Our 210 Rimless Build Thread

[GlassMunky]

ill be sure to let you know when it arrives. one of the LFS around here has sold ALOT of the planet tanks in the past few months, and talking to the other locals about their experience is what made me pull the trigger. everyone had great things to say and all the glass and silicone looked good on theirs, so i hope mine is the same way!

We toyed with the idea of getting it 84 long but the price increase over the 72 was a bit too much for our budget. big tanks get expensive QUICK

 

[GlassMunky]

The tank is on its way here!!!!!
All 945lbs of it

 

[GlassMunky]

Well the tank made it to the house safe and sound!

UPS did however manage to damage the stand by brushing another pallette across it in shipping, messing up the powder coating so the stand is on its way back to Planet to be fixed up. Ive got to say though, that even with the hassle of UPS messing up, the guys from Planet Aquariums were available immediately over the phone and were a great help in getting everything sorted out.

Now we just wait a little bit for the stand to get back here and then we can start figuring out Sump, and plumbing

I also picked up 2 more Gallons of Muriatic Acid to wash some more liverock that we found during the move so we can get all of that into the 100G stock tub to start Curing/cycling.

 

[GlassMunky]

Well its been a while since an update but we've been slowly making progress. ;Cat
We ordered all the plumbing parts and last week went to start plumbing the tank only t realize that with the tank being 6ft wide, while we can reach to the back middle of the tank, it wasn't the easiest spot to reach for measuring and glueing pvc. So we decided the easiest plan of attack was to flip the tank 180º on the stand and flip the sump 180º as well to make a "mirror image" of the tank with the backside facing the middle of the room. With the back facing the room, we got to work plumbing the tank yesterday. The tank has an exterior overflow box with 3x 1.5" drains, which we plumbed into a bean animal style drain system, where we reduced one drain from 1.5 down to 1" which is our full siphon drain, and then leaving one of the 1.5" as the durso/secondary drain, and the other 1.5" drain as the dry emergency drain.
Ive never run a bean animal style, as I've never had 3 holes in my tank, but i did/do always run herbie style drains with a single full siphon and emergency so i have a little idea how the bean works, but with all the "complex" plumbing on the system i figured the best thing to do would be share the setup and see what others think. We tried to keep it pretty simple and straightforward, with the return pump only running the tank, with both return lines having union ball valves to tune flow and then a single offshoot for a media reactor.
We had thought about also having the main pump feed the calcium reactor and UV sterilizer but figured trying to tune everything to the correct flow rates, which would require additional flow meters, wasn't worth the added effort and chose to just get a small feed pump for each one at the correct flow rate for that piece of equipment so the flow is always constant. We went with a Pentair 40W Smart UV and We will probably end up with a maxi-jet 900 as the UV feed pump for a constant 230 gph through the sterilizer which recommends between 157-262gph. Since the UV is so large, we decided the easiest place for it to fit and still have access for changing bulbs etc, is directly in front of the sump on the tank stand floor with a pvc clamp holding it in place.
We plan to fill up the tank with just tap water in the coming week and let the system run for a couple of days to make sure all the plumbing is good with no leaks, and since the all the plumbing is facing the middle fo the room, we will be able to easily spot and fix anything that comes up.
Once its run and all the plumbing is checked and no leaks, we will drain the tank, disconnect most of the plumbing at the unions and then flip the tank and sump back 180º so its facing forward on the stand again, and then reconnect the unions/plumbing so we can start aquascaping the tank!
All of our rock has been bleached and acid washed and then cured for about a month- month and a half and then drained back to dry so we can scape it with the rock mortar so theres no risk of any rockslides in the future. Hopefully the tank will have water and start the cycle process in the next couple months!
And because any build thread is useless without pics....
Please let us know what you guys think of the plumbing and if there's anything we forgot to think about. Thanks Reef2Reef!

 

[dantimdad]

Looking good!

 

[GlassMunky]

Looking good!

Thanks man. A lot of tanks here on R2R have been an inspiration in how we run this system.

 

[GlassMunky]

So after playing around with the initial TIdeline overflow that came with the tank for about a week trying to tune it right with low flow, high flow, different drain heights and setups and couldn't get it to be quiet. The tank is right in the living room next to the tv and kitchen and i don't want a ton of noise. After talking to some people here on R2R i was recommended the Exotic Marine overflows (i believe he may be a R2R sponsor?) and i have to say WOW THIS THING IS QUIET!!! The only noise anywhere on the system now is the trickle in the sump from the filter socks, and honestly i haven't even tried to quiet that down its so minimal and once the tank has doors it probably won't even be noticeable, heck the skimmer might even be louder ;Happy
Im super happy with the new overflow to say the least.
Now that thats done and taken care of, we will have some fiends come and help us flip the tank back around the correct way and we can start getting rock in the tank and figuring out an aquascape while also figuring out the door situation. I was quoted everywhere from 5-7K from local cabinet makers just for wooden doors to attach to the metal, which i feel is kinda crazy for a regular door ;Bored (the tank wasn't even that much) but moving forward with progress so can't complain.

