don't tell him that, it took 5 years last time and he sold it befor he finnished it :mrgreen:

Steve

hey Brad, if you going to make it longer than the tank, why don't you build the overflow on the end. you can always make a dark plexy or wood cover for it to hide the piping. or is there something else your concerned about here?

Steve

Having that extra space on the side of the tank is great for putting fish stuff on. Very convenient.

Use a herbie or at least durso system. Much quieter.

I have glass tops on the 165g and it really reduces my evaporation. Thus I can get away with just a 5 gallon bucket of topoff for the auto topoff system. Easy enough to fill and stick back inside the stand as needed. I find with the glass tops, I only need to top up my ATO bucket once a week or so. My 210g reef, in contrast, evaporates at least 2 or 3 gallons a day. Huge difference.

I also love the 24" width of a 90g wide sump, compared to the 18" of a 75g.

Yup, the tank I got from Chin has the overflow on the end (external actually). Depends on how the tank is situated. I mainly look at one side and the front of the tank anyways. It has a mod Herbie drain.

The tank that busted had a single large corner overflow box with dual 1" drains using a durso system. Roughly 12" x 6" x 6". Worked well before the front pane broke. Had to keep the tank about 5" to 6" off the wall though to accommodate the plumbing in the back.

Damn, my 90 gal evaporated that much a day after I put a chiller on it and took the fans off, befor it was 5 gal a day :mrgreen:

for sump width there is a disadvantage to 24" wide as well as benifits. if your stand is 24" wide thats 6" less space to place things infront of it.

so lets say he puts a 6" wider stand so there is a ledge around the tank. underneith if there is a 24" wide sump that leaves about 3" of room, if it is a 18" sump then he has about 9" of room to place a Ca reactor, chemicals, tools, ect..

I think now when I do another tank I will take my widest chunk of out of sump equipment and build it to acomadate that.

personaly I would make the stand with a front ledge of 8" a back ledge of 2 or 3" and ends about 8" larger also. this would give you 12" of usable room aprox infront of a 18" wide sump which would be able to acomadat almost anything you want to throw under there.

Steve

how big is the 125 Brad? I can't remember off hand.. only how heavy it was :wink: and is there a reason you can only go 7 foot long or did tyou just thing 6" on each end?

to bad you don't come this way at all, I actualy have a shop I can work in now :wink: :mrgreen: not in the driveway like our last stand build :redface:

Steve

The 125 is 60x18x24 (which makes it a 115?). Not sure I can fit that in, but I'll design for it initially.
I don't want the overflow off the end, as both ends are exposed to the room equally, and symetry is important. I'd rather lose 3 inches off the back

Weights def a concern with a 200g tank plus around 300lbs of stone and 100g sump not to mention liverock etc.

I'll be making the stand out of 2x4 first to support the tank, I'll be using 3/4" plywood plus 2" s&m foam for the tank to sit on. then I'll be building walks from 2x6 on the outside of my 2x4 frame to hold my stone and create my shelf. If I build from just 2x4 with the shelf it won't support the tank as it will be wider, so my plan is to build framed walls and supports for the tank then build a stand from 2x6 in two halfs that will fit around the interior stand like two horseshoes :) then just granite for the top cut to fit around my tank in two halves also :)

Just picked up the first load of equipment and rock, filled the van completely. Still have a bit more gear and the tank
Noticed the tank has a tempered bottom, so that limits my plumbing options.
For those using external overflows, is your tank trimless, or how have you dealt with that?

I just cut away the trim where the actual overflow is.

Steve