PSXerholic's 210 New Reef build

[Psxerholic]

Hello everyone who is interested to see some pictures of another Reef built.

I'm in this very addicting hobby since 2008 and have mainatained a 110G Tank which I started with mostly Softcorals. During the years of upgrading and getting experience in the pro and con's of different filtration and dosing sytems I'm finally in the process of the upgrade to a 210.

Currently I do have the 110 and a 30 Biocube running in bypass mode in use as a farming tank for Softies and SPS/LPS/Zoa's etc.

After reading though many threads I decided to build the stand on a template from Rocket Engineers stand.

As of now the tank has arrived and the stand skeleton is being completed. The next step is finalizing the Skirting and internal in 3d (Sketchup).

Here is a picture of the stand in the garage, I will post a picture later since the painting is completed and some red oak wood samples have been stained in different Minwax stains.

Here is another picture of the 3d model of the Aquarium which is available on the 3d ware house.

The link to the model is:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=cb2ad742d564eafae3cfd71b51e75ff2&prevstart=0

I basically found and stole the design idea in the forums and many people have different ideas on the skirt. So I came up with my favorite and thought it is helpful for some Reefers to have it available to play around in 3d. It's made for the 210 from the shelf tank in many stores.

 

[Psxerholic]

Here is another picture of the virtual build process in which I'm starting to get my equipment to be arranged withing the cabinetry. Not sure if I wil get in in as desired as well since maintenance of filter and dosing equipment seems still tight. As others said, a Stand cannot be large enough.

 

[Psxerholic]

Here is a picture of the stand completed and painted.
The tank backglass is coated in traditional black.

In order to move the setup around and later back into the house I made some removable consoles that have heavy duty wheels attached.
So at least I do not need anymore an army op helpers carrying the tank and stand.

I decided to paint the stand in dark brown since I do not like to see all the dirt later as it is on white painted stands.

Next is plumbing and leak test even the store manager told me this is not necessary. However, I do my own Dorso piping arrangement and in sump return to have nearly no noise. That is one of the goals of this built to have finally minimal noise from the filtration systems.
That's why the back of the cabinet will be completely closed.

Merry Christmas everyone.

 

[NZXTGUY]

Looking good keep it going

 

[Psxerholic]

Too bad, I thought, painting the backwall with black acrylic paint by using the roll would work. No way, I noticed during the last days that the paint got cracks and started shrinking when in the garage.

Got some really cold nights over xmas here in Texas.

So I peeled the paint off and did it again the old way by using plenty of Windex to clean the glass surface and then applying the enamel coating via can spraying.

Masking is the only pain in the *ss if you do it that way.
Here some pictures of the re-coating and the enamel I used before on my other tanks and now this tank as well.

Important is to keep sufficient distance to the silicone on the overflow. I have seen people who went to close outside so you could look through the tank when you looked into it in an angled position. We dont want that!!!

And finally the coat I'm using.

The paint has been done yesterday and I started to look for a spot in the garage in order to start the skirting and start plumbing to proceed with a leak test. Actually I just want to see this thing filled up with water, lol.

 

[justa210]

Do you have dimensions for the stand that you could share ?

 

[Psxerholic]

@just210
Of course, you can either download the sketchup model from the link above an take all dimensions you need out of the model. Otherwise I will take the detail dimensions if you need them. The basic stand is 73" x 25" and the height from bottom to the top of the plywood topbase is 38-3/4". The width of 25" does not include the backwall plywood which would add another 3/4" if taken into account.
I used 2x4 and 2x6 for the construction. The plywood I used is red oak hardwood plywood which is more solid than the normal stuff.

By the way, the entire construction is glued as well with Gorilla glue wherever possible. It took about 8hours to built the frame and I did not take a lot of pictures since there are so many threads about the rocket engineer stand already. But feel free to ask if anything arises.

Let me know if that is helpful enough.

 

[Psxerholic]

Here are some pictures of the Farming tanks in which I'm preparing the "seed" for the new setup.

I will built a mixed reef and I do have plenty of SPS and Softies from my farming tanks so the challenge will be stocking up the new tank with established refugium and plenty of Corals and avoid a bio cycle.

I also have prepared Biopellets in a bypass of the tanks in order to avoid potential nitrite/nitrate peaks.
At a later point I will provide some more infos about the filtration and sump.

The 110G

The 30G Cube where I keep my Clownbabies temporary

Closer look on the SPS frags. Not sure why the Colors are so bad with that Camera. My wife normally makes the beautiful pictures.

 

[Psxerholic]

Ok, the skirting started. I decided to build the skirt completely removable and equipped with heavy duty wheels. Unfortunately the skirt design does not allow a lot of front access and I modeled around with side acess doors which looked ugly in my own opinion. So the idea is to built the skirt on wheels so I can easily roll it away from the tank for non routine maintenance to have full acess to the refugium from the side etc. That would even allow to replace and take out the refugium from the sides , just in case.

