ltkenbo's 55 Gallon Rebuild

Alright, well I'll boil them cause I have a gigantic metal camping pot out in the garage. So I'm probably gonna break down the tank tonight, I've been transfering corals over to the temporary tank(s) and they are doing great and I tested all the water and it is good. I've got a couple of pieces of live rock in the tanks to help act as a filter and I will be moving the protein skimmer into the 20 gallon tall.

Was my layout of drilled holes good on the previous page? Overflow in the middle?
 
Well it's definitely not cool to finish draining your tank and read this when you get to the bottom:

DSC07102.jpg



I thought only the bottom of mine was tempered but I guess I'll have to find another one on craigslist, I've seen some that are like $50-80 just gotta make sure they are not tempered on the sides. :-(
 
Thise weekend would be a good time to come to Bermuda and get a new 75 Reef Ready,especially since were have a huge sale this weekend.:D
 
The tank and stand is like 5 or 600.Cant remember which.Thats with the Doraso kit to.
Then when you spend over $400 on a new set up,you get a $100 gift certificate toward live stock.
 
YAY for a new rebuild!! I can't wait to see it when its all done! You might want to black out your address on the picture of the shipping box!
 
Yeah that'd be awesome but it's not in my budget right now, I gotta pay for summer class too which is like $700 otherwise I would def go for it. I found several 55 gallons on craigslist that are under $100 I just gotta find out if they are tempered or not.
 
Alright so identifying tempered glass is quite easy as shown through this guide here:
How to tell if glass is tempered. - Saltcity Reef Forums


I did something similar but instead of using a camera with a polarized filter I used polarized sun glasses. Basically I held a laptop inside the aquarium, put on my glasses and turned my head and since my aquarium is tempered I saw distinct paterns similar to the tutorial that I linked:

TemperedPolarized.JPG



If it's not you will not see a pattern.

I even tried it on my car, the side windows which are tempered showed a similar pattern, however the windshield which is not did not.

Also good news I found a 90 gallon for $150 with stand on craigslist so I'm gonna go check it out tomorrow and use this method :-)
 
Ok so that 90 gallon tank was too far away from my house to go check out. Anyways, I checked out a 55 gallon today from someone but it was tempered also. So I searched online and it turns out there's this awesome business glasscages.com. They build all there tanks and they can customize them easily. Anyways they do offer options like overflows and stuff but there kind of expensive so I'm still gonna drill mine, but they are made with plate glass. Even better yet, their factory is less than 2 hours away from me so I can pick it up for free! Tank will cost $109 plus the gas for me to drive there and back so about $125 lol.
 
I live about 90 minutes away from them.They have a mix reputation so use caution.It doesn't look like you are getting anything big or complicated but still do your research.They a have a very short 90 day warranty and they may not even honor the warranty if you drill.Have you drilled a tank before?One slip up and the tank is busted.It might be better to have the tank builder drill the holes for you even if you don't go with their overflows.
 
Well it's honestly better than getting a random 55 gallon tank on craigslist for around the same price, so. No I have not drilled holes but I am going to practice on a 10 gallon tank I have lying around, it's like $20 a hole or something through them and I'm not paying that. The kit I ordered comes with a drilling template and everything. I live in Cookeville by the way. I ordered the tank today though so I'm gonna pick it up on Wednesday.

I did read some reviews but many disputes seem to be over acrylic tanks, which I am not ordering.
 
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Make sure you they know how many holes you are going to drill on the bottom.The more holes the more the bottom structural integrity gets compromise.Those tank builders don't make tanks like those mass market aquariums.There is no frame to support the tank.The bottom of a tank has to be fully supported.If I remember correctly,they won't even honor the warranty unless it's on their stand.I just had a tank built and the more holes I wanted the thicker the glass needed to be.

I just want you to be safe.
Good Luck
 
I'm not drilling holes on the bottom, only on the sides cause the glass-holes overflow goes through the side of the tank, and I will be drilling 3 more holes for a future closed loop system. Yeah I'll make sure I tell them though, the 55 is actually already in stock so it's basically whenever I can come pick it up which I told them Wednesday since I'm not working. I'll def make sure to ask them how thick the glass is and tell them how many holes I am drilling. I'll also make sure to inspect the tank seams and everything first. Thanks for the heads up.

This is a 10 gallon tank I had which was my sump on my old setup, I actually accidentally broke the bottom when hitting it with my hand to get something that was stuck off the bottom lol, so I figured I might as well use the sides as practice for drilling holes on my new 55. I did 4 holes today, it was really easy, I was just super careful and patient and ran the drill on the lowest speed. The hardest part was just starting the hole cause I didn't realize on the first one that it would walk around so easily (you can see the scratches on the first hole). However, I soon got the hang of it by approaching it at an angle and then moving the drill 90 degrees. This one is a hole for .5" pvc fittings and bulkheads:

DSC07107.jpg


DSC07108.jpg


DSC07109.jpg


Of course I'll drill some more, can't hurt to practice.
 
Something that you might want to keep in mind while practicing drilling those holes.
The more you practice,the more diamond dust your wearing off your holesaw and the more likely it is to heat the glass up and cause it to crack.
 
I couldn't remember if you were drilling on the bottom or sides so I threw it out there.I'm glad to hear you are practicing first.
 
yote said:
Something that you might want to keep in mind while practicing drilling those holes.
The more you practice,the more diamond dust your wearing off your holesaw and the more likely it is to heat the glass up and cause it to crack.
Click to expand...

Yeah I was wondering about that, I won't drill too many more holes then.


So what do you guys think about the placement of my holes for the returns and the overflow? I had a diagram on first page (keep in mind this view is looking at the tank normally as in holes only on the sides of the tank):

DSC07081.jpg


The center is the overflow box and hole, and the ones on the left and right of that are the returns for that.

The hole on the bottom is the intake for the closed loop system and the other 2 holes towards the top are the returns for that.
 
I honestly wouldn't know about the close loop setup.How does it not suck up sand from the hole at the bottom?

I do know the return/drain holes for the overflow is good.
 

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