Rebuilding our 250DD

[Redhdfishgirl]

I've never done a build thread but I decided it might be good to get some helpful advice before we get our new 250DD up and running.
We upgraded from a 90 gallon in November of 2009. In September of 2010, we developed a slow but steady leak in ourr right front corner of the aquarium. We were blessed enough to have a great reef club, wonderful friends who happened to have a "spare 265 gallon tank" and time to rescue our livestock. Here are some before photos.....

This is our old stand...essentially the same design for the new one. We have sought help from other local reefers to help add additional support.

Right after we upgraded...


http://s146.photobucket.com/albums/...ng our Tank/?action=view&current=DSC_0699.jpg

The decorative elements on our stand were breaking and coming apart during the leak. We had some water damage to the floors, there was a pond liner underneath the sump but the water made its way underneath the liner and therfore had to be removed when we were trying to determine where the leak was coming from.
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I will post later with some of the changes we have made.

 

[Redhdfishgirl]

So far we have added internal GFIs, covered the GFIs incase of (god forbid) another leak & caulked around the GFI's.

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We just added 2x2s to our stand as we wanted additional bracing to the 2x4s. We only had room for 2x2s-nothing larger. We have 3 doors to the front of our stand, there is a small wooden piece where the doors meet, we added a brace behind it and an additional one on the other side. They are about 6 inches off center....will this create a problem as they are not dead center?
Here are some pictures to show what I am talking about. Thanks in advance.

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[jcovercash]

Wow your tank leaking and mikes also..... Doesn't make me even want to consider the marineland DD tanks at all anymore.... 2 on one forum in such a short amount of run time is way to risky for me....

 

[jcovercash]

I can't really see the pictures good on my phone but it looks like your old stand had no center upright supports across the 5ft span and was just a single 2x4 running that length?

Also did you brace your floor any? Did you check for level and make sure the whole stand surface was flat/level. Did you check for stand deflection before/after filling?


Just trying to figure out if it's skipping these items and having give in the floor/stand combination that's making these tanks leak.

I tend to overbuild and had already plane on bracing the floor and having a very beefy stand of 2x6s with plenty of support. Still not wanting to go with the marineland dd if they are leaking even after having all the above done right....

 

[Redhdfishgirl]

I can't really see the pictures good on my phone but it looks like your old stand had no center upright supports across the 5ft span and was just a single 2x4 running that length?

That is correct....since then we have added what would fit in the opening, 6 2x2s to help support the long 2x4's. We have one for each long 2x4 and then two slightly off center. There wasn't a way to add a brace directly in the center due to the design of the doors/stand. We added one behind the decorative brace for the door and one on the opposite side. They are probably about 6 inches off center. I am concerned that this might cause problems with weight distribution or am I worrying for nothing? If the pictures are too terrible, I can upload additional images tonight.

Also did you brace your floor any? Did you check for level and make sure the whole stand surface was flat/level. Did you check for stand deflection before/after filling?

We hired someone to do our installation so he took care of the leveling. My husband observed and said everything was level.
We have since checked the floor ourselves and it is level. One thing we did notice when our stand was being removed from our house was that the furniture sliders had been left on the tank and not removed when it was installed. I don't know if that could have created a problem for us.

 

[Redhdfishgirl]

We've been working really hard on modifying our replacement stand. We added 2x2s to the 5 foot span 2x4s, added 2x4's underneath the top of the stand, added a waterproof plywood top and foam underneath.
Floor to top additional bracing

After the top has been added & the additional 2x4s were added.

Our friend Jamie from Polasko Furniture helping us out. Yes, we need a work bench!

Our cat, Toulouse, approves!

A special thanks to teesquare, prop-frags, blumoon reefers and Jamie! Thanks everyone...we couldn't have done it without your help!

 

[PSU REEFER]

New tank in yet?

 

[willj313]

cant wait ti see it up and runing

 

[Redhdfishgirl]

new tank is up and running...we've run into a bit of a problem though. After we did the water check and filled the tank up we noticed that the water seems to be leaning.
Our tank was level before we added water and are unsure what we can do at this point.
We have contacted someone to help us but we had to be rescheduled for later this week.

 

[Redhdfishgirl]

oops-double post

 

[mattskims]

Unless I am not looking at this picture correctly, wouldn't it be more beneficial to cut and place the vertical 2x4 so that it is in between the top and bottom 2x4 "boxes." This seems like it would be more effective in supporting load and avoiding deflection.

 

[Redhdfishgirl]

We were adding additional bracing to our stand and did not build it ourselves.
The stand came in two pieces but was not connected from top to bottom, that is why the 2x4 was placed the way it was.

 

[PSU REEFER]

new tank is up and running...we've run into a bit of a problem though. After we did the water check and filled the tank up we noticed that the water seems to be leaning.
Our tank was level before we added water and are unsure what we can do at this point.
We have contacted someone to help us but we had to be rescheduled for later this week.

Glad to hear the new tank is up and running. Had the same problem w/ tank being level before water was put in and then after it was filled it was almost 1/2'' off. Had to have Joe use a 20 ton jack to level it while it was full. Took all of a half hr for him to get it level.

 

[Redhdfishgirl]

Glad to hear the new tank is up and running. Had the same problem w/ tank being level before water was put in and then after it was filled it was almost 1/2'' off. Had to have Joe use a 20 ton jack to level it while it was full. Took all of a half hr for him to get it level.

That makes me feel better, its scheduled for tonight! Thanks!

 

[-Scott-]

Ive been out of the game for awhile but this new DD trend is killing me, I WANT ONE!!!

 

[Redhdfishgirl]

Well, our tank is up and running. I will post photos later. They might be lacking as we ended up losing quite a few fish & most of our acros through the ordeal.
We ended up going with a different LFS due to unknown scheduling conficts by our previous vendor. I can't say enough wonderful things about Atlantis. They came through for us, checked out our leveling issue and the issue is now resolved. We're beyond greatful for the people who helped & supported us through this ordeal. Thank you to everyone, especially prop-frags, teesquare, Amp2020 and blumoon reefers. We couldn't have done this without you. Thank you to everyone for your helpful questions, advice and support.

 

[prop-frags]

yay! :celeb3:

We want pics!!