TB's 67g custom project

Tigahboy

Active Member
I was going to wait until I had it more set-up before posting pics, but oh well. here it is anyway.

I'll just start from the beginning...

I wanted a long tank, but not super tall...my apt is pretty small and I didn't have much room to work with, so I decided to have it custom made to fit my space needs...

Here is one of my diagrams for the tank set-up. But I'm no longer going to use the OM Squirt. I'm going to upgrade to the OM 4-way or OM Super.
67gpvc.jpg


The custom acrylic tank was made by the great folks at http://www.socalcreations.com

I decided to have the back wall and internal overflow box made from dark blue acrylic instead of having the back painted. Acrylic thickness is 3/8".

Here's some progress pics from socalcreation's website:

tank1.jpg


tank2.jpg


overflow.jpg


tank3.jpg


tank4.jpg
 

Tigahboy

Active Member
Pics of the finished product

after fighting 2 hours of L.A. traffic on a freakin Saturday, I picked up my custom tank and squished it into the passenger seat of my 2 door Honda Civic coupe. ;) haha.

These pics were taken on 1-29-05

Full tank shot...48x18x18...sexy!
67gnew1.jpg


Internal overflow box...
67gnew2.jpg


Top down.
67gnew3.jpg


Close up of the dark blue acrylic back wall.
67gnew4.jpg


The angle shot.
67gnew5.jpg
 

Tigahboy

Active Member
A pic of my new light fixture...

Aqua Medic 2x250w DE + 2x39w T5 actinic blue. I'm currently on the waitlist to get the Phoenix 14K's from reefgeek.com.

67gmh1.jpg
 

Tigahboy

Active Member
Stand is roughly 49 x 19 x 34"(h)

It was made w/ pine and painted black. I copy and pasted what socalcreations told me regarding the painting process:

"I first started with wood filler and that took forever, so I got a great tip from a woodworking forum which recomended joint compound to fill in the grains (why didin't I think of that!). So I started with about 3 coats of joint compound (the stuff used on drywall), and filled in the grains, next I went through and basically sanded most of it off, leaving just enough to fill in the grains. Next was about 2 coats of Killz oil base primer, to make sure everything was filled in and to start a good base coat for the paint, then I painted all surfaces with about 3 coats of flat black acrylic paint, then 3 coats of satin polyurethane, with spar urethane used inside to help protect even more against humidity, of course a light sanding with 400 grit inbetween each coat for a super smooth finish. That's about it!"
 

Tigahboy

Active Member
Thanks woodstock! The set-up is FAR from complete. I still have so much to buy and I'm working on a design for the fuge/sump tank right now. I think I have a workable (maybe even quasi-original) design now...just have to refine the dimensions and such. hehe.
 

Tigahboy

Active Member
Oh...one issue I'm having right now is locating standard 3/4" thread front (for locline) x slip back bulkhead fittings! The ones made for 1.5" holes instead of the 1.75" holes (used for the stnd 1" bulkheads).

I found out that they actually recently stopped making the 3/4" standard threadxslip so I'm kinda screwed now. I really don't want to use thread x thread...and locline connectors are all threaded from what I've seen.

I wish I made all holes large enough to fit 1" bulkhead fittings (1.75")...so that's already a design flaw right there. haha.
 

Gina

Moderator
RS STAFF
Sweet TB! Can't help you with any of the plumbing, I let my bf handle all that. Hope you can get it figured out to work for you. Can't wait to see it filled!
 

mnreefman

Well-Known Member
tb... if this ank turns into anything remotly close to what you got, that is gunna one schwwwwweeeeeeeeet tank! i cant wait to folow this thread, and see pics along the way.... looking goood so far
 

forestal

Active Member
very very nice...i look forward to following your progress with the setup....half the fun in my mind :)
 

Tigahboy

Active Member
Thanks everyone! It's been a slow process. I started working on the tank design back in December over winter break. haha. I just finished with my sump/fuge design. I think it's original, but who knows. I shall call it the "TB Sump." hahah.

fugedesign3.jpg


I didn't want to use up all the lengthwise space in the stand since I want to fit my calcium reactor and such in there as well. And I wanted to have a SLOW flow fuge integrated into sump, and still have the full length of the sump for the higher flow skimmer intake since this would help dissipate the microbubbles better. or at least all of this is in theory how I think it should work.
 

Tarasco

Active Member
Are you having socal build the sump too? Those guys are good. Why did you have the piping from the overflow go through the back of the tank, instead of the bottom? Did you build the stockman yourself? Looks like it's going to be a great setup.
 
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