Project 58!! (Image intense)

[Maxx]

Thanks FidoJoe, and Craig....I wish I was a mastercraftsman...heck I'd be ahppy if it looked like I knew what I was doing, but truth be told, I'm wingin' alot of this....
Okay, So the last three pics were of the lightbox w/ the top facing the camera, the opening facing away from the camera, (this is to orient anyone who might be confused by rambling explanations etc), and i was in the process of filling the gap in the back for aesthetic reasons, but still wanting to have some airflow from the back of the lightbox to keep heat transfer from the lights to a minimum....
here I covered up the top pf the frame, and the unsightly dribbles of stain....notice the seam where the two pieces of plywood meet on the side....

And here is the strap/band which covers the bottom of the frame...it kinda looks from this pic like the scrap wood I have the lightbox resting on to keep it off the floor is part of this whole mess...it not, really.

Nick

 

[Maxx]

And here is a close up of the gap between the top and bottom straps...its pretty easy to see the seam where the two plywood skin panels meet up...but I've got a plan for that too, (yeah, I know, I'm all about the cover up huh....)

Left over scrap wood to the rescue!!! Cut to fit and urethaned...

Finally here is the whole thing, with rear filled in abit and extra straps attached.....

Nick

 

[Spooda420]

Nick,

That is the most over engineered stand/canopy I have ever seen you could put a freakin' hummer on that thing and I dont think it would give.

Start buying LR and some SPS so I can get some frags from ya!

best of luck.

Chris

 

[Maxx]

Chris,
The liverock is already cookin in a 55 in the basement. But I'm pretty sure I'm gonna need some pods and stuff to jump start the population in the tank. Have you got any Chaeto?
Nick

 

[Witfull]

Nick,,,i cant wait to see the zealous floor reinforcements! the house will fall down and the only thing standing will be the tank and stand!

 

[Maxx]

Y'all are just jealous that your reef tanks cant double as a bomb shelter.
Nick

 

[strat]

looks wicked maxx, cant wait to see it up and runnin... im sure you feel the same way..

strat

 

[mnreefman]

just an observation, you said you had 2 labs right? whats preventing them from taking a drink out of the ol tank? how high is that up?

 

[Hooked]

Nick,

Great job. The craftsmanship is good and the design is very creative.

Based on personal experience, I would suggest that you cover the opening in the back with gutter screening. The opening in mine is about the same size and I've had 3 fish jump out through it. I really can't believe they get through the VHO tubes and out that opening, but they do.

Can't wait to see the finished product.

Katrina

 

[Maxx]

you said you had 2 labs right? whats preventing them from taking a drink out of the ol tank? how high is that up?

Clint, From the the floor to the top of the tank is 48 inches. The big one (97 lbs) could prolly get his head up there, but he knows better...he's also 4 years old. My concern is mostly w/ the younger smaller lab chewing things.
Good call though....

I would suggest that you cover the opening in the back with gutter screening. The opening in mine is about the same size and I've had 3 fish jump out through it. I really can't believe they get through the VHO tubes and out that opening, but they do.

Katrina, The light box will actually be hangin about 8-10 inches over the tank....so I'm been thinking pretty hard about going w/ either fine eggcrate or something else to keep fish in.....still in the process of figurring out that lil detail....
Nick

 

[Gina]

Great looking stand Nick! I envy you having a new set up. I would love to upgrade but, the resources aren't there right now. What type of water flow do you plan on? Can't wait to see the finished product!!

 

[Hooked]

Nick wrote:

The light box will actually be hangin about 8-10 inches over the tank

Ohhhhh, I see now. Wow, I wonder if Tracy has any problem with fish jumping out of his? I suppose you could just avoid wrasses and other fish known to jump, but I actually had a clown that jumped--pretty unusual.

Nick wrote:

My concern is mostly w/ the younger smaller lab chewing things.

I know what you mean. We had a dog that wandered onto our property that we've kept and I kept having these bad thoughts about him chewing through my cooler lines---that would probably empty a lot of water onto the floor :cry1:

 

[Maxx]

Sorry about not answering sooner Gina, I must have missed your post. I know what you mean about the upgrade costing....this has definately been more expensive that I would prefer. But I feel that there are two main ways to do a reef:
1....Spend more money and automate as much as possible. This makes the reef less maintenance intensive, so if I go on vacation for a week, all I have to do is tell someone to feed the tank every couple of days, and make sure top off water is present.
2....spend less money, automate less, and keep a much closer eye on your reef.
Personally, I'm lazy, so I'm going for the less maintenance (complicated maintenance anyway) route.
This tank will be bare bottom with high flow. The main flow will be closed loop. I have purchased an Oceans Motions HD 4 way unit and am in the process of plumbing it to an Iwaki MD-55RLT. I also bought a good sized skimmer to remove as much waste as possible. Its essentially an ETSS 600 which is rated for a 300 gallon tank. I bought such an oversized skimmer w/ the intent of being able to upgrade tanks later on and not have to buy another skimmer. (One big freaking skimmer is cheaper than a big one and a small one.....'sides can you really overskim a tank?)

