From nano to 85 gallon rimless

[josh.j.avila]

Link to my 12 gallon build

Well I finally made the plunge from a 12 gallon nano to a nice 48'' low iron rimless tank. The tank is sitting in my living room waiting until we move to actually set it up.

Tank - 48'' planet aquarium
seaside aquatics skimmer
korallin calcium reactor
Full neptune apex
Ecotech M1 return pump
2 EcoTech Gen 2 Pro
2 MP40
BRS carbon/GFO reactor

For live rock I'm thinking about going with tampa bay salt water. I bought the tank and stand used off a reefer from the next local club over. I wanted this tank but in the smaller size, but when I saw this I knew I had to have it plus I would save quite a bit of money going used.


Here it is when I first got it and then cleaned up.

 

[eliramos]

Looking good!!!!!

 

[josh.j.avila]

Thanks, going to give it another good clean shortly really make sure I hit the durso and nossle. I'm pretty stoked to have the power heads, return pump and lights all by ecotech. Forgot to mention that I'm going to run all that off the reef link. I don't think it really needs to be tied into the apex, thinking more of the heater and calcium reactor, I might put the retun pump on the apex though.

 

[Tahoe61]

Boy you did an excellent job of cleaning that tank up. What did you use to clean it up (besides a lot of elbow grease)? Nice equipment list.

 

[josh.j.avila]

The toothbrush on top of the overflow and a bottle of vinegar, I think I used 1000 mL total. I bought way more than I needed two big jugs from the grocery store. I bought the pickling variety as it mentioned it was stronger on the label.

 

[josh.j.avila]

I have to say I'm having a really hard time understanding plumbing for the sump specially unions. They are suppose to be there for easy to disassembly but if you have cement them does it really make it easier to remove. It seems that the union would no longer be usable and you just lost an expensive part compared to a slip connector. I've search quite a few places and youtube and I still don't understand.

 

[TreyC2010]

Unions have a big bulky threaded section that untwists. You don't cement that part. You just cement pipes to the outer most pipes.

 

[TreyC2010]

Notice the bulky middle. That's where you unscrew it and you cement the pipes on the outside

 

[josh.j.avila]

Ahh thank you. I'm going to have to move this tank at some point so I was wanting to go with as many unions as possible to make disassembly easy.

My thoughts were drain into filter socks, and I'm using the vectra M1 return pump. Was going to do silicone tubuing up to a manifold and use that power BRS reactors and possibly a biopellet in the future. Then up from the manifold was going to plumb a nice check valve before going back into the tank.

 

[josh.j.avila]

Notice the bulky middle. That's where you unscrew it and you cement the pipes on the outside

Thanks Trey, coming from a nano, where everything was an AIO this is a vast upgrade for me. I understand how things work in theory with plumbing. The hard part for me has been the practical implementation. I plan on getting blue schedule 40 from BRS with the grey schedule 80 fittings. I was thinking 2 pieces of 1'' and 2 of 0.75''.

 

[josh.j.avila]

I'd like to replicate this on a smaller scale for my tank.

 

[TreyC2010]

Those colored pipes will be very nice compared to white. Put pictures when you get it set up.

 

[josh.j.avila]

Will do, I'm going to be moving shortly so I haven't even started to set it up just collecting equipment. I was planning to dry fit everything so when the move comes it will be easy to set it up that day and get it going.

 

[josh.j.avila]

This is what it looks like now.

 

[josh.j.avila]

EcoTech Vectra M1 pump is here!

 

[josh.j.avila]

 

[FMF0331]

pictures of the corals taken under radion 30 pro ?

 

[josh.j.avila]

Yes sir, have 2 Radion Pro on it.

 

[josh.j.avila]

Noticed I forgot quite a few updates. Here are some full tank shots.

 

[Ryan Moeller]

Great looking tank! I love the look of the rimless design! I plan on getting one soon, at least 100 gallons or so. Looking forward to seeing more updates!