~450G Display (~1000G system) documentary starting

Ok nothing real exciting. I did stay home and do a bunch this weekend though. I reinforced the stand a little on the corners. I will probably do some more reenforcing with 2x4's eventually just for insurance. I painted the fish room in 2 coats of premium kilz on all the walls and ceilings and the stand. I coated the cement floor with a sealer then a coat of kilz on top. I'm trying to get them to go ahead and just totally finish the fish room with trim and outlets and all first before moving on so I can move the skimmer and rock etc. back into the fish room and never have to move it again. I've moved it back and forth twice now and since one of my stands broke that once I'm always nervous doing it.

I also did a slight tank design change. They are going to do an external overflow which I'm pumped about. They are going to cut two 1/4" slots 35" long each. I was a little worried about weaking the tank but he assured me it was no issue! This will give me a nice amount of room in the tank. They are doing it 2.25" from the top of the tank. Given that the wavebox can generate a 2" wave I wanted it low enough to crank it full blast.

Here are some pics.

Here the stand.

stand.jpg



Here is the view the fish will have! There will be a bar on the back right of the picture with mirros behind which should reflect the tank nicely!

fishview.jpg


Here is looking into the room through the opening where the tank will be.

intoroom.jpg



Cutout area for the sink. You can see the connections.

sinkarea.jpg


Finally the door into the fish room

door.jpg


Next weekend I plan on doing the bilgekote (assuming the baseboard goes in) and the room will be pretty close to ready! Tank is going to be here in 3-4 weeks.
 
Keith,
That is going to be such a great setup! Looks really nice. I like the idea of the bar with mirrors! Can't wait to see it all.
 
Keith, things are looking great! I may have missed it, but are you going to have a line drain into the drain on the nearby sink? (for water changes and such.)
-chuck
 
Okay, can I talk about the stand again? The cross braces are just not going to cut it in that configuration. They are toe-nailed for goodness sake. :rolleyes:

I would either put something on edge underneath, or an upright under each one.

On the other uprights, I'd like to see you insert a few perpendicular and nailed to the current ones. Each one would become a "T" and thus could not bow/flex outward and the tank will not be able to twist/flex like you'd expect with diminos tumbing over. (for lack of a better example...) I just don't want to stand to rack to the side for some odd reason. I know I may be overbuilding it, but since you don't plan to put anything underneath, who cares if you add a little more lumber?

The room look amazing, and if you'd hurry up and get all the hard work done, I'll like to come see it and enjoy it like a lazy bum. :D

The slit-overflows sound great.

Keep up the good work.
 
I 'd like to see more lateral bracing as well, ... but that room is gona look awsome when you're done!
 
You overbuilders. I am going to add a little more bracing this week just to appease the masses! 2x4s are cheap so it won't hurt anything. The center braces will do nothing in reality. It's only giving me something to screw the plywood into!

Bax I was originally going to have a floor drain that would only require the turning of a ball valve and no pump but after getting quoted $1200 for that, that plan went out the window so yes I will now have a T off the return pump that with a couple ball valve turns will lead to draining the bottom sump of all it's water into the sink.
 
Keith,
Can you elaborate, perhaps use one of your pictures, to show how you are going to drain your sump into the sink? I assume you are going to connect the return to the drain below the sink? Is this correct?
In regards to your stand, having read several threads about large tanks and wooden stands, adding more 2X4 just for peace of mind is probably not a bad idea. I would hate to read at some point in the future that the stand has warped or experiencing some problem that could have been prevented with some extra bracing in the beginning.
 
Matthew,

I don't have anything yet as far as pictures. What it will be is just a T off the return pump along the ground, up the wall and into the sink. I will have ball valves to force the water that way during draining. I hope that helps some. I will post more as I get closer.

Ok I made the stand mods. It's roughly 4 times stronger due to these changes. I'm done with it except for the 3/4 ply on top!

