31g Shallow Rimless build

Ruskin · Jul 23, 2020

Hello All. I've always wanted to do a build thread with past tanks, but for one reason or another just never got a chance. This time I'd like to change that and post as I build my newest tank. While my reef is setup now since we've moved to our new house I miss having a freshwater tank and have been planning one for a little bit now. While I know this site is mostly about our Reefs my build could easily be adapted to a reef tank as well.

Anyways, on to the good stuff:

The tank will be a rimless 31g glass tank for a group of Lake Tanganyika shell dwellers, a fish I haven't been lucky enough to keep before but have always wanted to.
Tank dimensions will be 30Lx20Wx12H. It will be a small peninsula tank with one of the short ends featuring an all in one style overflow to house the equipment and keep the setup looking as clean as possible.

You'll see in the pics that I have added a glass divider that will be directly behind the black acrylic separating the equipment from the display. While this might be overkill or unnecessary I know that it's advised that acrylic wont bond to glass with silicone long term, and my first ever tank being an AIO style, I witnessed this first hand when it started to separate. While I know this is unconventional I'm hoping it will be successful. I plan to still silicone the two together to form a bond, but will rely on the glass for structural support. The glass is notched so that I don't need to drill it also.

The back compartment will feature only one baffle to form two chambers. One for media appropriate for the Cichlids ill be keeping and the other to house a heater, return pump etc. This is probably where I would add a second baffle if I was going to use this for a reef. Having just two compartments gives me plenty of space in the return chamber to avoid having the pump run dry.

Equipment list will follow as I move forward on the build. I started getting quotes on the glass and acrylic already so hopefully this build will move along at a steady enough pace.

I know it's freshwater, but I still hope you follow along with this build as it progresses.

Matt

Daniel@R2R · Jul 24, 2020

Looking forward to this! Following!!

Ruskin · Jul 28, 2020

Well, had a pretty major issue with the build already. The plan was to build the tank in a peninsula style because it was to fit on the halfwall/room divider we have. Having not built this wall I was not sure of its structural integrity so over the the weekend we weight tested it. It wasn't good. There was way more deflection then I was comfortable with (ie. any, lol).

Still, something good came out of it. My wife suggested a different location and a slightly bigger tank

so the new plan will be a 40g tank. The prices came back on the glass and while they were reasonable, they were nearly twice that of a 40g breeder so I'll probably go with an in stock tank.

I don't want to be drilling this tank for a sump, so I still plan to build this as an all in one system. Some of the plumbing parts arrived today. I wanted to have them in hand before I finalized the size/layout.

Pictures when there is something worth taking pictures of. Stay Tuned.

FreakPrism · Aug 3, 2020

Out of curiosity, is there a reason you are not moving to a reef or marine tank? I ran freshwater also, and after selling my tank this spring, I decided to move to marine/reef system.

Ruskin · Aug 3, 2020

FreakPrism said:
Out of curiosity, is there a reason you are not moving to a reef or marine tank? I ran freshwater also, and after selling my tank this spring, I decided to move to marine/reef system.

I have a reef system currently running but always wanted to have shell dwellers. Unfortunately when I built my reef I wasn't a member here so didnt do a build thread.

Ruskin · Aug 3, 2020

So the tank is ordered just waiting for it to arrive. Apparently 40g breeders are even more popular during Covid so I have to wait for it to show up.

In the mean time, I got started on a small project with some scrap lumber. I want to breed these guys when I get them so I decided I would try my hand at baby brine shrimp. From what I've read it seems pretty straight forward so I decided to build a small station to house the bottles.

I had the wood frame already to keep some equipment off the base of my reef stand but I redid that and had this piece left over. The bottles are about 2 3/4" dia. and hold about 750ml. After 1.5L of water, a bathroom break and a 3" hole saw this is what it looked like.

The airline splitter has a lip to hang on a tank so I had to remove that and use some double sided tape to stick this to the stand.

A few more holes to route the air line, added the air pump and cut, drilled and reused the bottle bottoms as lids.

And that's where it stands at the moment. Not bad for about 30 minutes of work and $0 spent since I had everything already laying around.

Ruskin · Aug 23, 2020

It's been a while, but things are starting to move forward. The tank arrived and I got the custom piece of glass picked up.

Here's a shot of the separator going in that will support the acrylic.

Made a bit of a mess getting some of the tape out, but I waited for the silicone to dry and cleaned it up nicely.

While I was waiting for the silicone to cure and for the acrylic to be ready I got to work on the compartment to hold the media in the first chamber. I wanted 4 compartments so that I could run whatever I needed to. For now the plan will be floss followed by some crushed coral and then biomax. I will still have room to add something else should it be required.

That's it for now while I wait for the acrylic to be done. I found a local place that could cut it for much cheaper then I could make a jig on my router table and get it cut myself. The downside is the wait time, but what can you do. I've also gotten to work on the stand. The structure is built so I had a place to put the tank for now. After a trip to the lumber yard I now have all the material I need to make the face frame and doors. Hopefully I'll have time to do that in the next week or so.

Stay tuned, it's going to come together more quickly soon.

Ruskin · Sep 4, 2020

I picked up the acrylic the other day so I got cracking on getting it installed. Pretty straight forward. I applied silicone the back and pressed it in place on the glass separator. When that was dry I came back and sealed all the edges. Even though the glass is keeping all the water out I wanted to make sure nothing could get back behind the acrylic anyways.

When that was done I painted the outside of the tank to hide the view of all the equipment and media. This has been a pretty budget build so far and I wanted to keep it that way, so I just used some of my Wife's craft paint. It took maybe 6 or so coats with a roller to make sure it was thick enough to block out any light. Its super smooth, so if you dont have to paint much I would highly recommend acrylic craft paint.