New member - 60G Rimless Build Thread

Briko03 · Feb 6, 2015

Hi Everyone, I am a new member to CTARS this year however I have had reef tanks in the past but had to take a break due to new home purchase and quite a bit of renovation projects.
I figured I would create my obligatory build thread post. In the past I have always pieced tanks together from mostly used equipment however this time I decided to buy everything new and start from scratch.

The tank is a 60G rimless with built in overflow. I began plumbing the tank with PVC, my first time doing this. However realized yesterday that I made a Huge mistake by screwing my union onto the bulkhead for the tank, which I have since learned is a huge NO. Here is the pic of my plumbing for the tank. I have since ripped all this out and will be starting over. The same goes for the return but at least there wasn't so much glued PVC.

So, while I was waiting to go buy my new PVC unions / check valves etc I decided to start designing my rockwork. Here is a aquascape I came up with. All the rock was purchased as part of a 50lb package from MarcoRocks. Looking for some feedback.

Looking forward to sharing more progress with the group after this weekend where I hope to have my new plumbing configuration completed and hopefully running some water.

james30ct · Feb 6, 2015

Welcome to ctars

Vaiodude · Feb 6, 2015

Welcome to CTARS! I'm looking forward to more progress and picture of the system build!

HtfdWhaler · Feb 6, 2015

nice scape!!

FishWrangler · Feb 7, 2015

I love the scape, nice job.

DarkTang · Feb 10, 2015

Welcome to the rimless club!

Frankyrivera · Feb 10, 2015

Nice scape but if it's sitting on top of a pre measured 24x24 cardboard then that is not going to fit or be very tight up on the glass. You may want to leave at least a min of 2" on each side from the glass which puts your scape inside of 20" otherwise you won't be able to fit a mag float in those areas to clean the glass. I have a 60 cube myself and wish I left more room.

Briko03 · Feb 11, 2015

Frankyrivera said:
Nice scape but if it's sitting on top of a pre measured 24x24 cardboard then that is not going to fit or be very tight up on the glass. You may want to leave at least a min of 2" on each side from the glass which puts your scape inside of 20" otherwise you won't be able to fit a mag float in those areas to clean the glass. I have a 60 cube myself and wish I left more room.

Thanks for the tip on this, the cardboard was actually smaller than the 24" I tried my best to transfer the aquascape to my tank however it didn't come out exactly the same as I never epoxied it together. Its still pretty decent. Tank is filling up with water as we speak. More photos to come soon.

SteelerMike · Feb 12, 2015

Welcome to CTARS!!! Looking good so far. Lookig forward to seeing the progression

Briko03 · Feb 12, 2015

Here are some setup pics of the tank and stand, without water or anything running yet.

I decided to plumb my reactor into the return line. Hopefully it will work once i get leak test this bad boy. Hoping to do that tonight.

sassAwrasse · Feb 12, 2015

Looking forward to seeing it filled.

svogun · Feb 12, 2015

Welcome. Good luck with the build!

Briko03 · Feb 17, 2015

Ok have had it running and filled with water for a few days now. No leaks other than a loose bulkhead right off the bat. My skimmer is not producing any bubbles what so ever at this point. I am not sure if I should attribute it to the new skimmer syndrome or if it might be a power issue with my reef keeper. I currently have it in one of the middle outlets and am thinking about moving it. I had to do this with my heater as well.

Here are some pics of it running. Not sure what setting I had the light on at that point.

HtfdWhaler · Feb 17, 2015

Don't know wether this would fix your problem or not but on the RK-PC4, channel 1 & 4 have a 8 amp limit each, while 2 & 3 have a 3 amp limit each.

Briko03 · Feb 25, 2015

So I finally have the skimmer producing some bubbles. It turns out that there was a kink in the air line and it wasnt able to suck air into the skimmer.

Also got my auto top off configured with my reef keeper which wasn't as straight forward as I thought it would be.

I ran into an issue where the reef keeper wasn't switching off the pump even though it said it had. I had to move the pump to one of the end outlets and that resolved my issue. Thankfully I had remembered something about this in my reading. Unfortunately it dropped my salinity way down before I noticed it. Thankfully there were no over flows.

HtfdWhaler · Feb 26, 2015

Briko03 said:
So I finally have the skimmer producing some bubbles. It turns out that there was a kink in the air line and it wasnt able to suck air into the skimmer.

Also got my auto top off configured with my reef keeper which wasn't as straight forward as I thought it would be.

I ran into an issue where the reef keeper wasn't switching off the pump even though it said it had. I had to move the pump to one of the end outlets and that resolved my issue. Thankfully I had remembered something about this in my reading. Unfortunately it dropped my salinity way down before I noticed it. Thankfully there were no over flows.

I had this same time happen to me.

VERY IMPORTANT. On your ATO pump, For safety you want to set a timer on your reefkeeper. You want to tell the reefkeeper the maximum amount of time the pump can run per hour, depending on your system.

An example, you tell the reefkeeper when the switch is triggered the pump can run a maximum of 20 seconds every 2 hours. So after your ATO is triggered the switch is not allowed to go off for another 2 hours.. Of course it can be customized to fit your system.

A believe there is a youtube video on it. Check it out.