Travis:
What's up everyone. Welcome back to FishofHex. This is Travis here. Today, I'm just going to take a couple of minutes to answer all the questions that you've had regarding the new 300-gallon tank and stand. A lot of stuff regarding dimensions, where the holes are, how big they are, what type of overflow box, type of glass, all that kind of stuff. I'm going to cover everything between the tank and the stand in this video for you guys to hopefully answer all your questions. Let's go and get into it. All right, let's go ahead and start by talking about the tank. Now, regarding the length, we're looking at 96 inches, depth, 24 inches, and height, we're looking at 30, giving us that 300-gallon profile.
Now, what's really cool is they have pictures over here that break down everything, so you can have a visual aid. Also, here on the left-hand side, they go through each panel individually. Now, for the front, we're looking at 5-inch thickness with an ultra-clear color, basically, no color at all, and being non-tempered. Now, this is my first system, basically, having an ultra-clear glass. I have seen one other tank in the past with this type of glass. There was definitely a noticeable difference between the greenish bluish color you get with a glass that we have with regular tanks compared to this. I'm definitely interested to see how it turns out when there's a coral in it and a ton of fish.
Now moving on to the back panel, we're just going to use regular clarity. It's going to be non-tempered and I'm going to have them paint it black. Now, I did fail to mention that I wanted the bottom to be painted black as well but it's not really a big deal because I'll just go ahead and paint it when it arrives. Now moving on to the left and right-hand side, they're both half-inch thickness pieces of glass. They're also going to be ultra-clear and non-tempered. Moving on to the bottom, we have a 5/8 thickness.
With all my tanks, I like to have the bottom glass tempered just because the amount of rock, if something was to fall, there's a less chance it's going to shatter, and it feels safer with tempered glass on the bottom. Now, we can go to move down here, and they actually break down each panel individually which is really cool. I'm really impressed with the layout, what they have going on here regarding the tank. Now moving on to the back, this is where you guys really asked a lot of questions; what size return lines I'm going to have, what overflow box?
Regarding the return lines, I'm going to go ahead and have three-quarter-inch drilled about a foot from each side of the tank in and just high enough to be able to fit at a normal three-quarter inch bulkhead. Basically, the same setup I have on pretty much all my systems. Now, regarding the overflow box, I'm going to be using their Stealthbox, which I'll show you here. I'm going to go ahead and do this type of overflow type, kind of like that. I might do a little bit of a variant of it. Regardless, we're going to have the emergency drain and two regular drains here. I will be having a Jebao DCS 12,000 Return Pump. This overflow box is more than enough.
Let's go ahead and get back to the plans here. That's going to be drilled in the center, of course, just like my old 125-gallon center and up as high as I possibly can get. It's going to move down, bottom, not really anything to see on that. Sides, again dimensions right and left side. Nothing to see regarding any kind of holes in the top. This is actually the removable bracing that they have on the on the tank itself which is cool. Because if I have any big pieces of rock, which I do have a couple big pieces, just in case they're not going to fit here, I can always remove these tops and then slide them into place and put them back on.
Now, one thing that they are sending along with this build is this siphon stoppers. Now, because my bulkheads are up so high, I won't be able to put any lids on the tank. I never planned on doing that anyways just because I am going to build a canopy just like my other build, put on my lighting in there with ventilation, all that good stuff. I just like having a canopy because it just brings all the light together. You don't have that filling up the whole room thing. It just focuses all your attention on the tank. That being said, these are going to stick up a little bit higher out of the water or out of the tank or better yet out of the water, I guess you want to say. It's okay.
I don't really put any lids on there and it's not really a big deal. Those are pretty cool to see, and I've never used it before, but it does make sense how they work. Basically, the water can't go up out of the water to keep going. Anyways, I think that's pretty much it for the tank itself. Pretty cool layout. All right, moving on to the steel stand. Now, this is actually my official, first tube-steel-style stand. I had one way back in the day that was like the old fish store. When you put a giant tank on it, it looks like, how the hell can I hold that up, and it looks like it's going to fall over, that type of stand. You guys know what I'm talking about. Ever since I had one of those, I went with two by fours.
I've been going with that ever since, just building my own stand, because I felt safer knowing that it wasn't just going to crumble underneath the weight of the tank. Either way, this is going to be the first custom steel stand that I've ever had. Speaking of custom, we had to make some changes between the layout of the stand as well as the layout of the sump. If you guys can see here, my original plan was to only have one support brace but after talking to Custom Aquariums, they recommended I went with the two just for long-term success. I'm going to go with what they say because they obviously know what they're doing.
With that being said, I actually have to slide the sump through the side which is only 22 inches wide, which really isn't a big deal because the sump itself is now 20 inches wide. It was a little bit wider originally, but we actually went a little bit taller and just went with 20 inches wide and it works out just fine. It gives me an inch on each side. I'll just slide that as well as the ATO container through the side of the stand and we'll be good to go. Now, when it comes to the actual back, it does still have the same three-support braces, but it has crossbeams, which is pretty cool. Now, my overall plan is to go ahead and use a piece of plywood on the back, have it painted black.
Then I'm going to go ahead and leave the sides and the front open because the sump is going to be absolutely gorgeous. I want to be able to see it all the time and so just having the back cover to hide the cement behind the tank as well as the canopy on top and leaving the bottom open should look pretty cool. The bottom, there's nothing really to say about it besides the fact that I'm going to add some plywood, better yet, to go ahead and support the sump once it's on there. Yes, guys, basically, they sent me these documents, we went through them piece by piece, asked every question that I had to ask, and then signed off on everything, they put it into production.
Now, the tank and stand will actually be here tomorrow. Believe it or not, it shipped yesterday afternoon which is Wednesday and it's going to be here Friday afternoon. Shout out to Custom Aquariums for how quick that tank is getting delivered. Kind of caught me off guard and I'm not really ready for it to be here yet. I mean I am psychologically but having the hands here to actually move the tank and stand is just not an option right now. With that being said, I'm actually going to move the steel stand in tomorrow. I'll get the plywood for the top as well as the plywood for the back all ready to go. Then I'm looking at Sunday the 30th, I'm going to do a little get-together.
If you are interested in showing up and hanging out for the day and bringing the tank in and putting it on the stand in, just hanging out having some food and some drinks, let me know. Contact me via [email protected] or my phone number is on the website. Just contact me and we can set up something, and I can confirm that you're going to show up because I need about eight people to move this. The way it set up, you guys will see in the video when we do it. I actually have designated parking spots at the townhouse development area.
They're actually going to put the tank and stand in my parking spot that I have for my bike. Then we're just going to have to carry it around the building down the back because they refuse to park on the grass just for liability issues. It is what it is. We're just going to have to take a little bit of a trip of the tank so having more people is definitely going to be a plus. Either way, guys, I hope you enjoyed this video and it answered any of the questions that you had. If you do have any more, please put in the comments section below and if you want to help on the 30th of this month to get that tank in here, please let me know because I can use all the help I can get.
All right guys, either way, I'll see you next time. Peace.
