Defuse
New member
Well I suppose it's time I share what my wife and I have been working on for the past six months. We got in to this hobby a couple years ago when a friend gave us a 55 gallon tank and stand for free. We dumped some saltwater in and we were hooked immediately. As most of you know that once you start you have to go bigger so I figured it was time to upgrade.
As a birthday gift to my wife I bought a used 225 gallon tank with a steel stand and sump as well as the following equipment.
3x Radion Gen 2
2x Vortech MP-40
Apex Jr
Apex Energy Bar
Apex WXM
Apex PM1
Tusnami ATO
Reef Octopus POV-DC2
Reef Octopus DC-10500
2x BRS 1.1mL Dosing Pumps
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
Now that we had the equipment we needed to decide what we wanted this tank to look like in our house. We really wanted it to look like it was a part of the house rather than just something that was placed in the house. This means that we needed design cues from other features of our house. We decided to try to match the color, style of our kitchen cabinets and the tile of our floors and coffee tables.
I called around to several different cabinet makers and all of them gave me remarkably high estimates to build two cabinets and a skin for the front of the stand. Ranging from $2,000 to $4,500 for the work. After getting those quotes I decided they were far too expensive and I would try to build them myself. I went out and bought two base cabinets and had Interstate Plywood build doors for the cabinets and also build a front skin for a fraction of the cost that I was quoted by local cabinet builders. Now that I had that I needed a canopy. I figured it would be best to buy a Marineland canopy and simply paint it to match the other cabinetry.
Here is the front skin unfinished.
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
First coat of primer on the canopy.
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
The sump had 9" baffles in it which were too tall for the Reef Octopus skimmer so we removed them and installed smaller baffles.
Cutting out the old baffles
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
New baffles installed
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
Water testing sump after new baffles installed. This is the point where I decided that the red walls needed to go as they didn't match anything at all. Lol
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
I added some bead board to the sides of the cabinets to help match them to our kitchen cabinets.
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
Cabinets primed and ready for paint and glaze.
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
Paint and glaze done.
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
As a birthday gift to my wife I bought a used 225 gallon tank with a steel stand and sump as well as the following equipment.
3x Radion Gen 2
2x Vortech MP-40
Apex Jr
Apex Energy Bar
Apex WXM
Apex PM1
Tusnami ATO
Reef Octopus POV-DC2
Reef Octopus DC-10500
2x BRS 1.1mL Dosing Pumps
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
Now that we had the equipment we needed to decide what we wanted this tank to look like in our house. We really wanted it to look like it was a part of the house rather than just something that was placed in the house. This means that we needed design cues from other features of our house. We decided to try to match the color, style of our kitchen cabinets and the tile of our floors and coffee tables.
I called around to several different cabinet makers and all of them gave me remarkably high estimates to build two cabinets and a skin for the front of the stand. Ranging from $2,000 to $4,500 for the work. After getting those quotes I decided they were far too expensive and I would try to build them myself. I went out and bought two base cabinets and had Interstate Plywood build doors for the cabinets and also build a front skin for a fraction of the cost that I was quoted by local cabinet builders. Now that I had that I needed a canopy. I figured it would be best to buy a Marineland canopy and simply paint it to match the other cabinetry.
Here is the front skin unfinished.
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
First coat of primer on the canopy.
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
The sump had 9" baffles in it which were too tall for the Reef Octopus skimmer so we removed them and installed smaller baffles.
Cutting out the old baffles
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
New baffles installed
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
Water testing sump after new baffles installed. This is the point where I decided that the red walls needed to go as they didn't match anything at all. Lol
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
I added some bead board to the sides of the cabinets to help match them to our kitchen cabinets.
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
Cabinets primed and ready for paint and glaze.
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
Paint and glaze done.
Untitled by defuse1, on Flickr
