Dave's Life Aquatic (180 build)

[davewbush]

Late December of 09'. Been thinking of this for many years. Upgrading my 90 gal to 180 gal with a 75 gal sump and a 20 gal refugium, seperate from the sump.

1-10-10. Took a trip to Lowes and spent $60. It was time to get started.

Bought two 2'x6'x12" boards, nine 2'x4'x8", 2 boxes of 4' screws, 1 box of 2 1/2' screws, and 10 braces.

I made all my cuts with a miter saw.

 

[davewbush]

Here is the back panel of the stand.

Here is the frame put together. The tank is 72x24x24 and the frame for the stand is the same size.

In reedkeeping magazine there was an article on how to make a stand and I used that as my guide.

 

[Reefer Brian]

Nice, how tall?

 

[davewbush]

The frame is 36 inches high and when done will 36 3/4 inches. I want plenty of room to work on the sump and refugium.

 

[davewbush]

I didn't by treated wood so I put a coat of Kilz's Primer on it.

I had to cut a notch out of the back leg so my sump will fit in the frame.

 

[davewbush]

Once I skin the stand I will no be able to remove the sump. It was time to work on the sump. My first reef tank was a 75 gal marineland/perfecto tank. I had two ciclid tanks that I wanted to combine into one. I looked on ebay and saw the 75 gal and it was saleing for $400 on ebay. It came with heaters, buckets, filters, 50 pounds of live sand, 20 pounds of live rock, a few fish and few other things. I told myself that I would set it up as salt water and if I didn't like it, I would tare the tank down and put my ciclids in it.

I set up the 75 gal salt water tank and the rest is history. I bought my first salt water tank and set it up on 1-3-04. Here are a few pics of it in its prime.

Over the years I combined my 75 gal and a 90 gal together that I had. All my extra live rock went into a bucket that has been atatched to my 90 for 2 years to keep the rock healthy. The 75 gal has been sitting in my garage for 2 years.

I ordered 4 peaces of acrlyic, pre cut, for baffels in my sump. When I got my acrlyic, they sent me 5 peaces. I'll take what ever I can get for free. The extra peace came in handy later too. I ordered the acrylic from ebay for $76.

 

[davewbush]

Late Jan of 2010. It was time to start ordering a few things. DFS had some good sales going on. I got the 72" T5Nova Extreme 12x39 watts for $575, a koralia 5 mag, koralia 4, 2 submersible utility pump 5500's, 20 pounds of arag-alive fiji pink sand, 120 pounds of aragamax sand, a sump inlet assembly 7" holder/2 inlets, and 2 tubes of marineland aquarium sealant. All for $450.

My goal with this build is buy the tank exactly as I want because this will be my last upgrade and I plan on this tank sitting in my living room for over the next 30 to 40 years. At this time I'm going to go cheep on some of my equipment with plans to up grade over the years to come. Not so cheep that I pay for it in the end, but what I know will get me by. I also have a few things that I use on my 90 that will go over to the 180, Aqua C 180 protein skimmer, and a few more koralia pumps.

I picked up some super glue gel and was ready to put my baffels in. First I taped off where the baffels were going, then I used CD cases to hold up the baffels, super glued the acrylic to the glass, and then used way more sealent than I had to, to hold them in place. I didn't care if it look pretty, I want it to last. The acrylic baffels were not cut straight so I had to do some sanding. Other than that, it went together easy.

 

[Socal2323]

Tagging along.

Nice job on the frame! Looking forward to your updates.

 

[davewbush]

Thanks Socal2323.

I let the sump dry for a week and then wheeled it into the house to leak test it. It was in the 30s outside and I didn't feel like freezing. Water test went great. When I was filling it up the baffels flexed major until all the chambers were full to equal out the presure. Should work just fine. Right side will have the inlet filter sock and my protien skimmer, middle will have as much live rock as I can fit in it, and my return pumps on the left side. I plan on going with the minimalist look in the DT, that is why I will cram the middle with live rock.

I also resealed the inside bottom and walls of the sump.

