180G project is complete!

[bshumake]

Alrighty yall. Some of you might remember Tim’s 180 starfire. If not you can see pictures of it on the club site. Well, when we lost him to the North I happily took it off his hands. So here’s the set-up and how I got here.
First came disassembly. I got his tank, stand, canopy, and sump (of which I helped him build so I KNEW it was solid). The tank was my main focus so the canopy and stand were dismantled. Tim is quite fond of Liquid Nails, treated lumber, and 4” deck screws. I spent about 2-3 days disassembling the stand alone! What I couldn’t separate I chuncked. The canopy came apart in 5 minutes. Got a little lazy there huh sparky?
Next was the layout and reassembly. I used 2x4’s for the frames. Legs and center supports are 2x6’s, with 2x4’s for cross pieces in the top and bottom frames. I took reclaimed ¾ ply and floored and topped the stand. Since the bottom piece wasn’t long enough I walled off one end and made this my “dry” section for electronics. The stand was reassembled with 50% less wood and 4,000% less screws. Pocket holes were primarily used with NO glue. I checked the stand for level and started painting.

 

[bshumake]

I went to Lowe’s and got some oil based primer and paint from a friendly Aussie. Rustoleum. 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of gleaming white later and I’m done!
Now came the fun parts… the woodworking! I found some really nicely grained ¼” Birch ply and Poplar boards in the lumber dept. While there I looked at the molding (mostly interested in corner and ¼” round over) and came across come Greek Key molding. Now being a fan of Wrights (Frank Lloyd) I grabbed a couple sticks of this for accent.

Using grips and clamps I skinned the stand in the Birch, being careful to pre-measure to keep the grain in line and make the seams as evenly spaced as possible but make sure that they corresponded with doors and “breaks” I planned on having so the stand wouldn’t seem as plain. Laying a bead of Liquid Nails and tacking down with a finish nailer helped this greatly.
Cutting the doors was really simple. Just a ½” pilot hole gave me the room to get my router in there with the flush trim bit. Zip, zip, zip, zip and the panel falls away leaving a nice smooth opening.

 

[bshumake]

The doors were made from more Poplar and paneled with Birch. This time I couldn’t use my drops from the stand so I had to get more from Lowe’s.

 

[bshumake]

After 3 stores and no luck in finding a good grain match I found some that almost looked like Birdseye Maple. So this went for the doors. I cut the poplar to size with a miter and dido’ed a slot for the panel.

Some Gorilla brand wood glue and finish nails tacked the frame together and doors are done.

 

[bshumake]

The Greek Key molding was used to cover up seams and to accent edges and recesses. I had to make sure that I got them all aligned with each other so they wouldn’t be uneven. This couldn’t take the finish nails so a thin bead of Liquid Nails and a finger smoothing did the job.
The header and toe boards are Poplar and were secured with screws and Liquid Nails. I got a counter sink bit and a plug cutter at Lowe’s and went to spacing the holes out to again, keep things even. Being secured with screws and glue will allow the stand to be really manhandled when moving and not worry with popping pieces off.
Doors were hung and the hinges marked and predrilled for assembly after staining and lacquer.
I used Minwax Chestnut for the stain and Minwax polyurethane to seal. I first had to sand down everything and tack-clothed all the dust off the surfaces to be stained. I prestained to make sure the stain went on evenly, and followed with the stain next. Wiped off the excess and reapplied where necessary to get the color I liked. After this dried I applied the polyurethane (semi gloss) and lightly sanded in-between both coats to ensure coverage and protection.

 

[bshumake]

The inside of the header board was painted with the primer and paint to keep the top of the stand as waterproof as possible. I then filled in any spaces with caulk for windows and doors. I also laid a bead in the seam all the way around the perimeter of the top and smoothed this down just to be sure.
Next came cutting holes for plumbing in the Oh-so-nice top I just finished. I just measured the placement and size of the overflow boxes and again with the router cut out two holes...
I flipped the tank over onto its back and drilled four 1” holes and a 2 ½” hole for the closed loop ports.
Got the tank in place thanks to Richard, Ramiro, and Nick! Here’s where things got irritating. When it came time to get the sump in the stand I discovered it wouldn’t go! I measured and it should have worked. I did have to cut 6” off the end of the sump for length requirements, but width wasn’t a problem. Well, I seemed to remember having 18” W of clearance to get the sump in. Turns out I had 17” W of clearance and an 18” W sump! Talk about frustrating! Well, quick fix went to Home Depot and rented a reciprocating saw and cut what I needed to out of the end door opening. Problem solved!

