Our 375 Gallon project

[melev]

MSM, that looks striking! Very nice. Is the varnish nice and glossy in person? Or a little rough? I have a hard time getting the glossy look.

 

[Satori]

Thanks melev! Yeah, it's pretty shiny. I did 4 coats of Minwax clear gloss.

 

[sidewinder770]

Looks good! We also debated on gloss or semi-gloss but ended up going with semi-gloss. The gloss finish does look good though and it's definately a little harder to get a good gloss finish on (part of the reason I went with semi-gloss) but yours looks great. Wow- 4 coats! I think I'd be another month behind schedule if I tried that ! We went with 2 coats for the most part- some of the areas that have the potential to see more water we put 3 coats on.

I should have some pics to put up tonight. Got the front of the canopy finished and just need to attach the doors this afternoon and I'll take some pics after that. Hopefully the stand will be 100% done by the end of next weekend- still have the side cabinet doors, the shelf around the front of the tank and some trim work left but shouldnt be too bad.

 

[sidewinder770]

Just waiting for some help to get home to be able to put the doors on the front of the canopy so I figured I'd take a few pics while I was waiting. Obviously still have some trim work, side cabinet doors and the shelf around the bottom of the tank to do but it's getting there!

 

[sidewinder770]

Figured I'd post a pic of my newest addition as well . Just got him Friday but is doing well so far. My cleaner wrasse always has to make sure the new arrivals are good and clean:lol:.

 

[Satori]

That looks really great Scott! I really like the matching side cabinets. Will the shelves have recessed lighting above for knick-knacks?

 

[Satori]

That's funny, my neon goby handles the cleaning for my fish. The tangs actually go hang out where he's perched until he comes out and takes care of them.

 

[tfetter]

Scott
Your stand turned out awesome, good job!

MSM I really like how yours turned out too!

I hope my stand will turn out half as nice as your guys

 

[sidewinder770]

MSM- Thanks, it's getting there. Still have a few good days worth of work before it's done. There are recessed lights in the upper cabinets on each side. You can kind of see the light from them in the picture below but the camera flash covers it up a little. Probably be a lot more noticable once the lower cabinet tops are on and finished. Looks like you got a good cleanup crew as well . My cleaner wrasse just hops from fish to fish all day but prefers the tangs and angels. It's actually really funny watching him clean the tangs- they stop to let him clean and try to be really still while he does it and it almost looks like they are holding there breath- after about 20 seconds you can see the fish start to lighten in color like it's holding it's breath to long- makes me laugh every time.

tfetter- thanks for the compliment. I'm sure your stand will turn out great as well. Seems to be a lot of nice stands being built atround here lately.

Well here is the canopy with the doors on. Looks a little darker than it actually is in this picture. I guess I can reveal some pics and maybe a video clip of the actuator now huh .

 

[Satori]

Awesome!

 

[Dudester]

Phenomenol job! Forgive me if it's already described, but could you please (re)mention what the square fixtures are that your pendants appear to be hanging from? I'm thinking of using something similar to this to use over a tank with similar dimensions as yours (96 x 36 x 30). Thanks, and great work again.

 

[sidewinder770]

Dudester- I think I posted this pic earlier but here it is again just in case. The frame is angle aluminum and once the cabinets are done I plan on adding some t5's to them as well. This is also incorporated into the actuator- when the front lifts open the 'light frames' lift up and back at the same time to give more access. It lifts the lights about 6-8" and back about 5-6" which is why there are slots on the top of the canopy which you can see in this picture. They are also adjustable height wise with the supporting cables just like regular pendants are.

 

[aztbs]

Beautiful!!!! I must see the details of the actuator..

Last time I saw this tank in person, it was empty. I'd love a chance to see it again.

 

[sidewinder770]

Absolutely! You are always welcome to come by. I have to come check out your new tank as well. I see you did something similar for lifting your canopy also- makes it so easy to work on things in the tank doesn't it? The way you did it wasn't really an option for me since the room the tank is in has vaulted ceilings and no room in the attic above the tank. I'll try to get some pics and maybe even some video of it in action soon.

Looks like about all you have left is the stand skinning as well- hopefully yours will go a little faster than mine . Are you doing the skinning yourself? I can definately tell you what local flakes to stay away from if you are looking for someone to do it for you but I couldn't find anyone for a decent price that wasn't a complete flake to build mine for me. It's definately taking me longer than I thought but so far I am very happy with the results and I saved a bunch of $ in the process.

 

[gobygoby]

something I did with my actuator, is got a wireless relay kit and now I can remote control my actuator. the controller looks simliar to one you would use to unlock you car.

 

[sidewinder770]

More details please . That sounds perfect- can you show me how you did that? I figured I'd probably do something like that eventually as well but hey- no time better than the present

 

[gobygoby]

for starters here is where I got the wireless actuator controls.

Firgelli Auto

It seems as though the price is higher then I paid. I got the 4 channel (2 channels for the actuator and 2 channels to control something else but thats a secret for now )

mine looks a bit different then the one they have now but appears to work the same. I will posts some pics tonight.

Basically I spliced off the actuator cord that goes into the control box. I routed those wires to the new remote control box and then wired the remote control box to the actuator control box. It was acually pretty simple.

and the remote control box requires a 12 vdc power supply which you just have to wire the black, white and green. I got my power supply from an old cordless phone.

I will post some pics tonight.

Goby

PS. if anyone tries this, the intructions that came with it on how to hook it up were junk and totally wrong. All you need is a volt meter to check for complete circuits, after you know which wires do what, its easy to plug them into the right recepticle.

 

[aztbs]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7422210#post7422210 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sidewinder770
Absolutely! You are always welcome to come by. I have to come check out your new tank as well. I see you did something similar for lifting your canopy also- makes it so easy to work on things in the tank doesn't it? The way you did it wasn't really an option for me since the room the tank is in has vaulted ceilings and no room in the attic above the tank. I'll try to get some pics and maybe even some video of it in action soon.

Looks like about all you have left is the stand skinning as well- hopefully yours will go a little faster than mine . Are you doing the skinning yourself? I can definately tell you what local flakes to stay away from if you are looking for someone to do it for you but I couldn't find anyone for a decent price that wasn't a complete flake to build mine for me. It's definately taking me longer than I thought but so far I am very happy with the results and I saved a bunch of $ in the process.

We ran in to all kinds of "reconfigures" with the lift. We are working out a few stability issues because of the way it had to run. The tank is under the direct center of the house and right above it is the junction of all of the beams and a giant A/C duct. But the lift is priceless - every tank needs to have one.

gobygoby - that sounds like a great project. Anything that involves cannibalizing other devices, splicing, and remote control has to be cool.

 

[sidewinder770]

I agree- anything you can take apart and turn into remote control is cool .

I'll try to get some pics up of mine later today and maybe both of you could share your pics here as well? I know I've seen aztbs's lift and I think I may have seen gobygoby's as well (may have been someone elses as it was back when I first talked about doing mine and everyone got there's done first) but feel free to post some pics here so others can see as well and give people some ideas since I think this is one of the most useful things to do to a canopy and makes it so much easier to get to the tank.

gobygoby- thanks for sharing and please do post pics. So are you using the other 2 channels for another actuator or something else? At least give us a hint .

If anyone else has a lift, actuator or similar divice on there canopy feel free to share some pics as well!

 

[aztbs]

Here's the pics from my tank thread. I will take some more pics/video tonight because I was going to start a thread in the DIY forum on it.