When I recieved the sump inlet assembly, it was the wrong one, so I called DFS customer services and let them know what had happened. They sent me the right one out the next day with no problem. I sent the other back. I love DFS customer services.

When the light came, it had problems too. I didn't get any pics but I should of. The frame was not squared up right when the endcaps were put on and one of them was cracked bad. One of the light bulbs was defective too. This was not DFS fault or FEDexs. I didn't want to send the light back so I sent current an email explaining what was wrong and asked for the parts to fix it. They sent out the parts and I fixed it. Took about 2 hours to strip the light down and straighten the fram out.

Early Feb 2010. Time to order a tank. When I built the stand I planed on going with duel side overflows. Stand modifacations in the future.

I put up a thread asking who makes great custom tanks in California. Had a few good replys and after looking into all the companies I decided to have CADlights build me a tank. I talked to Eddie from CADlights on the phone and after a little discussion (and $1550), Cadlights was building me 180 gal, 3 side starfire glass, center overflow box with two 1 1/2 inch drains (reason for the need for future frame modifacations), two 1 inch returnes through the back, rimmless, euro braced, and out of 1/2 thick glass.

 

[davewbush]

With the overflow going in the center, I had to remove part of the center brace and part of the back brace. I added 2 more 2x4s for support and had to knotch out the back leg a little more to fit the sump under.

With this done I resealed the stand. Took another trip to lowes and bought four 1x6x10' redwood boards, five 1x4x8' redwood boards, 4x8 sheet berch ply wood(3/4 inch thick), and a peace of 4x8 press board. Spent about $150.

I cut the berch ply wood to fit the botom of the stand.

I used the press board on the top to tie everything together and then put a peace of ply wood in the middle. I sealed every thing with Kilzs. Then checked to see that the stand was level.

 

[davewbush]

I stained the bottom of the redwood boards with red mohogany stain to seal the part of the boards that will be against the frame. Next I used clamps and a nail gun to skin the stand. This was a lot easier than I tought it woud be.

Before I could put the last peace on, I had to slide the sump into the stand. At this time the stand weighs over 300 lbs with the sump. It's going to be fun to move into the house.

It was late Feb when my wife asked if we could put hard wood floors in before the tank went in. We always wanted hardwood but didn't plan on doing it for a few years. Once the tank goes in, it will never move. My project got bigger. We started looking at hardwood floors and found some bamboo that we liked. Bought 560 square feet of flooring to do the dinning room, living roon, and fish room. All materials for floor (flooring, underployment, base board, t-molding, ect) for $3000.

At this point I was a little over 2 grand into the tank and 3 grand into houseing upgrades. (All things that we needed and wanted done) So what could happen to make me rethink my build. Nothing, but what did happen would of kept me from starting if I haden't already. It was my wife's and my happiest day to date. Bad timming, but when is the perfect time anyways.

At this time there is a lot on my plate, and it is all good stuff for onece. Babies going to have a big swimming pool!!

 

[davewbush]

I put 3 coats of red mohogany stain on the stand. One day between coats. Then I put 5 coats of clear coat on it (done over a few weeks). Fininsh came out nice. If I could go back I would of bought a nicer wood than redwood. I am still very happy with the stand.

While waiting for the floor to come in I ordered a few more things.

Then the floor came in. Would it be as easy as taking out the old carpet and then putting in the new floor. No, I had to move my 90 gal to the kitchen so I could put the floor down. Moving a 90 gal tank 30 feet, another big job.

 

[strout]

Just showed my wife your tank build, Guess which part she got a kick out of When you say you would have bought better wood than the Redwood, what would you have bought instead? Looking forward to seeing your tank come together.

 

[davewbush]

I like the redwood, but didn't get the exact color out of it that I wanted. The birch ply wood got the color I wanted. The rest of our furniture in the house has dark red finishishes, that looks almost black. I would of got mohogany if I could go back though. When I picked up my tank from CADlights, they showed me a starfire cylinder that they had made for a client, that had a round mohogany stand. It had a beautiful grain pattern and color to it.