 

[TX_Punisher]

Looks nice. I’ll keep them in mind when I go big. Or bigger

 

[GlassMunky]

Thanks. yea the tank itself is super well built and i love how it looks (never had a rimless tank, let along one this big) and honestly, when i just walked downstairs this morning, i forgot that the tank was even running still cause its so quiet with this new overflow
Def putting a little pep back in my step on this build

 

[Jimbo662]

So after playing around with the initial TIdeline overflow that came with the tank for about a week trying to tune it right with low flow, high flow, different drain heights and setups and couldn't get it to be quiet. The tank is right in the living room next to the tv and kitchen and i don't want a ton of noise. After talking to some people here on R2R i was recommended the Exotic Marine overflows (i believe he may be a R2R sponsor?) and i have to say WOW THIS THING IS QUIET!!! The only noise anywhere on the system now is the trickle in the sump from the filter socks, and honestly i haven't even tried to quiet that down its so minimal and once the tank has doors it probably won't even be noticeable, heck the skimmer might even be louder ;Happy
Im super happy with the new overflow to say the least.
Now that thats done and taken care of, we will have some fiends come and help us flip the tank back around the correct way and we can start getting rock in the tank and figuring out an aquascape while also figuring out the door situation. I was quoted everywhere from 5-7K from local cabinet makers just for wooden doors to attach to the metal, which i feel is kinda crazy for a regular door ;Bored (the tank wasn't even that much) but moving forward with progress so can't complain.

First, this looks like it's going to be an amazing setup!

I was scrolling through looking at your posts and got to post #24 and saw the tideline overflow and cringed! My first thought was man on a big tank like this it's gonna be really loud. Then got to this post and saw you switched to the Exotic. I went through the same thing with my tideline. I dealt with it for a little over a year before discovering the Exotic. So glad I switched too.

 

[J.durk]

Don’t know if I missed it somewhere but, how thick is that glass? We just picked up our 225 but ours is euro braced. Love the rimless look!

 

[GlassMunky]

Don’t know if I missed it somewhere but, how thick is that glass? We just picked up our 225 but ours is euro braced. Love the rimless look!

The tank walls are all 3/4” and it’s got a 1” bottom. The thing is built like a tank

 

[GlassMunky]

I really have the way eurobracing looks and the fact that it blocks some of the tank to work in, so for me it was either a tradition rimmed tank or rimless and the price was almost identical so said screw it and went rimless

 

[GlassMunky]

Well its been a while since any updates so figured id share a quick pic of the work we got done in the past week or so.
After going back and forth with tons of woodworkers, we still couldn't find anyone who was able to make us a tank stand wrap and canopy so we decided to go with the industrial look for now and keep everything wide open and visible. this should also help us keep up on keeping the tank and sump/equipment clean.
SO to that end, we picked up a 70" Multi-light RMS rail and got that hug up along with the 4 Radion XR-30 Gen3 Pros as well as concealing the cords.
We also moved the sump out of the way and cut an extra access hole and installed a blank wall plate in the wall for the eventual AWC system.
for now though, heres a pic of the lights finally hung up (which means we could finally put the rest of the art up on the wall behind the tank)

 

[GlassMunky]

Working on the Aquascape over the past few days... opinions?

 

[coseal]

that plumbing job is legit! keep it industrial at least for awhile to enjoy your labor! i know my open stand keeps me on my toes and i feel like it keeps my electronics a little drier than they would be in an enclosed stand... aquascape

 

[Devaji]

what a tank it's always nice to see what ppl go through for a reef. lots of love in this build.
I was just looking at there peninsula tanks the other day. letting my self dream big with a 310 but after having a big rimless 750XXL not sure I could go back to a rimed tank?

fallowing this one!

 

[SkiCatTX]

After going back and forth with tons of woodworkers, we still couldn't find anyone who was able to make us a tank stand wrap and canopy so we decided to go with the industrial look for now and keep everything wide open and visible. this should also help us keep up on keeping the tank and sump/equipment clean.

Love the tank pics, looking forward to getting mine in a few months...

I have had a similar experience, at least in terms of getting what I want to wrap a Planet steel stand. We just went around in circles on what I wanted and what the local boulder would do. They kept saying that my minor changes would double the cost...so in the end I think I’m going to do my own woodwork on the Planet stand. It’s not even that much work for the cost...

 

[Tom Stevens]

Following. I too am waiting on a 180g tank from Crystal Dynamics. I like your rock work. How many pounds of rock did you use?

 

[GlassMunky]

Love the tank pics, looking forward to getting mine in a few months...

I have had a similar experience, at least in terms of getting what I want to wrap a Planet steel stand. We just went around in circles on what I wanted and what the local boulder would do. They kept saying that my minor changes would double the cost...so in the end I think I’m going to do my own woodwork on the Planet stand. It’s not even that much work for the cost...

yea i don't know why everyone kept coming back with such crazy numbers.... We even had someone who was another reefer, who i had a loong talk with them about how i wasn't looking to spend $4500 on a wooden wrap, and he was like yea i totally understand that, no way itll be that much.... he comes over, talks, takes measurements and then finally gets back to with his quote... of $4200... like what??? guess you didn't understand our conversation like you thought you did.....

Its insane to me that these guys want more money to build a fake finish/door than the tank builder did for making the whole tank and metal stand...... And im not even asking for anything crazy like raised panels or anything fancy, just wrap the thing so its not visible, and not noisy....