My 57 Illuminata set up

CSJIII · Jan 30, 2012

So I decided to upgrade my 28 JBJ for something a little larger. A little cleaner. A little more...put it together yourself and make it mine. I knew that I liked the look of a rimless tank so I decided to go with an Illuminata 57 gallon rimless tank and matching stand. I am going with a Aqueon model 2 sump that fits nicely under the stand but not leaving much room for my ATO reservoir so I will have to get a custom acrylic made to fit in the left over space. I have some things that I will be moving over from my 28 JBJ, such as my Neptune Apex controller, an MP10 powerhead ( and an MP 40 on order), a JBJ ATO, 3 BRS dosing pumps ,the wireless for the Apex and a Precision Marine redline 125 that was left over from a frag tank that I had previously.

I love the tank just the way it is but made a decision to paint the rear glass black. It will make the colors pop and help to mask the large overflow. First thing to do is to paint the rear glass.

Light coats make it cleaner. This is the prep coat.

This is the paint I used to paint the rear glass. And It looks really nice!

Here is the tank set up. Looking good I think.

I had asked the question on here and got so many good answers. My question was, would the weight of my tank be too much for my floor to hold. I am estimating it at about 850lbs after its filled and live rock added. Everyone told me it would be no problem, but the one response that made me feel better was as follows.

bct15 said:
From my view;

Your stand has bottom dimensions

36in x 20in = 720 square inches

You tank weight divided by the surface area gives you the stress exerted on the floor

600 lbf/ 720 sq in = 0.84 psi

This stress is minuscule...like a previous example take a humans average foot simplified to a 12inch by 4 inch rectangle (attempting to average the non constant foot width) and let's say a weight of 210 lbf. The total surface area of a foot

(12in x 4in) = 48 sq inches

Dividing the load by total surface area for both 2 and 1 foot

210lbf/ 96 sq in = 2.18 psi
210lbf/ 48 sq in = 4.375 psi

So you walking around the second floor exerts a higher stress than the tank will (plus it's a cyclic load rather than a static load which is even worse). Also, the floor is there to increase the surface area of anything resting on the beams and distribute the load better across the beams. In short, you should be ok.

So I figured LETS GO.

CSJIII · Jan 30, 2012

From reading on here and talking to a few people, this is what I decided on for my return plumbing setup.

It fits nicely in the overflow box

When attaching to the bulkheads, I used a reef safe sealer that I got from my LFS, (Aquatica in Tinley Park, IL. Good people over there)

Now its ready to hook up the plumbing. Here is an under tank shot after the plumbing is hooked up.

With that done, I am now trying to figure out what is the best way to hang my AI sol blue fixture. I like to be progressive so I decided that LED would be my light of choice. I dont want it hung from the ceiling and dont want it resting on the tank. I did get some helpful instructions from a member on here for some hangers that attach to the stand and will hang the fixture. Update on that soon.

hddtran · Jan 30, 2012

great start.

you should have covered the tank completely when you spray that rust patroliuem paint

update more photo as you go. we all like to see poeple making progress....