Katrina,
Actually, I've ben thinking of using egg crate material or something similar to to keep the fish in the tank. All the cool fish either jump, or are too aggressive for a reef...so I plan on thinking ahead.
Nick

 

[mps9506]

Originally posted by Maxx
The big one (97 lbs) could prolly get his head up there, but he knows better...he's also 4 years old. My concern is mostly w/ the younger smaller lab chewing things.
Good call though....


Katrina, The light box will actually be hangin about 8-10 inches over the tank....so I'm been thinking pretty hard about going w/ either fine eggcrate or something else to keep fish in.....still in the process of figurring out that lil detail....
Nick

I've gotten lucky, my lab hasn't chewed anything reef related, I think he knows better even though he is a young'un. He has managed to chew a hole in the bed and in the wall though. Hasn't really chewed anything bad up in the last 6 months, cept the girlfriend's shoes. But he doesn't get in trouble for that, I keep telling the girl not to leave her crud out

Let me know when you figure something out to keep the fish in. I want to keep a fairy wrasse or two in my tank, but have an open top. Already lost a tang in my previous open top setup, that wasn't even a jumper.

Mike

 

[Maxx]

Okay guys,
Gotta apologize for the delay here. I just moved to a new police department, so I'm going throught field training all over again. This department has a different schedule, we work 12 hour days, from 6-6. So i'm pretty wiped out after work. To further complicate things, I'm on midnights now, so instead of 6 am- 6 pm, its 6pm - 6 am.......
Another good thing/bad thing is that My GF , Rocio works from home now as customer care rep for an insurance agency. She's on the phone alot from 8 am - 5 pm....so no power tools allowed during work hours......
Sigh, I and I really want to work on my light box support arms right now...
Anyway,
I've been working on the tank slowly still. I had to make a simple riser/shelf for my skimmer so it would rise high enough to reach over the sump walls. In building this tank stand like I did, I kinda didnt think about skimmer height in relation to sump/fit under stand height. So in the great tradition of DIY everywhere, I've been having to adjust my plans accordingly to overcome lil obstacles like this on the fly. S'okay, no plan survives unscathed...
Nick

 

[Maxx]

Its just not an update w/o any pics.....sides, I didnt want anyone to think I was just be a lazy person all this time....
I finished up the trim pieces on the light box...
Here is a close up of the trim used on the box and on the stand. This was done to cover up all the ugly seams where the two pieces of wood met up, and all those ugly spots where the stain or water sealeant dribbled and dried.

Here is a shot of the entire front.

Nick

 

[Maxx]

Okay here is a close up of the rear....

Now I'm not real thrilled w/ this part here, but when using multiple pieces of wood to fill in these gaps like did on pages 3 and 4 of this thread.....sometimes things dont line up the right way. In this case, the right rear portion of my light box wasnt flush after adding those extra pieces to fill the gap. So improvising again, I cut the trim into two pieces, and sanded the smaller of the two until it mated up as seamlessly as possible. Then I stained it, and mounted it, and the larger piece to finish the trim on the box. Its far from ideal, but I consoled myself w/ the fact that its going to be hidden from every day view because its on the rear of the light box. Still , I wish I could have found a way to do this better. Any of you wood working guru's have any advice for future projects?

Nick

 

[mick77]

WOW! Just checked out this thread. Awsome job Nick!

 

[Maxx]

Here is the mostly finished lightbox sitting on top of the tank in my basement. It will NOT be sitting on top of tank when the tank is set up. It will be suspended. I just needed a place to put the lightbox to keep it off the floor, and the tank was just asking for it....
One thing I noticed, in building this lightbox large enough to allow me to be very flexible in lighting arrangements is that it overhangs the tank by about an inch on all sides. That was by design, but I think it looks a lil funny.
Also, The over flow box in the tank for this shot is not the one I wound up using. That is a 6x7x20 inch overflow box made by Innovative Aquarium Products , (IAP), the same guys that built Mike's, (Mojoreef here) 650 gallon L shaped tank. They also made my sump and skimmer.

you can clearly see the over hang here.

Nick

 

[Hooked]

Looking good Nick--keep the progress pics coming. This is going to be an awesome project.

I'm adding a 40 gal anemone tank to my system this winter and I'm getting some good ideas from you

So in the great tradition of DIY everywhere, I've been having to adjust my plans accordingly to overcome lil obstacles

I understand that--I made my canopy, then bought the Sea Swirls--oops--That's why I have SCWDs :smirk:

Send the GF to lunch and fire up the saw!!!