[klibs]

Been away from the hobby for a few years after moving. Been considering setting up another tank for quite some time and now I'm finally beginning the planning stages.

Right now I'm thinking of going for a custom 48"x24"x16" (width, depth, height) tank. Ideally would like a rimless tank. Or something with similar dimensions. I previously owned a standard 75g (48"x18"x21") and liked how it was nice and wide but disliked the lack of space front to back and felt that it was too tall which made it hard to light properly and work in.

I still have a pair of 48" BML lights so I am leaning towards still doing a 4ft long tank so I can reuse those lights and save some $$ there.

Anyone have experience with a tank of similar dimensions? Any input on preferred custom tank vendors if I were to go this route? I have already looked at glasscages and customaquariums and realize this will easily cost me $1300 + just for the tank. I am OK with that but hesitant to pull the trigger without seeing examples of tanks with similar dimensions etc. Will probably lean towards building a stand + sump myself to cut costs

 

[somewhatshocked]

Have you checked out any of the rimless tank retailers/sellers/dealers? UNS, Waterbox, et al? Any of the tanks that are usually used for reefs? There are plenty with similar dimensions in the 75-85 gallon range. But you're right in that they're gonna be spendy.

 

[mourip]

Right now I'm thinking of going for a custom 48"x24"x16" (width, depth, height) tank. Ideally would like a rimless tank. Or something with similar dimensions. I previously owned a standard 75g (48"x18"x21") and liked how it was nice and wide but disliked the lack of space front to back and felt that it was too tall which made it hard to light properly and work in.

Waterbox sells an "off the shelf" rimless low iron tank that is 48" x 20" x 20" for about $750 shipped that comes close to your wishes. I have one and love it. I bought an Archaea stand from Aqua Forest Aquarium. Total of about $1400 for tank and stand to my door.

Glasscages can make you anything but they will ship to a local freight depot, leaving you to get it to your home from there. They are pretty expensive, especially considering that their shipping fee does even not get it to your house.

If I ever did a custom I would consider 60"L x 24"D x 20"H. I would like to lenght for schooling.

 

[klibs]

Waterbox sells an "off the shelf" rimless low iron tank that is 48" x 20" x 20" for about $750 shipped that comes close to your wishes. I have one and love it. I bought an Archaea stand from Aqua Forest Aquarium. Total of about $1400 for tank and stand to my door.

Glasscages can make you anything but they will ship to a local freight depot, leaving you to get it to your home from there. They are pretty expensive, especially considering that their shipping fee does even not get it to your house.

If I ever did a custom I would consider 60"L x 24"D x 20"H. I would like to lenght for schooling.

Yeah I have also considered going up to 60"L for schooling. I would definitely do a large school of smaller fish (maybe rummys?) and then maybe a few medium size peaceful fish like pearl gouramis for livestock. would be mostly plant focused and would be a high tech show tank. those custom dimensions do sound awesome! I might test out my lights and see if they can cover an additional 6" on either side and bump up the overall length of the tank to 60"

For me, the biggest selling point to doing a custom tank is the depth. 24+"D just feels like it would be a dream to work in and be so good for doing dutch style with layers of plants in a high tech setup

I still think 20"H is too high based on past experience but I'm on the fence. I had constant issues with my 75g where PAR would be way too high up near the rim of the glass and it made it harder to establish defined background/foreground while the background plants would quickly reach the top of the tank. 24"D would alleviate some of this for sure but I am thinking with height closer to 16-18" it would make the tank so much easier to work in and keep stem plants under control

 

[FischAutoTechGarten]

The nice thing about haveing your lighting be 4 to 6" shy of the ends is that you don't get the blinding light escaping the aquarium. So, you'd still be able to use your 48" lights, you'd just have 6" uncovered.... You'd probaly set your plantings back 3" from the sides anyway, so really, nothing would be denied any light. I mean it's custom, you could always go 54", just give you 3" of undirectly lit areas at each end.

