It has begun, My new 180 SPS build

[five.five-six]

My son and I picked up my new Visio 180 gallon tank yesterday. they did a very nice job on it. the silicone bead looks great and the mitered and polished corners I am very happy with the tank and the transaction with ATA went well, I ended up paying $105 more than the eBay advertised price because I added the polished corners and bulkhead hole. if you want to flame me about who I bought the tank from, please do so in this linked thread or I will ask the mods to delete your post as that is not what this thread is about My ATA purchase experience

I have 1 3" hole in the center 1" off the back. the plan is to just have a gray PVC pipe stand up in the back and I will cut a strainer into it but I am trying to avoid giving up real estate to a overflow box

while I was at ATA I noticed some nice big shelf rocks, normally I try to buy stuff on the cheep but I liked these pieces so I just got them. the bigger one measures 20" across and the smallest is about 16"

tonight at 3:00 I am heading over to my friends cabinet shop to build the stand and canopy the stain and finish should be done well in time for my planned transfer from the 100 gallon date of 4/6

 

[Primetime33]

Nice looking tank. Make sure you have plenty of pics to document things for us

 

[wishntoboutside]

mark did you just throw those rocks in your tank?
i would recommend precurring them prior. lots of dead stuff in them
Richard

 

[five.five-six]

Yea, just plopped them in. They did not smell one bit. I was going to mix up a brute full of water to soak them in but I do not want to waste 30 gallons of water

also, and I am sure this will take some tweaking, but the plan for flow is 2 X tunze 6100 on a aquasurf and 3 X 6045's should be ~ 10k gph

 

[SCIronMike]

Wow, that is a nice look tank. Good luck!

 

[JOSE CASAS]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12143859#post12143859 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wishntoboutside
mark did you just throw those rocks in your tank?
i would recommend precurring them prior. lots of dead stuff in them
Richard

looks clean must have been dry rock at first.

 

[JOSE CASAS]

Everthing is looking good Mark.You know i have been thinking of upgrading also but cant justify it since i just finished upgrading 4 months ago lol.Love this hobby.

 

[five.five-six]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12144980#post12144980 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JOSE CASAS
looks clean must have been dry rock at first.

Jose,
yea, it was dry rock that had been "in the tank for months" but I liked the shapes, so $2.00/lb I got 47 pounds. there is a few live plants on it. you can't tell from the pics but they are shaped so nicely that I had to double check to make sure they were not manufactured rock

 

[five.five-six]

the stand

the stand

well at 3:00 this afternoon we started with this maple stock and some maple plywood

we did not use screws or nails in any of the main connections, here I am at the dato machine preparing for glue and dowels

gluing the dowels in place

the face-frame setting up

 

[reef_doug]

This is going to be an awesome tank. Nice woodwork!

 

[five.five-six]

next we worked on the structure of the stand. I decided to have a "dry" section under the stand, it will house the chiller, ballast, ACII, aquasurf and other electronics and will be fan cooled so we built 2 sections

attaching the face-frame to the boxes

gluing in more support, the structural portion is all 3/4" maple plywood

attaching the solid maple sides

here it is almost done, if you look closely you can see the bisket to hole the vertical brace in place

here is the bezel that hides the black tank molding and 3/8 steel cable for earthquake bracing setting up

I rounded the the bezel (no sharp corners for running kids) and used the router on it again, all we need now is to order the doors and complete the canopy, then stain

 

[Ian]

No 2x4s for support??

 

[BurntOutReefer]

boy 556.....you're just like Norm......(except I hate him cause he makes it look easy on TV)

 

[CHASDB]

Off to a great start! Looks like your budget has changed since the Jebo got the boot. Are you going to primer and paint the inside of the stand? I like that horizontal boring machine, I don't have one of those......

 

[five.five-six]

thanks for the props guys, my buddy says the horizontal boring machine, is called a dato machine and it works pretty cool, you just line the work up and when you step on the petal, a piston shoots down to hold the work in place then a router looking bit plunges into the wood

as far as 2X4's I think that the maple plywood is stronger and stiffer than pine, I do not know, perhaps someone with more wood experience could chime in

CHASDB you have no idea how cheep I am doing this for.. I think used on Craig's list would be more money. my buddy is doing this as a side job in his dad's shop and he is way too cheep

I was going to have the finisher (i am not going to try my hand at stain and finish) shoot an extra coat of clear on the inside of the stand, perhaps I should seal the bottom with a paintable silicone so spills inside won't get on my floor

 

[five.five-six]

Earthquake?

Earthquake?

one little thing and I am off to work today. I installed 3/16" steel cable along the upper and lower rim of the aquarium this morning. I just laid a small bead of silicone and used some tape to hold it in place while it sets up. the tricky part was figuring out exactly where to put the slight kink in the cable with pliers so it turned the corners nicely.

on installation day, I will terminate these cables with loops then I have 4 X 3/8 eye-lags that I will sink into the wall studs, then I will connect the eye-lags to the cable loops with threaded quick links. I estimate the load baring capability of this system at 2400 pounds, though that kind of force may rip the wall right out of the building

 

[FishyBiz]

The stand looks great. I really like the subtle detail.

The cable is a good idea but are you really that worried about an earthquake? Seems way overkill to me.

 

[five.five-six]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12165478#post12165478 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FishyBiz
The stand looks great. I really like the subtle detail.

The cable is a good idea but are you really that worried about an earthquake? Seems way overkill to me.

thanks!

and yes it is always in the back of my mind, to the point where more than once I have considered getting out of reefing all together. my tv, and dressers are all braced, hopefuly it is all just a big waste of time and money

 

[wishntoboutside]

i am looking foward to seeing the finishing steps. you made this look so easy already. gesh.

 

[golfish]

I like it man, its going to be a nice system. Those cables scare me