My humble entry into saltwater tanks; 46 gallon acrylic bowfront and a homemade stand

[jimmy_beaner]

Yeah, I did the bottom in one large ~18X36" sheet, then did a bunch of ~5X10 stips along the sides overlapping the bottom and corners so no leaks there. By any chance do you think I could paint over the stand in resin in such a way to get a glass-like finish since I can see a bunch of high and low spots where I sanded the wood filler?

Odds are, you'd just see more imperfections with a glossy finish. The other option I suppose would be to put a thicker coat on and sand it flat. You should be able to use progressively more fine sand paper to restore a gloss if you wanted to go that route.

 

[Marlboro Zoa]

Odds are, you'd just see more imperfections with a glossy finish. The other option I suppose would be to put a thicker coat on and sand it flat. You should be able to use progressively more fine sand paper to restore a gloss if you wanted to go that route.

Thanks for the reply. I guess I'll just leave it alone, resin is expensive and I am sick of sanding after all that wood putty, thats for sure! Hopefully the doors will cover enough of the flaws or at least deter the eye from them. Funny thing is I had also painted over this with glossy polyeurathane (No pics yet) and yeah, theres no hiding any mistakes with that kind of a finish. I just wish I could have gotten the whole thing to look like a two-toned shiny piece of liquid glass :lol:

 

[jimmy_beaner]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I'll just leave it alone, resin is expensive and I am sick of sanding after all that wood putty, thats for sure! Hopefully the doors will cover enough of the flaws or at least deter the eye from them. Funny thing is I had also painted over this with glossy polyeurathane (No pics yet) and yeah, theres no hiding any mistakes with that kind of a finish. I just wish I could have gotten the whole thing to look like a two-toned shiny piece of liquid glass :lol:

You could... get a big flat sanding disc and a random orbital sander and go to town on it. Though by the time you get to 3000 grit sandpaper, you'll likely hate your life. The more matte the finish is, the easier it'll hide waves.

 

[Marlboro Zoa]

I finally got my stand complete! Well, about 99% complete. All I need to do it put some shelving into the right hand side (I'm thinking of getting a couple glass shelves cut), and put a dry erase board or two on the inside of the front doors for keeping track of water changes ect.

I have to let the stand cure for about a week for the polyeurathane to become tough as nails, then I have to transfer the tank over.

Three coats of semigloss poly on the exterior and three coats of gloss poly on the interior and both sides of the doors

Notice the brushed stainless steel knobs.

Detail of how the doors mesh together and the weather stripping to keep the light from shining though the cracks.

All the doors open. You can see the weather stripping and magnetic latches that compress it ever so slightly.

Two LED light strips. I soldered them together and run them off a switch on a DJ strip.

The electric cabinet on the left side. It doesn't look like that much room, but theres about 10" X 16" between the two DJ strips where I will mount the lighting timers and wave maker.

 

[jamesbaur13]

It's probably been posted (honestly I scrolled down to the end to post this, so I haven't looked) but I love your rock work.

I see many overdone tanks that don't seem to account for coral growth and how it will utilize space. Yours will fill out nicely and looks good from the get go. I wouldn't change a thing.

 

[Marlboro Zoa]

It's probably been posted (honestly I scrolled down to the end to post this, so I haven't looked) but I love your rock work.

I see many overdone tanks that don't seem to account for coral growth and how it will utilize space. Yours will fill out nicely and looks good from the get go. I wouldn't change a thing.

Thanks James, you are actually the first person to tell me that!

I actually gave a couple of the smaller rocks away to a friend with a fluval edge, and have since arranged what I have slightly. I also bought a rock covered in zoas for $30 and moved the powerheads.

When I get a new refugium/sump, I'm going to put some of the smaller rocks down into it, and I'm going to buy a couple tall rocks and try to fiberglass rod what I have into 3 tall towers and a bridge.

This is how my tank looks as of today:

The anenome dissapeared overnight about a month ago, I don't think I will get another.

 

[SaltyAl]

Any new updates?

Al

 

[Marlboro Zoa]

Any new updates?

Al

Things are going well. I ordered an ADHI refugium model 20 sump and more plumbing parts and was going to hold off taking photos but what the hey. I'm pretty happy with the stand :celeb2:

46 acrylic bowfront on the new stand. It's hard to tell from the picture but I cut a couple pieces of weightlifting floor matts and put them under the tank. The surface was almost perfect enough without it, but peace of mind is the name of the game.

One nice change was replacing the crushed coral with argonite sand. Much cleaner looking. Don't mind the nylon zip ties, that damn mushroom coral doesn't want to stay in place. I also have a mess of hermit crab shells and one huge one I'm hopping a creature might make a home of.

Here is the stand with all the doors open in the corner of my bedroom.

A close up of the sump area. So much room and so much light!

A diagonal view with the electric cabinet door open.

Side veiw.

So damn easy to get to the timers and turn things on and off now :bounce1:

Don't try this with a prefab stand!

 

[Ethan Music]

Love the clean look of it good job

 

[SaltyAl]

It looks great! That tank is beautiful. I love the look of the corners on an acrylic tank vs a glass one.

Al

 

[Biotopes]

Great job!

 

[BlueFyre]

Looks great!

 

[nickandMK]

That's a very nice built stand and love your tank