 x 1" drains and 1 x 3/4" return. I'll be trying a Herbie-style overflow. The reason why I have these "odd" dimensions is b/c I didn't want anything too big while I'm living in an apartment and it's b/c I've seen the PAR ratings on tanks up to this size with my Maxspect Razor. I'll have spots for low light corals on the edges of my tank.

for the stand, i decided to make it out of 8020 t-slot aluminum extrusions. i wanted something strong, light, and if i ever decided to break down the tank/stand, i can always repurpose the material. even if i went w/ a longer tank one day, i can reuse a lot of material.

phase 1 - purchasing and receiving the tank
the tank before it was delivered

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phase 2 - building the stand
8020 aluminum 48" in length, needed to be cut down

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8020 Ultralight series

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cutting aluminum still creates a lot of dust, always purchase a carbide blade and it will cut like butter

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aluminum cut to length (the easy part)

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drilling access holes for the bolts

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tapping the aluminum by hand (the hard part)

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pre-assembly

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almost done

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stand is DONE!

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i may add some corner brackets/braces but i don't think it's necessary. i read the pdf on the strength of joints for t-slot aluminum and i have the best strength you can get. some other aluminum stands just use the corner brackets/gussets and i may still add them, but right now , i think it's extremely sturdy as it is.

on to starting phase 3 (plumbing) middle of this week hopefully

 

[Noob]

Plumbing started over the weekend, but I didn't get the tank wet yet b/c i couldn't find any plastic 1" ratchet clamps locally. I decided to go w/ vinyl tubing b/c it's just a lot easier to work with. also added a board to the back so i can mount all the electrical components and my RKL.

just getting started

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test fitting

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almost done. those 1" clamps aren't coming fast enough!

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[Noob]

Had the tank up and running for a few weeks now. Here's the bottom of the tank.

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I'm working on the wiring a bit. The board is a piece of HDPE, so it will won't warp from the moisture or anything. the power supply for my Maxspect is mount on the back. I still have to hide or straighten out a lot of the wiring. Oh, here's a note, the power supply of the fuge lights take too much space so you need extenders, same thing for the Tunze ATO.

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While i was at it, i built myself a better light mount for my Razor.

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And this is the whole tank. I have not decided if i'm going to wrap it w/ panels or not. if i do not wrap it, at the very least, i'm going to buy some plexi for the sump to cover as much of it as possible to keep dust/debris out of it.

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[danschargers21]

Where did you get the T slot?

 

[Noob]

@danschargers21 wrote:

i got it from 8020.net

 

[danschargers21]

Mind if I ask which series? looks like they have 10 through 45 with the tslot.

 

[Noob]

I have the 15 series fractional so that means my material is 1.5" thick. The 10 series is 1" thick. The metric series is in millimeter. Also if it says it's 1530, just means it's 1.5" tall x 3"wide.

I think if I had to do it over again, I would just go 10 series. If you see the Red Sea stands for their tanks, they use a lot smaller t-slot and it holds very well. I dunno what Vertex uses.