lastlight's 404

[zum14]

That will be quite the tank. Any ideas for the wall with the overflow box? How are you planning to hide it? Or are you even going to hide it? Ive got same style overflow box and dont like seeing glass edges or inside the overflow box. I was thinking a piece of black acrylic against that wall but i dunno anymore.

[Snappy]

Those dimensions seem very familiar. With 18" behind the tank I suggest you don't put on any weight. However perhaps you are also planning sump access from all sides which would resolve that issue.
If doing it again I also wouldn't waste money on starphire glass. Just one tiny grain of sand in the magfloat can leave a lot of scars.

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by Snappy

Those dimensions seem very familiar. With 18" behind the tank I suggest you don't put on any weight. However perhaps you are also planning sump access from all sides which would resolve that issue.
If doing it again I also wouldn't waste money on starphire glass. Just one tiny grain of sand in the magfloat can leave a lot of scars.

Yeah Greg as soon as I arrived at these dimensions I knew I'd have some explainin' to do haha. 8x3 is the largest piece of glass that fits down my stairs. The rest sorta fell into place with height being the only remaining factor i could tweak. My 392g was 30" high and that was without a doubt too high for my liking. The 225g was 24" which I liked but I had a real issue with upgrading to a tank that was shorter than my current tank which is 26" tall. So the choice was made =)

Amen on the starphire. Dave has 19mm starphire and I laid awake a few nights dreaming about it. In the end I couldn't commit.

As for sump access... one of my must-haves is a sump not under a stand. The sump will be right against the wall that touches the overflow end of the tank. So if you stand in the fishroom and face the overflow box the sump will be on your right. On a stand much to my sore back's delight.

[Snappy]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Yeah Greg as soon as I arrived at these dimensions I knew I'd have some explainin' to do haha. 8x3 is the largest piece of glass that fits down my stairs. The rest sorta fell into place with height being the only remaining factor i could tweak. My 392g was 30" high and that was without a doubt too high for my liking. The 225g was 24" which I liked but I had a real issue with upgrading to a tank that was shorter than my current tank which is 26" tall. So the choice was made =)

Amen on the starphire. Dave has 19mm starphire and I laid awake a few nights dreaming about it. In the end I couldn't commit.

As for sump access... one of my must-haves is a sump not under a stand. The sump will be right against the wall that touches the overflow end of the tank. So if you stand in the fishroom and face the overflow box the sump will be on your right. On a stand much to my sore back's delight.

The dimensions are identical to mine. I will say it is still a challenge reaching stuff that falls to the bottom without a "grab tool" although my tank stand height is 40" which I prefer over a 30" height. The 30" height is more designed to view the tank while sitting down which is fine but when my tank was that height I'd always be bending to see things in the top half when standing. Now it's hard to get people to step away from the tank to sit down.

[MitchM]

Hi Brett,

Regarding your inlet and outlet locations, Your only option is to have them on the back wall, given where your overflow is.
What I like about the tidal flow setup is that it almost completely eliminates dead spots where detritus can accumulate.
If you can locate your sump return line(s) and your rock layout, it might become obvious where exactly your plumbing holes should go.

[lastlight]

Why does the overflow location limit placement of inlets or outlets? I must be missing something Mitch.

[MitchM]

Maybe it's the scale of the drawing that I see, but it looks like you would have some pretty crowded plumbing underneath the overflow...?