Thanks man, it's coming along.
Deez I just read through the entire build thread, your house and tank is absolutely amazing! I'm sure all the algae will come to an end, everything will start taking off again. Good luck
Thank you very much! The algae is almost gone :bounce2:
Increased lighting already, now I'm just waiting for the Radion magic to kick in
Beautiful tank both new and old. You have very good taste in home styling my friend and the cabinetry of your tanks to match. I love the stand of your old tank. Would you mind pointing me to the right direction of who built it for you or where you purchased? Thanks
Thank you for your compliments. I for one was only allowed to have a fish tank on the approval of the stand by the warden lol
On my quest to have the stand built was quite complex. Every time the word fish tank came up, the price would alway double. So I knew this wasn't going to happen.
I started off with building the stand myself using 2x4's with anticipation of having it skinned. The skinning part didn't work out as the wife wasn't happy with my intentions. So she hired a guy from kijiji to do it for me.
To make a long story short, the tank was 30" wide, the stand was 30" wide as well, leaving about 2" of play for the skinning. This guy from kijiji skinned it with 1/4 veneer. When he was done the overall width of the stand was over 34" inches wide. He skinned it in my garage and my front door was only 32" wide lol. I was like how am I suppose to get this stand into the house?
His reply "I don't know".
He also made the doors out of 3/8 ply and man were they pathetic and he's suppose to be a carpenter. lol
So after that disaster, I decided that (A) the skinning job was horrible and wouldn't cut in in our home and (B) the 2x4 construction of the stand is not ideal as it tends to be not square as the wood drys and warps etc.
So I decided to build the stand myself. I used cabinet grade 3/4 ply. I build the box using biscuit joiners, glue and decking screws and then i cut approx 6" strips on the table saw and braced the interior using the same methosds. I used solid maple to wrap the top and bottom. I made the doors with solid
maple stock, routed the backing and silicone in frosted custom glass.
Then I stained and sealed it with 3 coast of urethane. Overall the stand took me about 25 hours to build. About $400 in material and I acquired a few new tools along the way as well. Tools I still use today

This was my first attempt at building furniture. I did a lot of reading on cabinetry site etc before I made my decision.
You can find the pics here from my old build thread
http://www.aquariumpros.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=35941&page=21
I hope that helps and thanks for bring back some bad memories hahaha
Awesome tank and build!! I am looking to do a build with very similar tank dimensions (especially the height).
Quick question: Have you seen any ill effects from having a shallower tank with the anthias and tangs? People always talk about length and volume of a tank but I don't hear much about height. Thanks!!
The whole idea around this tank was that I wanted tangs and wanted to give them the leg room they require, hence the length. At the same time I didn't want a massive volume of water. So we went long. narrow and shallow. We also didn't want the fish tank to over power everything in the house. Just accent it enough to be a focal point and not to predominate. I also hated working on me previous tank, which was 24" tall with euro brace. 18" shallow tank is much nicer to work on.
My tangs are happy and swim the length of the tank, when there are quarrels they also have room to retreat to there hide spots. But they get a long for the most part. My anthias are enjoying the tank as well. None of my fish hide in the tank, even with the lack of hiding spaces. The fish actually follow me from one end to the other like a dog begging for food. It's quite funny. :lolspin:
So I think there are no problems with these tank dimensions. But I've only had it for about 6 months now. I would have liked to have gone a bit deeper now that I look back. But again, I may not have achieve the look I have now.
Which was a sleek contemporary look.
I hope that helps with your decision.