Tansu inspired mixed reef & Haddoni:Clown setup

[sugartooth]

Hello, I would like to share my final upgrade. This has been in the works for over a year and finally, I get it in the door!

The design was inspired by Tansu chests. If you haven't seen them, they are Japanese style furniture with cubby holes in a step fashion. I merged the Tansu style with bookcase style and I hope the finished product will look as I envisioned.

First, the initial drawing:
This CAD was done by Woodwork Refined after I gave them my hand drawing of what I wanted.

The 'portals' drawn were for insets in the door because I wanted to get some chinese jade carvings. I had in mind a 9 dragons jade carving piece. This started a whole headache of finding a pair of properly sized and available carvings in the U.S. I looked for a long time and ordered from China. BIG mistake. It wasn't working out, so I searched again, and again. In the meantime they were getting materials and building and waiting for things from me...


The middle tank is 6 foot long, 30" deep and 30" tall. The two side cubes are going to be Haddoni & clown only tanks.

 

[sugartooth]

After the drawing was approved and some materials arrived, progress can be seen here:

I can't really picture what it will look like at this point. It starts to come together in a little bit of time.

 

[sugartooth]

 

[sugartooth]

Looking like it's almost ready to come home to me!

After some time, I found 2 different carvings to try out in the door. I liked the one on the left, so I needed to find another to complete a pair.

 

[ludnix]

That is going to be amazing. Is the tank going to have a sump?

 

[dave.m]

Excellent size for the tank. I can't imagine anything less than 30" tall for a reef tank. What sort of veneer is being used? I can't tell from the unstained photos. Have you thought about getting a local artisan to reproduce the carvings you want from photos?

Thx,

Dave.M

 

[sugartooth]

Hi dave.m, thanks for your comment. Hmm, no I didn't think about looking to get someone to do it. I just figured it hard enough to find stuff like this in China, locally it would be difficult to find someone willing to try....especially on jade or jade resin which is the material I was looking for.
These were my first choices but I can't find them ANYWHERE. Everywhere I see if for sale, the company is not reputable or they are not available (but up on their site).

The veneer I'm not sure, I think it's African or Honduran Mahogany. Can you tell from this picture perhaps?

 

[sugartooth]

One of the features I was looking forward to (one of many) was the cutouts for the fans, and opening up top to allow the cords for the lighting to slide with the track that's being put in-

This one shows the canopy upside down:

Here it is with the top:

 

[sugartooth]

Another feature I loved was the multiple, easily adjustable levelers on the bottom. Each supports up to 2000 lbs.

They also drilled on-site to accommodate the electrical access.

 

[sugartooth]

Some pictures of the hardware I picked out:

All together, here is the middle section:

And here is some detail of the bottom:

 

[sugartooth]

Here are the canopies for the cubes:

Here is the middle and sides put together:

 

[sugartooth]

After 7 months, I finally found some artwork that is a suitable size and available as a pair!

My very very good friend in San Fran went to Chinatown and walked up and down going into every store that sold shadowboxes with the pictures of styles I'm interested in.........none of them had what I wanted.:sad1:


BUT! There was one store that we got matching shadowboxes from as a bonding experience a number of years ago. That store had very nice ones, so she took down their phone number and address so I can call them.

I called and asked if I could email them other pictures--'No', they said 'We don't have email, maybe you can take a polaroid and send it to us and we will call you'. Alright, I'm pretty much out of options. Then it clicks, how about fax? Can I fax a picture?

'Sure, we have fax' they say so I fax them some styles. They call back right away and say wow, very pretty but they don't have any exactly like that. Then she offers to look through the store and take pictures of similar styles that they have in pairs. Wonderful!!!

She tells me she will mail (USPS) the pictures to me and I can call them if I like it. A week and a half later I get the pictures in the mail and there it is! My search is over!


Here is the result:

 

[sugartooth]

Another picture of the middle and sides attached:

So the tank arrives and I'm so nervous and excited.

The tank is made by A.G.E. and I love it. The overflow box is a combination of 2 overflows (shown with teeth) and 2 closed loop intakes. The grill you see in the middle acts like a strainer and holes are drilled on the bottom for the intake part of the closed loop.

Now, William from Woodwork Refined drilling holes and sanding them down:

 

[dahenley]

WOW, this looks amazing!!

 

[sugartooth]

Now, the middle tank is on the stand.

 

[adddo]

Wow!! Keep posting pics!

 

[dave.m]

Gorgeous!

Dave.M

 

[sugartooth]

Thanks!



The cubes are put in place:

A look under the canopy:

And trim goes in:

Holes put in so I can plumb them together:

All set in place:

 

[dahenley]

what kind of fans are those

 

[sugartooth]

dahenley, they are temp. feedback home theater fans from cooler guys here:

http://www.coolerguys.com/840556086352.html

I have no idea if they are as quiet as some other rated fans.