90Gallon First Major build, many DIY mods: Eurobracing, overflow,stand Lots of Pics!

[Rocketboy52]

Well its high time I embrace this new addiction with conviction. I have been a lurker on RC for the past 6 months, and I’m ready to fully commit to my newest obsession and join in the fray that is posting on RC.

About a year ago, a co-worker of mine, Bob, invited me over to his house to introduce me to his tank that he built himself. The tank is a carbon fiber framed, starfire glass, earthquake proof, 230gal display masterpeice complete with a fully automated support /sump system. I was instantly HOOKED. With a tank like Bob's many non beleivers are instantly converted. Here are a few pics of his tank, along with a thread he did a few years ago on RC.
Bob's Carbon Fiber Build Post

[Rocketboy52]

Being the cheap A@# BA@#$$D that I am, I found a used 37 gallon tank for sale on Craigslist locally and bought it on Labor Day 2008. It was neglected, dirty, had way too much rock for its size and too much fish for its little water volume, but it was my start into reef keeping so I instanly loved it. It was also local to me in the small town I live in so transporting it home was no big deal. The tank came with three fish, a mature maroon clown, a yellow tang, and a marine betta. This is what it looked like when I went to pick it up.







After getting the tank home, I scrubbed all the live rock, rinsed the sand, cleaned all the equipment, and set the tank up with only about half of the live rock it had orignally. I kept the three fish in the main tank, and set up a 20 gallon live rock only tank next to it to store the surplus live rock.

[Rocketboy52]

I spent the following months working on learning the basics and fought hard to get nitrates under control. Major diatom blooms were a major issue too. I changed the sump from the original bioball crap, to a biological filter with live rock. I also removed all the sponge filters from the setup. A few weeks later, another co-worker with a reef tank donated his chateo clippings and finally started to get my nitrates under control. I introduced my first additions to the tank, and installed a sump light in the stand to grow chateo.













Since my plan was to make the tank into a reef tank, I wanted start getting the massive amounts of manjo and aptasia anemones under control. I bought 2 peppermint shrimp, one didn’t survive the first night, the other one disappeared 2-3 days after that. After tying to figure out what was eating them, I figured it was my Beautifully awesome marine betta, si O decided to donate him to a fish store in Bakersfield, as I had also been having hermit crabs get eaten every couple of weeks.

Then my first Major Tragedy struck! In mid February, I got a call from my wife at work telling me that my two year son dumped a bunch of liquid hand soap into my sump to “make some bubbles�. I rushed home from work, but the damage was done, and I lost the Yellow tang a bunch of the new additions like the green star polyp, birds nest frag, some hermit crabs, and a feather duster. I did a complete 100% water change and rinsed all the rock. I decdied that night to focus all my energy on building and setting up my new 90 gallon tank. As a side note, I have been fighting major algae and cyano issues since the soap incident and will likely scrub the rock when I get ready to set up the new 90 gallon tank.

[Rocketboy52]

After having the 37gallon tank up and running for a week, I knew I wouldn’t be satisfied with just 37 gallons so after a few more weeks of craigslist hunting I found exactly what I wanted, a 2’x 2' x 3’ 90 gallon tank. Being inspired by Bob’s tank, I really liked the cube-like proportions of his tank, and after months of staying up WAAYY too late reading other posts on RC, I finally designed and started work on my “New� 90gallon tank build.





My goal is to make a peninsula tank with eurobracing, external overflow, custom metal stand with a cabinet façade held onto the metal frame with magnets, and I want to try and keep as much systems hardware out of the display as possible. The tank I bought, had a center glass strap and to make way for the euro bracing I had to cut it out and also removed the upper rim lip of the tank.

[Rocketboy52]

I'm setting up my external overflow based on the experiences of BeanAnimal found in this thread:
Silent and Failsafe Overflow System

















For the sump I spent a lot of time on Melev's awesome site where I found hours of reading and tips, well worth the time. My sump is going to be made of .25" thick acrylic, will house my Oddesea skimmer, have a 12 gallon refugium section. You can find his site here:
Marc's Reef Page

[Rocketboy52]

This last week I spent my evenings gluing on my Euro-reef braces, and have one more to go and will hopefully bond it together tommorrow night. Then two nights after that I can fill it with water and make sure she holds together!! Yea! Keep your fingers crossed. Here is how the tanks sits this evening letting the silicone set up.





After the tank is done, I'm going to start building my stand and sump. I've already started collecting materials form them, so hopefully I'll be able to get them together quick.

