Back from Iraq, Now lets setup my 120g!

Scuba_Steve

Scuba_Steve

Premium Member
Hello everyone,

Its been a long 15 months away from my family and the hobby I love so much. What a better way to start back up. I have kept small reef tanks for a few years now, and now I finally have a chance to get something a little bigger. So please follow me along through my journey, and hopefully we will have a lot of fun!
 
Without further a due, here are my first set of pictures.

The tank is a 120g Aqueon (aka AGA) dual MegaFlow aquarium. After about 15 phone calls shopping around I found it in a small store in Austin much cheaper than anyone else had it for. Here is me getting back home with it a few nights ago.

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The tank immediately was moved into the house and put on it's stand. The room it is placed in will be our family room. Right now it is our storage room for the 30 or so boxes we haven't unpacked yet. This is why some of the shots are tight, just not much room.

DSC_0117.jpg


The tank you see next to it is an aquarium I picked up just before leaving for Iraq. I bought it not knowing I was leaving, and sold all the livestock. It is a 105g tank, which didn't have the width I really wanted. I am much happier with the 120g now.

The tank is placed about 3 feet away from the back wall and door. I plan to build a wall in front making this an in wall setup looking into my family room. The few feet behind leaves me with a small fish room, another feature I've always wanted.

The aquarium appears to be backwards on its stand. This is because I wanted the new wall to be placed against the back of the stand, yet I wanted the front of the aquarium to face out. The finished portion of the stand will be inside the fish room.
 
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Thanks for the kind words everyone.

My first step of construction was to reach down into the overflows and mark where the holes were. I then moved the tank forward about 6 inches.

DSC_0118.jpg


Next I used a 3 inch hole saw to cut holes in the stand leaving plenty of room for the bulkheads. The stand I bought from a member of a club I belong to DFWMAS. I am posting these same posts on their website as well to follow along with. Here is my thread there. You can see how thick the reinforced top is.

DSC_0123.jpg


Now the tank was slid back into place, and the holes lined up beautifully. The distance between the glass and the holes makes this look deceiving in the pictures.

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I noticed there was about a 1/16th inch gap between the center edge of the tank and the stand. To solve this I put down a layer of 1/2 inch foam. I hope this will solve the problem and I wont have 120 gallons on my floor in the near future.

DSC_0127.jpg
 
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You cant setup a new large tank without these pictures. I consider it good luck for the tank, and my baby girl loves getting her picture taken!

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Thats it for the night, more progress soon to follow!
 
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Welcome home. Beautiful baby girl you have there. I also have heard that you not to used foam under the tank.
 
One quick observation- someone else here struggled with getting the wrench for the bottom of the bulkheads up through holes in the plywood.
 
Asm kfisc stated cutting just round holes makes it hard to get to the bulkheads to tighten or loosen if needed. I did the same thing on my first tank and after 6 mths it sprung a leak. It was a bear getting it tightened once all the equipment was in the stand and the like and no room to really access the fitting. The plywood base made the nut part of the bulkhead almost recessed.
The next tank I cut more of a rectangular cut across the bulkhead area and its real easy to get to the fittings now. Plan to do the same on my 180 stand I`m starting

Very good looking baby girl, she looks like a happy natured child. Glad your home safe as I bet you are to catch up with the family.
 
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