Christygirl's new Leemar 180 build!

A few quick pics of the tank from outside of Ali's store.

The tank is beautiful.

I am heading to Phoenix this weekend and while there, I am going to buy all of my schedule 80 pipe and fittings.

My brothers own a landscape company and they can get the schedule 80 from a sprinkler wholesaler.

So, until I get a better pic, here are the pics before we loaded it in the truck:

Not me in the pic!!!!
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So, the overflow is so bada$$. I got all of the bulkheads (7 of them) at Ali's
 
Very nice! Congrats.
Thanks Mark. I appreciate that! I got your pm. I will take that pic tomorrow.
beautiful tank/build:)
Thankyou Davez. It seems like it is getting closer!
At least you got a 3 day weekend to work on in. Perfect timing. :D
Mike, I am in Phoenix til tomorrow. Hopefully I will get to work on it tomorrow and Monday!
NICE! now lets fill it up!
Ev'e you need to come check it out!
 
Ok, I need advice.

My overflow is drilled for bean animal style overflow. I have (3) 1-1/2 inch bulkheads for the bean animal.

I have (4) 3/4 inch returns.

Should I keep my drains at 1-1/2 or should I convert them to 1 inch?

I am worried that I can't flow enough water in the full siphon side of the overflow and I want it to be silent.

Your thoughts?
 
Keep them at the 1.5. The idea with the valve on the full siphon pipe is you can throttle it back so that you always have a full siphon. Of course, if you are never going to use a return pump that pushes more than say 1200-1500 gpm per hour then I'll bet you can get away with 1". I think beananimal's home page has a calculator for full siphon flow rates for different size pipe so you can check that out before deciding. I would prefer the safety factor of the larger pipe though.
 
Keep them at the 1.5. The idea with the valve on the full siphon pipe is you can throttle it back so that you always have a full siphon. Of course, if you are never going to use a return pump that pushes more than say 1200-1500 gpm per hour then I'll bet you can get away with 1". I think beananimal's home page has a calculator for full siphon flow rates for different size pipe so you can check that out before deciding. I would prefer the safety factor of the larger pipe though.

Acesq, thanks for the input. I am going to look at his page.
 
Acesq, thanks for the input. I am going to look at his page.

I'm having the same dilemma, but between 1.5 and 2 inch pipe. I plan on pushing about 1500-2000 gal per hour through my sump but it will be about 20 feet away from my tank with only a 5 foot drop so I want to make sure my drain pipes are big enough. Bean's calculator does not take into account horizontal flow so I may have to mock something up before I commit to the tank purchase.
 
So I went to Phoenix this weekend and Came home on Sunday.
Didn't do any work on the stand until today.
I decided I needed to do the bottom shelf.
So..... Because the stand is built from steel, I needed to make an MDF shelf laminated with the Color Core P-Lam.

The easiest way to do this is to layout the legs, cut them with a jigsaw, then finish them with a pattern bit and router.

To do this, I made a quick jig to route the legs out:
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Then I clamped the jig on to the pre-cut notch for the leg and used a 1/4" pattern bit to get a closer corner:
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Then the result is this:
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You can see my layout lines. I had to overcut all of the depths to be able to slide it into place.

Here is the shelf with all of the legs cut out:
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Last of all, here is the bottom placed in the stand and being clamped down.
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I wanted to silicone this to the steel. I did not want any screws to connect this to alleviate any rust.

Next, is the cabinet for the electronics!
 
Friendlyvission,

Thanks. I know it is slow, but, I am trying to do this in the right order.

Hopefully, I will be able do the cabinet fairly quickly!
 
I understand the slow part, it seems like its taking forever completing my build
Ceasar, no doubt. I want to do thi right and I am trying to make time and money not be the driving factor.
Nice progress.
What are you going to use for a sump?
Mike I am going to use my original sump from my 100 gallon. It barely fits front to back. I hope it has the volume to do it. I am going to measure some of that tonight.
 
So this weekends progress was all about getting the electronic cabinet done....
First, I cut all of the parts to size and then laminated one side of each of the pieces.
Here are the parts:
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Then I got more tools out..... Ready to assemble!!!
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Then, I just had to go buy a new tool!
Somehow, this always happens!
That is what I tell my wife....
How else do you think I have collected such a nice set of tools.....
ANSWER: Always choose projects that require the purchase of a new tool to complete it successfully.... That is my story and I am sticking with it!
So, here is the new tool:
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That tool let me do this:
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After the inside was all set up, I laminated the outside to give it a nice clean water resistant surface.

So, the Electric cabinet is ready to go....
I just need to make the shelves.
I need to drill the holes for the entry of wires, etc....
If you look closely, I have a 2" space at the top to feed the wires down through.
So, I will use a computer wire chase to feed the wires through to the top.
They will enter at top and plug into the EB8's.
The top portion of my cabinet will be for all of the networking.
1. Apex
2. Sonos (sound system for the whole house)
3. Phillips Hue (light system for the room)
4. Wifi router to extend our service better.

I am thinking about making the shelves black for contrast....

What do you think? I am interested in your opinions....

I would like to find a real cool way of displaying the controller....
I am thinking about a canopy with it flush mounted......
 
Nice progress.
I have my controller mounted on the side of my tank. I really like the fact that I don't have to bend over to look/adjust the controller.
 
Man, this project maybe slow but it is well planned, organized and has a very clean look. Good job, Randy! I really like the idea of mounting the apex display flush on the canopy. It'll look really nice and clean. Just make sure to seal it on the backside so no moisture or salt creep can damage it.
 
Too nice and much work for a stand. You might not want to put anything, yes the fish tank, on top of the stand after finishing it :-)

That stand looks like a high end piece of furniture by itself
 
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