I put braces across the top and bottom and also uprights. I also supported the middle brace that were toe nailed.

fullstand.jpg



braces.jpg



centerbrace.jpg



backbrace.jpg


Hopefully this will appease the stand nazis :D
 
Keith,
I think your stand is totally overbuilt!

Just kidding, I really like the looks for it! I am sure that thing will handle two-times as much weight now....but more importantly I think you just built in peace of mind!

Thanks for the explaination, that makes perfect sense.
 
No skinning for me! I'm going to give it a coat of BilgeKote and leave it open so I can have some storage under there at least. I might even put my quarentine tanks under there!
 
Ok Keith,

I'm a newb when it comes to lumber/construction. What does toe-nailed mean? I did a google search but came up with a lot of links saying toe-nailed, but none defining it.

Thanks,

Brian
 
Toe-nailed is a term used in construction to attached one board to another, typically after the fact because you couldn't do so originally. It is a weak connection at best. It may be used when a few more 2x4 uprights are added to an existing wall, or for ceiling joists that the sheetrock hangs from. It isn't illegal nor dangerous, and is used when necessary.

I believe the reason it is called that is because you'd put the toe of your shoe behind the board to keep it from shifting, and then drive a 12 (or 16) penny nail through the board at an angle into the board beneath. The act of driving nails at this angle can crack or split the wood in the process, so it isn't a good solid connection.

In this picture, you can see where four nails were driven to hold the cross member in place. Which is okay if it was going to be covered with a counter top. With the weight of a tank adding up to 1000s of pounds, and gravity 24 hours a day, and then the hobbyist climbing up and down and leaning on the tank as needed, the stand needs to be much stronger to avoid it racking suddenly. Myself, I want a solid surface under the tank's glass bottom (or acrylic) to support that panel fully, and if those blocks aren't solid, it could bow downward.

In this image, I drew one arrow to give you a sense of direction of how the nail was driven threw the cross brace and into the outer perimeter board. I also showed how many nailes were used - not as many as one might like, but if built differently more would be used.

toenailed.jpg
 
Um Chuck I think the tank has to actually arrive before I can put water in it :D

OK I can't brag enough about the Bilgekote. The finish it puts on is super impressive. Very, very nice and even and it's totally everything proof. Even when i dripped some paint on it from a second coat it wipes right up. I was warned by jnarowe to put a primer on before and I'm glad I did as the whole room only took 2 gallons of it that way and since it's $50 a gallon that's a good thing! I put on 2 coats of $10/G Kilz premium on everything before it.

I painted the walls, floor, and stand a mixture of half and half grey and white and the ceiling, soffets and trim pure white. I've touched up and painted the doors and trim, etc. since these pics but it will give you an idea.

Here is the product in case your looking for it.

bilgekote.jpg


Here is the doors installed. As I said they are painted with white Bilgekote now.

doors.jpg


Sink area

sinkarea.jpg


Stand

stand.jpg


Right corner

rightcorner.jpg


I'm actually really happy with the color. It actually looks great and the contrast of the grey and white is nice. Next week they are going to add quarter round to the floor, trim out the window, and add the electric and light fixture and it'll be done baby!!!

Nothing else major. I got a 3/4 hp Chiller. I paid less then half of new for one that is less than 5 month old!

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=CU02609

Also got this ozonizer from Enaly. Some people on RC have been giving them good reviews, it's 200 mg/h for $75!!

ozonizer.jpg


Rock is going to town. Now there is virtually nothing that comes off when I dunk and swish just a litlle dust like stuff. The skimmer is still pulling out some but not a ton like at first.

Tank will be here in a couple weeks!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Brian60077
Big project starting today......
Replies
7
Views
188
Dustin07
D
U
New build
Replies
3
Views
308
griss
griss
Broken reefer
Skimmer
Replies
7
Views
178
wvned
wvned
adova
300g DIY Acrylic Tank Recommendations
Replies
5
Views
143
griss
griss
M
Iam about to build my forever tank. Any advice? I want to migrate my current two ranks
Replies
5
Views
245
Paul B
Paul B
Back
Top