 

[bshumake]

Finished up the plumbing and painted the back for a change. I found a nice blue at the paint department of Lowe’s (they should give me royalties by now) and got an ultra-fine roller and laid about 5 coats on that puppy to keep the color and opacity right.
Plumbing was a difficult experience. I discovered that I didn’t leave myself enough room to sit the Reeflow Dart properly. I would up using too many elbows and long story short, I have about 11’ of head pressure on a pump that cuts off at 12’. This explains why I have just the slightest trickle on a pump that pushes 3500GPH. So I guess its back to the drawing board for that one.
Well, I’m committed at this point so its fill time. Let my Typhoon II from AirWaterIce work its magic. It took a couple days to get it full and the sump as well. Once that was done I got the return pump and CL pump going and started adding salt.
Added sand on August 22nd and had it all cleared up by the 24th.

Took my corals, rock, and fish out of their temporary housing and added lights.

 

[bshumake]

Now it’s done and here are a couple pics for you to enjoy!

 

[bshumake]

LEFT SIDE

MIDDLE

RIGHT SIDE

On a side note, I had to make some fish guards because I got sick of pulling clowns out of the overflows!
You can see them in the pictures. Their made out of precision cut egg crate and zip-ties.

 

[drowzee]

let me be the first to say wow. beautiful tank and good craftsmanship. and all this watching woodworking on tv. congrats and thanks for finding my(your) clarks and LTA a happy home.

 

[crpeck]

Amazing, Barrett and absolutely WONDERFUL!!!

I'm SO impressed!

Those little clowns have come a long way .... it does my heart good to see them in such a palace.

Did everything make it over from your old tank?

 

[bshumake]

More or less. I had some corals and fish I gave away and there was an accident with some fish. My cat got my largest clown and ate her.
The accident was a complete suprise. I left all my corals and fish in a large tub on the kitchen table with a powerhead and heater to keep everyone happy while I worked on moving the "base" rock in. I stopped to go move Andy's 225 and covered the tub with a black plastic trashbag, thinking the dark would encourage them to sleep and the total coverage would keep anyone from jumping out. Well When I got back some hours later I noticed one of my pink streaks on top of the bag. I found a little place where the bag didn't cover the water and assumed she jumped. I removed her and went back to work. I noticed about 30 minutes later a wrasse in roughly the same place. So I peeled back the plastic to discover to my horror that many of my fish were dead from asphyxia! The clowns were barely alive and my copperband was on his side minutes from death. I quickly put the air infuser on the powerhead and held him (copperband) in the flow and he perked back up after a minute. Then I started checking for other clingers. Not many made it. But the ones that did explored the new tank for the better part of a week. Some that did "survive" the tub died later in the 180. RIP my little buddies.

 

[crpeck]

Oh Barrett, that is SO sad!!!!!!

All the babies you got from me gone, too then or did some make it to a new home?

I wondered when I didn't see your big scarface Tang in there, but was afraid to ask.

Sorry about your loss.

 

[bshumake]

Tank warming party at Barrett's!

 

[neuroslicer]

I guess that means no tank warming...

I guess that means no tank warming...

The above post was done by me (Jay = neuroslicer)... Barrett logged on to Reef Central with my laptop today, and I didn't notice it when i picked up the laptop.... so I guess the tank warming party is off.... or it is???? :lol:

 

[cateyes]

hey Barrett,,, i tried following the above novel, but i kept getting lost amongst all the "manly"details, so ended up skipping to the end result and i must say, the stand looks GREAT!!!!
you did a great job recreating it.... the tank and it's contents looks very nice also!!! i'm sure the fish are happy with their new "piece of the ocean"...

sorry you had some losses but now you can add some new/different fish to the mix.....

 

[bshumake]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8112815#post8112815 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cateyes
hey Barrett,,, i tried following the above novel, but i kept getting lost amongst all the "manly"details, so ended up skipping to the end result and i must say, the stand looks GREAT!!!!
you did a great job recreating it.... the tank and it's contents looks very nice also!!! i'm sure the fish are happy with their new "piece of the ocean"...

sorry you had some losses but now you can add some new/different fish to the mix.....

Thats what I keep telling myself.
And with the identity theft Jay has move into the minor league's:lol:

 

[neuroslicer]

identity theft

identity theft

yeah, and if i were you, i'd cancel that wtmrac mastercard asap!!! I'm a pro!!!

 

[bshumake]

Re: identity theft

Re: identity theft

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8113755#post8113755 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by neuroslicer
yeah, and if i were you, i'd cancel that wtmrac mastercard asap!!! I'm a pro!!!

:eek1:

 

[Dirtball]

Barrett, it was nice to get to see your tank in person. You have done a great job on it. Now the only bad thing is after seing yours makes me want a big tank. But one that size is about the same size as my living room. Great Job