The birch side on my stand is going to be 16 inchins away from the wall. I'm going to run all the plugs through the side of the stand and make a cabinet to inclose my power station. Birch side will not even be seen. There will be three doors on the front and one on the other side for sump acsess.

 

[davewbush]

After being in the hobbie for over a year I thought it was time to upgrade my 90 gal ciclid tank to a reef tank and then have a 75 gal and a 90 gal going. I sold off my ciclids and started another thank. I had both tanks going and then I had to move. Bought my first house. This was in 2005. I moved both tanks 15 miles to the new house and set them up. After keeping up both tanks for over a year I was hving problems keeping up with them and work, so I combined both tanks into one. I put all my extra live rock in a bucket attached to my tank at this time.

I lived at that house for three years and then it was time to move again. 2nd time I had to move the tank. 3rd if you count combining the 2 tanks because I put the 90 where the 75 was and had to move everything. I got the tank moved but got hit with GHA. I am guessing it happened from when I stired up the sand bed. (180 will have a new sand bed with just enough old sand to seed it).

Early March 2010. I wanted to get all my rock cleand up before the new tank came. I pulled most of my rock out of my tank to scrub it and recure it, so hopefully I wont get GHA again. Over the years, I have had tank crashes, GHA, cyno, and lots of other bad things happen. This is why only a few of my corals have made it over all 7 years of my addiction. This is the tank after I pulled out the rock.

^^^This is one of the reasons for the upgade too.

 

[davewbush]

Stand doors. I know myself. Buy some wood, tools to make doors, make a mistake, cuse, get grumpy, buy more wood, sooner or later make nice doors, but spend more money than it would of cost me to have them made. So I found a place on the internet and spent $140 to have them made.

 

[davewbush]

March 3rd, 2010. Time to move the tank. I had a few rubbermaid tubs that I use to move tanks and bought 2 brute trash cans to help also. I will also use the trash cans for my RO/DI upgrade. I have a 35 gpd, 3 stage ro with an add on di. I will get into the upgrade later where I turn it into a 50gpd, 4 stage, duel di.

Here is a few pics of the move. This shot of the house shows the two rooms that are getting wood flooring and my tank before the move.

My little helper. All 125 pounds of him.

He likes to be right where I need to be.

My family. My wife shoots way better pics than me. When the tank is all the way up and going I will have her take some shots whith her Nikon d80. I took all thes pic with a point and shoot.

It took about 6 hours to move the tank and reset it back up. I saved about 10 punds of sand and put the rest in buckets out side. Will get ride of it later, sale or give away.

My tub next to the tank has my protien shimmer in it and is full of live rock. I have another 35 gal rubbermaid tub full of live rock. I believe I have a little over 300 lbs of live rock. Plenty for what I need for the upgrade. Will proble have some left over. Will sale this when build is done also.

 

[davewbush]

While all this was going on I ordered 3 sheets, 2 foot by 4 foot, of black eggcrate. I plan on putting a layer on the bottom of the tank so my rock is not just sitting on the glass. After aquascaped, I will fill around with 1 to 2 inches of sand. I also want ot put some on the bottom of the sump under the live rock. I got this from eplastics. I think with shipping, it was less than $40.

 

[davewbush]

We bought pre enginered bamboo hard wood flooring. 28 boxes. They wanted to sell me 31 boxes because of a 10% loss. I went with my gut feeling and got one extra box over my square footage, not 3 boxes. When all was done I uesd one plank from the last box. Not bad.

This was the first time I had layed flooring besides one other time do a small bedroom. My dad gave me a hand and we did it in two days. The lliving room on a Saturday and the next week, the dinning room. I couldn't see paying some one $2 a square foot to do it for me. We did 540 square feet. It took about 18 hours. (If I had the money to pay to have this done, I would of. I can't lie.)

 

[OrrG]

This is looking really good man, nice work. The floor is sweet too. I feel you about the doors, don't worry I didn't make mine either, I have my dad for that!