I have learned so much from reading other fabulous build threads on RC, that I hope some others with be able to benefit from mine, and I also hope to have a some of my many questions answered too, so here it goes.

Any quetions, comments, or tips please post them! Plus I'll try not to make such a long single post next time... can you tell I'm excited about this whole reef thing? A special thanks go out to Bob M., Lou H., Stephan L., Len E., Chris R. and Melev for getting me addicted to this whole thing, addicts always love to share their vices with the young and innocent right?!

[AwkwardParrot]

Wow, this is an awesome build...and i think your a little crazy.....but I'm sure hopen it all works out! Good luck! and what did you use to cut those holes in the tank with the dremel tool?

[H20ENG]

Great start! I think Salt Licks tank is one of the greatest DIYs on RC ever! Looks like you have a great mentor and are well on your way!

[brackishdude]

Great wok. I have a similiar design, and I think you'll find that your bottle neck in the flow will be the slits. Besides offering minimal surface skimming (a cardinal sin for many Calfo proponents), you will proably have a hard time getting enough flow to flush the air from the siphon, though I could be wrong. At the very least, the siphon drain is going to be very choked back.

Have you considered just connecting all of the slits into one weir? You could still do it if cut from the tank side of the glass.






Not meaning to poo poo your design, it really is quite well done.

[jjk_reef00]

Great build! Did you use a calculator for determining the size of the overflow teeth, or did you just overestimate it?

[fishoutawater]

Nice build, great pics. I agree with above poster about your overflow slits though. Looking forward to seeing more. That sucks about your first tank. How are you going to "soapproof" this one?

[125G Reefer]

Props going out to you. Nicely done.

[Rocketboy52]

Originally posted by AwkwardParrot
what did you use to cut those holes in the tank with the dremel tool?

I bought a rotozip Tile cutting tool from Home Depot. There is a great thread at: 50 gallon breeder external overflow

If I were to do it again, I would buy a bigger spindle and tool. Part of what determined the size of my wier teeth was how painfully slow it was to cut the 3/8thick glass with a .125 tool. I work with cutting tools a lot, and the rotozip tool is simply a carbide burr tool. Rotozip makes a .5" diameter version of the same cutter, but you would need a much beefer spindle.

Originally posted by jjk_reef00
Great build! Did you use a calculator for determining the size of the overflow teeth, or did you just overestimate it?

As far as calculating the size and configuration of the overflow wier, I first determined how much flow I want through the sump. Melev's site recommends 3-5 and times the display and hour through the sump. I measured the flow area of my currnet tank 37gallon tank, used the water line to determine that it is currenlty only flowing in about 25% of its flow area, and quadrupled the flow area on the new tank. Since I'm really only scaling the ratio, I expect my current flow area (weir slits) to be 4 times larger then needed. Especially since I'm only planning on moving 400-500gallons an hour through the sump. I plan on relying much more on internal display flow for most of the circulation needs.

I orignally wanted to do a slit, similar to what was shown in the thread I posted above, but I have hopes to possibly put a surge tower, or wave box on the other half of the back wall. I also wanted to keep the Eurobracing all the way around, as I believe the tanks biggest possibilite for failure is to have one of the corners peel open. By maintaining stiffness around the upper lip of the tank, I think the potential peel is much less.

I also planned on cutting much smaller holes, and more of them, but after getting into the glass grinding, It still took me like 5 hours to notch the ones I got. I figure if I need to alter the flow size smaller I can always put a acrylic control plate to manipulate the flow rate and water height. We'll see how accurate the flow assumption were when I get to put water in it next week hopefully

[Rocketboy52]

Wow, spelling really bad in the last post, guess I'll have to take some time to proof read my responses first. Yikes

[jbird69]

Wow youve really got a neat DIY here!

[Rocketboy52]

Tonight I finished my last Eurobrace bond. The tank is essentially done. Once the silicone has set for 48 hours, I'll fill it with water and make sure she holds up a for a few days without any drama before committing to the next step.



I'm trying to decide what color to paint the back wall of the tank. Either black or blue. I've seen tanks that I like with blue and black. I think Black makes the colors from the rocks and critters stand out better, but I think the blue makes the tank feel more tropical and bright. Anyone who has committed to one of these two colors and hates what they chose or have other good argument for one over the other?

I was also going to rebond on the upper lip (plastic tank trim) from the tank after bonding in the Eurobraces, but I don't think I will now. When I build my canopy, I'll have the canopy cover the top inch and half of the tank, so that trim would show anyways. The trim is so flexy that I can't beleive it would actually add to the stiffness of the tank, but maybe someone else can convince me otherwise. I'm thinking it is purely cosmetic, and at this point, I don't think it is really that attractive anyway. Any thoughts?