I had a 120, so it's dimensions were 48" x 24" x 24". Obviously I found it too deep... very hard to reach the back bottom (that's a 34" reach from the top of the front of the glass). So, yeah, your idea to cut the height is good. However,at 16", if you consider a 1 3/4"" substrate... and 3/4" margin at the top for the water line.. You're just allowing for 13" of tall growth at the back. 18" high would give you rom for plants that are 15". But you are looking at a 30" reach. 16" gives you a 29" reach.

It's custom... 54" x 24" x 18"... why not? LOL!! 😁

 

[klibs]

The nice thing about haveing your lighting be 4 to 6" shy of the ends is that you don't get the blinding light escaping the aquarium. So, you'd still be able to use your 48" lights, you'd just have 6" uncovered.... You'd probaly set your plantings back 3" from the sides anyway, so really, nothing would be denied any light. I mean it's custom, you could always go 54", just give you 3" of undirectly lit areas at each end.

I had a 120, so it's dimensions were 48" x 24" x 24". Obviously I found it too deep... very hard to reach the back bottom (that's a 34" reach from the top of the front of the glass). So, yeah, your idea to cut the height is good. However,at 16", if you consider a 1 3/4"" substrate... and 3/4" margin at the top for the water line.. You're just allowing for 13" of tall growth at the back. 18" high would give you rom for plants that are 15". But you are looking at a 30" reach. 16" gives you a 29" reach.

It's custom... 54" x 24" x 18"... why not? LOL!! 😁

Yeah exactly what I am thinking. Need to test out specific calculations on how far it would take for me to reach the back corner and how tall I would want plants to be able to grow to the surface after I take into account substrate depth.

In general I usually put 2" of substrate minimum up front and 4" minimum depth out back. With 24"D I would probably exaggerate this slope even more! So you will likely be right that 18" high would be closer to what I really want

Amazing to think how much a difference of 2-4" in height can make... Like you said if I go custom I might as well make it perfect!

 

[mourip]

Part of the equation might include how high the stand will be. The reason that I bought the Archaea stand was that it was several inches shorter than the stand that Waterbox sells with their tank. Even so I bought a short workout step stool thinking that at 5'9" I would need it to do planting and maintenance. I almost never use it with my 20"H tank. Also shorter than 20" would have limited my hardscape and background plants. If you are going Dutch that would not matter so much.

YMMV!

 

[klibs]

Part of the equation might include how high the stand will be. The reason that I bought the Archaea stand was that it was several inches shorter than the stand that Waterbox sells with their tank. Even so I bought a short workout step stool thinking that at 5'9" I would need it to do planting and maintenance. I almost never use it with my 20"H tank. Also shorter than 20" would have limited my hardscape and background plants. If you are going Dutch that would not matter so much.

YMMV!

I'll be building my own stand if I go custom so I will definitely take that into account

this tank might actually be perfect for what I'm looking to accomplish...

Fiji Cube 76 Gallon Shallow EXT Rimless Tank Package

Click the link below for the product description. https://www.fijicube.com/pages/ext-shallow-package-page

www.fijicube.com

Yeah it's starting to look like buying a "frag tank" setup will yield the dimensions I'm looking for... waterbox has multiple frag tank sizes that might be perfect for me

Saltwater Aquariums

waterboxaquariums.com

 

[Dr. Manhattan]

OP,
Look up Aquarium Masters/ Aquarium Industrial. I got a 80 gallon frag tank (not rimless but they got those to) for about $175 from Kensfish.com. I live near them so they ordered it and I picked it up from them. Dimensions are 48" L x 24" D x 16" T or so I believe. I have it set up as North American native tank with some northern and southern fish (rainbow shiners and longear sunfish being my favorites) and my Stripe-necked musk turtle. It was the reef ready model as I like sumps, but im not adverse to drilling glass and hooking up a FX6 or FX4 to a tank. Kensfish.com doesn't ship tanks though, don't know where you live but maybe your LFS can bring one in for you.

And I'm new to this site and apologize for the photo inserted into the paragraph. That never happens on Dendroboard.com dang it !

 

[Darkblade48]

And I'm new to this site and apologize for the photo inserted into the paragraph. That never happens on Dendroboard.com dang it !

I have fixed your post for you