My new 75gl sps tank

Ok, as have been talking about for the past couple days, I got the last peice of 2x4 and finished the main fram just a few minutes ago. As with the entire tank, this stand is being built on a budget. So far the price is about $30 for the wood needed. Most was from dumpster diving. And lots of good wod is chucked. So far the entire project has set me back $130. I will wrap the entire stand with cedar since I like the look and it will match the house. It is also lighter than most woods. so It will help. The second pic is the notch I made to the 2x4 to create more space in the stand but still be able to hold all the weight needed. Under the stand will be a 45 gl sump to hold all the stuff needed. It basically consists of 2 2x4's screwed together since 2x4 are cheap and they are stronger than 1 4x4. The stand will have a total of 6 doors to give me all the access I will ever need to adjust stuff or whatever I need to do. More pics to come once I buy the cedar to wrap this thing.
stand.jpg

stand1.jpg
 
If you are wondering why the bottom 2x4's are longer than the rest, that is becasue I plan on enclosing the side there the overflow is at and needed the space for the piping and the closed loop pump. I will build it up and put a door on it too so I can access the plumbing whenever I need to.
 
Well, Bottom plywood is on and I slapped on some fiberglass resin. Also started slappin on some white paint. Slowly it is getting there. I just wish paint dried faster...
 
You told me that paint takes days to dry, which is why I didn't use it...


Ahh well. That fiberglass resin trick on the bottom though is a complete lifesaver. Very good trick Jeff.
 
Yeah.. I had quite a bit too so that was the reason I could sit there motionless for a couple hours. The stand is also outside with lots of airflow. More than you would ever have inside. That also helps in drying faster. On that note, I'm out of paint and the stand still needs more. It did have it's first wet test last night with the rain. Came out this morning with the bottom holding water. At least I know I don't have to worry about that. The fiberglass resin trick is one of my many tricks since I have nothing better to do than to think of ways my tank can crash and thinking of solutions to fix the problem before it happens. C'mon Murphy!! play with the 75!!
 
Lets hope not. this stand has to match the house or the wife will kill me. Not too hard though. it will look good with lots of access to everything I need. I went with cedar to match the existing wood in the house. Owners wife loves cedar so I figured it would be a great match.
 
What a great day it is today. The sun is out and no rain. I have started wrapping the stand with cedar and so far it's going good. Cedar is an easy wood to work with and cuts quite easy. It is also mold resistant which is good for our applications. The only bad thing about it is it tends to bow and curve easily with the humidity. I got lucky last night and picked up 11 boards of unfinished cedar (meaning it never went through a planer to smooth it out.) The 11 boards cost $23 which is a considerable savings since a finished board is around $4. It will take more time with these boards since I will have to sand quite a lot to smoth them out. Makes me wish I had a belt sander to speed up the process. Well , back to it. Pics will be coming soon.
 
Well, the edges are done with cedar and I have one door cut out. I didn't get as much done as I had hoped but each board had to be cut to the right size so it took longer than I thought. I do have one door cut out but think I need to get some long clamps to clamp the boards together so they fit nicely. I also found my router and fired it up. Thing still works. That's good too since I was thinking about a little trim for the doors and using the router to put the nice 45 on them.
cedarstand.jpg
 
I hope so. Tomorrow I will work a litte more... maybe cut out another door or two. Still gotta get the clamps to put it all together right though. I plan on putting a black edge trim on it like FD's stand. I like that look and think it will be good on this one too.
 
He got canned.
mentioned something wrong about this forum (RC in whole)

Lookin good Jeff. I was going to swing by last night, dont know what happened...
 
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