[steve68]

The euro brace looks great dont put the trim on trust me when i tell you silicone bonds real good that is not going any where.
as for te back wall i have had 3 colors. blue navy blue & black to be honest i like the navy blue the best not to blue & not to dark but in the end you wont see it any way it will cover by the purple stuff LOL..
keep up the great work.

[troylee]

Originally posted by steve68
The euro brace looks great dont put the trim on trust me when i tell you silicone bonds real good that is not going any where.
as for te back wall i have had 3 colors. blue navy blue & black to be honest i like the navy blue the best not to blue & not to dark but in the end you wont see it any way it will cover by the purple stuff LOL..
keep up the great work.

the euro brace is the way to go but yours looks to me like it might be a problem because you used 4 seperate pieces i know for a fact on acrylic tanks they must be one piece without question or youre asking for trouble.....maybe glass is different im no expert on glass but maybe someone that is will chime in and give there 2 cents...i would'nt fill that puppy till i double checked.......besides that great job.....

[Rocketboy52]

Originally posted by steve68
i like the navy blue the best not to blue & not to dark but in the end you wont see it any way it will cover by the purple stuff LOL..
keep up the great work.

Steve thanks for the vote on navy blue, do you know of any tanks or have any pictures you can point me to of a Navy Blue background?

[Imzadi]

See, I thought the euro-bracing was for Acrylic tanks only. I like how that looks! And you could attach things to it, like the magnet for the powerheads! lol

Interesting! and I love the design.

[Rocketboy52]

Originally posted by troylee
the euro brace is the way to go but yours looks to me like it might be a problem because you used 4 seperate pieces i know for a fact on acrylic tanks they must be one piece without question or youre asking for trouble.....maybe glass is different im no expert on glass but maybe someone that is will chime in and give there 2 cents...i would'nt fill that puppy till i double checked.......besides that great job.....

Troylee,
All of the glass tank eurobracing that I have seen are made with 4 individual strips, except for this one on this thread:
Ed Reef's '295-gallon Peninsular ZEOVit SPS tank

Ed's custom made tank had a Eurobraced top that was routed out of a single plate of glass. After seeing Ed's Top brace, I actually ordered a plate of 3/8" thick glass and started trimming the plate. I was using my dremel, with the 1/8th rotozip cutter, and it took me an hour and a half to cut 8 inches, and a dulled the tool. Since I had a total of 60+ inches to cut, I figured I would I try to cut stirps and do the score and snap, but I broke the plate. Here is a tip, if you are going to score and cut your own glass, start with 3/16 and work up to 1/4 or 3/8 after you have a good technique. I practiced with the broken pieces, and also cut some strips with a concrete cutting abrasive saw, but eh edges were really rough. You could easily do it with a wet tile saw if you have a large enough machine to get the travel in the cut. I can snap the 3/8ths glass, but didn't get good until after I ordered the strips from a glass shop. I think now with the 3/8' thick stuff I can get what I want on about 75% of the attempted cuts.

I did check the stiffness of the single strips, and to get the same amount of support from the original center brace, I would only need 1.25" of width on my side braces. I upped them to 2.5" wide so that they would be well over built. I could have made some bad assumptions in my back of the envelope calculations, but thats why I'll test the tank for a few days with water in it in the garage before I move it into the house.
Here is a screen image or what I wanted to first cut from a single plate. FWIW, I got a glass shop to quote routing out the pocket for me, and they wanted $550! I could order a new tank with starfire on two sides and Eurobracing from Charlies Fish Tank Factory for that price!

[Rocketboy52]

Originally posted by fishoutawater
That sucks about your first tank. How are you going to "soapproof" this one?

I'll make sure the lower cabinet doors will have locks. )

[bmac]

Looking great!

[impur]

Great build! I think your eurobrace looks perfect. If it needed to be 1 piece, so would the rest of your tank. Silicon bonds to glass on a molecular level, thus why all 4 sides stay together with 90gallons of water in there.

For the back you might consider window tint. I did that on my 75gal and it works great. The biggest bonus is no mess and its not permanent.

[Imzadi]

Originally posted by impur
Silicon bonds to glass on a molecular level, thus why all 4 sides stay together with 90gallons of water in there.

Not to be rude... but you are kidding, right? Solvent bonds acrylic molecularly (is that a word?) but silicone is just sticky crap that dries and bonds while remaining pliable... There is nothing molecular about it...