240 gallon acrylic reef build

I built most of the bones of stand today. I really wish I had a power mitre saw. My little mitre box and my arm got a workout today. On another note, some *** cut me off trying to get into the walmart parking lot today while I was transporting the wood. Of course I slammed on the breaks to avoid the guy...and a 2x4 crashed into my windshield...there's another $280 to add to the build cost.

2x4's and 2x6's
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After 6 hours and two boxes of weatherproof screws
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Inside
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I'll add the bottom decking tomorrow and build the top frame and decking later this week. I'm going to use the top frame as a jig to cut my access holes in the top piece of acrylic. 3" flange with 3x 6" Braces.
 
going to follow along .. that is awesome how you built your own skimmer .. been thinking of upgrading to a 220 from my 180 ...
 
180 to 220? That's a painful amount of work to only go up 40 gallons. I don't mean to be an enabler, but if you're going to do it, you might as well just go to 300+ :) Make your effort worth it! In my case, I have to move my 150g tank anyway, so it's a prime time for an upgrade!
 
h2so4hurts said:
180 to 220? That's a painful amount of work to only go up 40 gallons. I don't mean to be an enabler, but if you're going to do it, you might as well just go to 300+ :) Make your effort worth it! In my case, I have to move my 150g tank anyway, so it's a prime time for an upgrade!
Click to expand...

Lol sad to say that but i agree. Thats a ton of work for not much gain

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Acrylic is ready for pickup! Looks like I get to drive to Orlando sometime this week. I need to get the lid jig made and the decking done so I have a table for welding the box. I'll probably spend all week edge prepping. It's going to take days to scrape this much acrylic :(
 
Very nice work on the skimmer! looks great.
Did you consider using the dart for a closed loop and then getting a smaller pump for the overflow and return from fudge?
 
lagatbezan said:
Very nice work on the skimmer! looks great.
Did you consider using the dart for a closed loop and then getting a smaller pump for the overflow and return from fudge?
Click to expand...

I've been mulling over that a bit. I do have two mag12's on my 150 now which is way overkill and probably means I'm not skimming as efficiently as I could. Stop giving me ideas, if I think too much, I'll never get this done on time :headwallblue:
 
h2so4hurts said:
I've been mulling over that a bit. I do have two mag12's on my 150 now which is way overkill and probably means I'm not skimming as efficiently as I could. Stop giving me ideas, if I think too much, I'll never get this done on time :headwallblue:
Click to expand...

LOL, sorry, just figured you would get much better flow in the tank with the CL and you can reduce your flow in the sump which would give you much better results with your fuge and more contact time for your skimmer and reactors! better now when you are putting it all together then latter when its all setup (I had to do that on my 240g and it was not fun!)
 
Finished the top sections for the stand today and did a test fit. Looking good!

st12.jpg


Added my cross pieces to the top to create a router jig for cutting the access holes in the top of my acrylic. 3" flange all of the way around (Eurobrace?) with two 6" cross braces. Pieces of 2x4 in the center of each hole are there to catch the acrylic as it falls so it doesn't bind up the router bit.

st13.jpg


Sideview of the jig

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@lagat, I still have time. The tank is going to take at least a week to weld together so that will give me plenty of time to change my mind 100 times over :p
 
Picked up the acrylic (Acrylite GP) last night. Maybe I should think about buying a bigger car for these projects...

st15


I also got my RapidLED order in, but that project is going to have to sit for a while. I need to get the acrylic edges prepped and the tank welding started so I have enough time to leak test everything for a month.
 
that a scion tc? haha even tho its small, those hatches save the day.. i fit the world into my honda fit.. its just seriously embarassing to drive around
 
It is a tC. Definitely not as embarrassing as a Fit. The guys at the shop were like, "Where's your truck?" They were pretty surprised that it all fit in there. I did have to get an extra 2x4 under the console so I could shift into 5th though. It gave me a 1/4" of clearance to shift :p
 
Added the decking
st16.jpg


Inside of the decking
st17.jpg


Of course I'm an idiot and forgot to measure my pieces. Two were 1/4" too long. Whoops. Trimmed them up, forgot to move the bikes...This is the closest thing I'll ever get to snow in Florida.
st18.jpg


I'll edge prep the long pieces tomorrow and hopefully get to welding next week when my new bottle of Weld-On 4 comes in.
 
keep up the good work. that skimmer is awesome and i cant wait to see the build of the tank. take lots of pics of the process, i'm interested to see how it is done. keep the pics coming
 
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