the TSAZAMA waterbox build **pic intense**

[cmacld]

a week before Xmas i had to give my dear friend TSAZAMA his gift (as i couldnt stand to have another tank sitting in my basement).

it has taken 3 months to progress further than moving it into his basement..

The time is here... and tag along if you like.

The Stand

when we picked up the tank the stand was a bright cherry almost red finish.. as we wanted to match it to tonys house.... we would need to sand her down

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not being super impressed with the rounded edges of the stand...
we wanted to add a nice molding to it..
however we ran into a snag..
the stand had been glued to death!! not to mention the biscuts holding this sucker together..

We found a great alternative to destroying the lip of the stand!!
A nice thin piece of crown should do the trick!!

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While all the sanding was going down on the stand (good job tony)..

I was trying out some NOVUS acrylic refinishing..
I must say.. i have never tried this method... but i have heard from many fellow reefers that it works great..
We found some and i thought we would give it a shot...

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now before we start... i should state that the left side of the tank was extremely scratched and the front and other side were no jem.. these pics dont even really do it justice you cant really see all the scratches...

here is the start..

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[coralreef321]

where did you get this at? I think i might have been the one to sell you this some time ago. It looks exactly like the one i sold. i live over off 470 and kipling is that where you got this at?

 

[cirujano]

Looking good!

 

[SAZAMA]

we got it from silentsaab. but he said "the tank had been around" i know the MH was from phil.(philj2) CHEERS!!

 

[coralreef321]

just looked back and sold it to a guy named Chadd Warwick. That is defiantly my old tank I would recognize it anywhere. Pervious owner messed up the acrylic something awful. Good to see it finally made it to a good home. I miss it a lot. it was a custom job from US Aquariums from back in the day. Looking back i wish i still had it.

 

[phillipj2]

Nice work Tony the stand looks good!

 

[cmacld]

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1st step in the 3 step process..

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iz a little messy...

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I gotta say that i could show you pics of each step... but not alot changed..
i would say that it did certainly polish the acrylic very well..
it ended up with a very nice shine and brilliance, however it didnt help the deeper scratches at all..

sooo.... yeah, i thought it might be a good idea to break out the car buffer and try that ...
BAD IDEA!
I hit the bottom edge of the tank and put a good crack in the acrylic :eek2:

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time to break out the weldon #4 !!!

 

[cmacld]

wow... sorry about the gigantor pics guys!!

 

[cmacld]

Here is a pic of the tank with the novus treatment done... i must say that i would never recommend this process to anyone unless they just have minor scratches... i know you cant tell in the pic.. but we were able to barely get rid of any scratches with this...

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I used some weld on #4 to seal the crack and luckily i have a 180 acrylic and had a wet sand kit i have used before with great results..

Time to water test the tank!!

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and look who stopped in to check on progress!!
its one of the Jonas brothers !!!

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[SAZAMA]

NICKO is my favorite!!!!!!!

 

[SAZAMA]

THANKS coralreef321 it will have a great home. very excited to get this done right.

 

[phillipj2]

Chad are you going to be able to fix the scratches? I have seen that tank at silent saabs house its pretty bad. If you can't fix it, can you fit another tank on that nice stand.

 

[SAZAMA]

yeah we worked on it. we will post soon. but chad came across the worst thing that could ever have happend! RTN.....

 

[SAZAMA]

ok I slacked for along time but here is the hood

 

[SAZAMA]

tried to match the hood to the base stand, but also wanted front and top access. so here is what I came up with

 

[SAZAMA]

now the doors were a bit tricky.

 

[SAZAMA]

close to a final product. had to sand and fill all imperfections. paint inside white and stain

 

[cmacld]

Only slacked 6 months Tony, not bad....
Anyone wanna take bets on how long before it will see water?

 

[SAZAMA]

got the stain done, heres some pics

 

[cmacld]

Tony! We need an update!