First Venture To The Salty Side!

[ben1987]

http/www.reefstock.co.uk/index.php?main_...amp;cPath=84_85

use taps and unions so you can turn everything on and off in case something bad happens

 

[andy0902]

Cheers Ben, just been to B&Q and bought a 40mm tank connector so I can measure the hole size i'll need to get drilled in the tank base (going with durso style with weir).

Ive started to draw my tank in 3D on CAD....Bored at work, so I'll try post a pic tomorrow for you all to comment on my poor tank design

Cheers
Andy

 

[andy0902]

Ben,

Ive had a look at that website...it seems quite expensive, i bought the exact same tank connector as whats pictured for £2.48 and on that website it's over £12 am i missing something?

Oh by the way...i've lenghened my tank by 8" to give me an extra 10 UK gallon

 

[SkiFletch]

Andy, not sure if the glass has been cut/tempered yet, but if possible, do yourself a favor and drill dual drains. Always good to have an extra measure of safety in case something goes wrong with the primary one

 

[andy0902]

Andy, not sure if the glass has been cut/tempered yet, but if possible, do yourself a favor and drill dual drains. Always good to have an extra measure of safety in case something goes wrong with the primary one

Yeah i can do that, i'm thinking of moving the to the middle of the tank also, so ill have two large 50mm holes then two smaller 30mm holes next to that. In this formation ---> o 0 0 o

Also getting the front viewing panel in Optiwhite glass, which doesnt have the green tint that all standard glass has.

 

[andy0902]

Well, this is what i've come up with so far...

Andy

 

[ben1987]

looks alright to me, what size drains are you going for?

 

[andy0902]

two 40mm outlets(as per ski's advice) and two 25mm inlets

Please dont say i've done something wrong because theyve drilled the holes now

Cheers
Andy

 

[rabbut]

OOcchhh, you diden't want the glass tampered Don't worry, I've made this mistake before with my custom, it just means you are going to have to be extreamly careful when working arround the tank. As an ex glass worker, I'm shure you'll be able to sus why I say you diden't want the glass tampered What happens when you knock the glass in the wrong place; it breaks. However, how dose it break? Tempered into loads of little pieces, standord just cracks. If you knock a rock into the tempered pain, assuming enough force to break it, the pain just blows out and the tank's contents get onto the floor in seconds, usualy injoring anyone infront of that pain. If you knock standord glass, it cracks and water starts seaping out at an alarming rate, but you get a few minuites to rescue the livestock, and the pain should stay in place, avoiding injory to people working arround the tank. It's only an issue if you knock the pains hard enough to brake, so you can still build the tank from it, but it's not the type you want for an ideal tank build

Also, drilling can't be done on tempered (not shure about CAM'ing it mind) so that makes modifications more difficult later...

£70 for the glass is cheap. The pleasures of "staff rates"

All the best
Rabbut

 

[andy0902]

Well toughened glass is 5x stronger than float glass so that just means i can be 5x as rough with the panels

I do understand what your saying about float glass just cracking ect, but if it's gonna go its gonna go?

You'r more likely to injure yourself with float because you are dealing with dagger shaped shards of glass, whereas toughened glass breaks into tiny little squares.

Cheers

Andy

 

[rabbut]

Yes, but with toughened, you end up with the 300KG's of water in the tank, plus any loose rocks at the front that may get pushed foreward, flying into you.... Anyhow, it's not that much of an issue....

 

[andy0902]

My next problem is lighting!

This is going to be a reef tank, but I don't quite know what lighting to get?

Anybody got any suggestions? I want to buy the lights secondhand possibly (reefing on a shoestring)
They need to be good on the corals and good on the old electric bill!

Cheers
Andy

 

[rabbut]

What corals have you got your eye on? LPS, SPS, or just softies?

 

[andy0902]

Dont quite know yet, but it's no good just catering for corals that require minimal lighting, because no doubt i will want something better further down the line

Andy

 

[rabbut]

If you want ease of use in a 20" deap, a pair of 250W halides will be best, but that ain't gonna be cheap to run (fairly cheap to buy at about £50 second hand off ebay)... On electronic balasts, you would be looking at 56p (ish) a day to run them for an 8 hour photoperiod... You could get away with 150W's for almost all LPS and Softies, but SPS would have to be placed higher-up.

All the best
Rabbut