This is the unscrewed setup of the side walls sitting loose for now on the bottom frame which has the wheels.
I figured out that I have to straighten the pieces of plywood that were pre cut at ****depot, not very good work.

So in order to continue I have to assembly the table saw first that Santa brought,

 

[Psxerholic]

Here is a picture if the ATO system which is in the laundry. The laundry is perfectly behind the Tank, but the wife will not abandon her laundry so I have to share it.

The Kalkwasserreaktor is suppose to move into the Tankstand, not sure what parts from the ATO will go into the cabinet as well. I will probably equip my laundry area with the dosing system and it's stock solution containers.

 

[Psxerholic]

Thats todays progress. After getting used to the table saw it went quite well and precise as wanted. So the front posts and visible skirt parts are all set up (still loose) and ready for final alignment and then drilling, glue etc.

When this is done the front panel will be ready for mounting to the wheel baseframe. I keep the sidepanels loose for now.
They might need realignment. I will have to put on some front panels to check if the front is completely even where the doors will go later.

 

[Psxerholic]

A couple of pictures of the skirting progress.



Drilling the three front posts with KREG holes. I'm using 1-1/4" screws.
When I cut the three visible pieces to length, I basically laid them on each other and made the cuts on both end to ensure that they really have the same length.

I had to calibrate the mitesaw before, it is 1/2 degree off.

Before screwing the posts in, I put Wood Glue between and clamped the pieces so the surface is even when tighten the screws. The results were very good. The pictures shows a small piece that I used partially, the easiest way is to use clamping pieces that have the same witdh as the posts.

After all three posts, I checked that the front pieces are even, when the doors will be attached without annoying gaps.

Here is the Rollgear permanently attached to the bottom. Glued and screwed. Clamps helped to keep evertything straight.

Front Panel finally in position. Next step is the side panel alignment.

There you go, side panels glued and screwed. The front panel is even and doors lay on all around without gaps. I used KREG screws for the side panels and glue only between the bottom of the side panels and the top of the Rolloff gear.

Next steps are the larger posts for the left and right. I will prebuilt them off the skirt and as soon as they will be attached to the skirt, this thing will become more solid. The crowing later will stiff up the rest.

 

[Psxerholic]

What a cra*! I couldn't get the 10" wide oak boards I needed for the side posts so I took 8" wide boards and have to deal with that problem somehow and had already an idea in mind that worked out fortunately.

Here are some pictures of the work so far.

Preparation for the Kreg screws.
To avoid the screw going all the way through the board (3/4" thickness) I had to adjust the drill depth distance ring about 10mm.

The front board will have a smaller 3" piece drilled and glued. The Kreg screwheads (1-1/4") will not collide with the front board of the skirt, since I have the openings left and right.

Same piece after.

One part of the front post that is now done in two separated pieces due to the fact that I couldn't get the 10" wide boards.

The other part of the post.

Part one again.

Both parts now provisional supported.

 

[Psxerholic]

Most of the plumbing parts for supply, return and Durso pipes.
The flex 3/4" will be useful to avoid any 45 & 90 elbow which help to minimize pressure drop in the piping from the pumps into the tank.

Redundant pumps will be used for each overflow of same type and size.
One of those pumps will also be powered by a UPS system to keep main flow for at least 2hours, which takes care of almost every normal power outage which happens a lot here in this part of Houston.

 

[Reef This]

Tagging a lot for this. I'm very interested to see how your stand progresses. That rendering is quite good.

 

[Psxerholic]

Tagging a lot for this. I'm very interested to see how your stand progresses. That rendering is quite good.

Actually that isn't a rendering. Just a simple export as a picture out of sketchup.
Unfortunately the model and the stand become a lil different due to the rolloff design and issues I had with the building materials.
But the model was mostly for visualization and planning inside the stand.

I'm looking forward to get the posts completed since the crowning is waiting already to get to be attached. Just holding the crowning on the wood, looks awesome.
I will keep going on this.

 

[Psxerholic]

Here are the pictures how the side posts are finalized and are assembled to the skirt.

Additional screws! All Kreg screws by the way on the entire skirt build as of now.

Some quick markings where the next Kregscrews have to be drilled.

Here is result of the sanding with a sanding mouse. Used 180 only. Awesome results. Feels very smooth and looks awesome like made from a professional.
The DC drills have to be recharged so I started sanding.

Combining the two parts into one.
Direction of the screws in an angled position helped immense so they are no visible gaps.

Here I rolled off the skirt to make final fit up and prepare the drilling of the next screws (straight drill).

A view from the top.

There you go, drilling done with eye holepattern.

 

[Psxerholic]

Glue attached and clamped in position.
After that, I didn't had time since screwing around was more important,lol.

Final results.

Next picture will show the entire stand with both posts.
At this point I will make a picture of the other side of the skirt.

Oh, I sanded the entire skirt before attaching this post.

 

[Psxerholic]

Just to avoid a misunderstanding, the mini refugium in the stand on all the pictures will only be used for the overflow pipe design and noise test!!!

 

[Bretts05jeep]

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