chuckdallas
Tank Tinkerer
Hello everyone. I currently have a very large (for me) 120 gallon display tank with a sump that's smaller than I would have wanted. I didn't realize how much work it would be to keep it looking like the ones in the stores with crystal clear water and clean glass. I bought it from a guy off Craig's List about 1.6 years ago for a REALLY good deal, but didn't realize that having only one door on the front and no opening in the back and only having a 10 inch wide slot on the side would prevent me from having any decent sized sump, unless I paid for a custom made one, which I wasn't able to do when I was setting it up. I jury rigged a nice Rubbermaid container into the base of the stand and have made my own sump and refugium but I'm moving in 9 months and I am going to downgrade to a really nice ReefSavvy 30 gallon tank I won at an FMAS Raffle. The wife refuses to help with the maintenance of the tank when I retire from the Air Force desk job and go back to flying for AA (3-5 day trips) every 3-5 days. I have the peristalic pumps with the B-Ionic calc and alk and the autotopoff for the fresh RO/DI automated, so it should be good for 3-5 days while I'm away.
I have decided that I want to have a good sized sump (30-40 gallons) to hold the majority of the rocks and the current stand would be great for the 30 gallon DT and a 30 gallon sump but it would just look funny sitting on top of a stand that's 5 feet long with a tank that's probably no more than 2 feet long, unless there were shelves or something else on each side of the aquarium to store the "aquarium crap" (her name for the aquarium supplies that I use frequently).
Does anyone have a nice looking used stand or does someone around our area build stands? I think I want something that will fit a 30 gallon tank (don't know the exact size off hand) in the center with shelves on the sides and a bottom big enough to hold a sump that 3-4 feet long. I am going to do some homework to determine the best size and features based on what I've seen in the stores and in other people's houses but I'm willing to take suggestions for things I may not thinking about. The current display tank is a peninsula, but when I switch to the 30 gallon tank, it has a black back already, so I will make the rocks slope from the upper back to the middle of the tank so all of the coral will go on the front side.
Thanks in advance,
Chuck
I have decided that I want to have a good sized sump (30-40 gallons) to hold the majority of the rocks and the current stand would be great for the 30 gallon DT and a 30 gallon sump but it would just look funny sitting on top of a stand that's 5 feet long with a tank that's probably no more than 2 feet long, unless there were shelves or something else on each side of the aquarium to store the "aquarium crap" (her name for the aquarium supplies that I use frequently).
Does anyone have a nice looking used stand or does someone around our area build stands? I think I want something that will fit a 30 gallon tank (don't know the exact size off hand) in the center with shelves on the sides and a bottom big enough to hold a sump that 3-4 feet long. I am going to do some homework to determine the best size and features based on what I've seen in the stores and in other people's houses but I'm willing to take suggestions for things I may not thinking about. The current display tank is a peninsula, but when I switch to the 30 gallon tank, it has a black back already, so I will make the rocks slope from the upper back to the middle of the tank so all of the coral will go on the front side.
Thanks in advance,
Chuck
