Dave's next upgrade(man cave)
 

So lately i have been playing around with an idea of doing a man cave in my basement:cry: i know it sound so bad, but been bored of the current setup that i have had for the last four or five years now. So i got this crazy idea of being a guinea pig to try out a new hybrid tank design i have been playing around with.

I will try to explain as best as i can but my skill set is really not on the writing side, what i think and what i put on paper are two totally different things:redface: so here goes, this will be a modified t-shape tank too best fit the area i plan on placing this. I will be doing a hybrid polyethlene/glass bottom because will i just have been hearing a lot of good things about this kind of design so it is worth a try.

here is a rough idea off what i had in mind but i many change a couple of small details as i start the glass work.
the right view
http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/a...iums/tank2.jpg
the left view
http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/a...iums/tank1.jpg

now the man cave part lol
http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/a...sementdone.jpg
http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/a...entdonetop.jpg


as far as equipment goes, i am still undecided of what i will be using but have a good idea of which way i am leaning, more to come on this.

i will try to update as i go but i am easily side track as some of you may know lol


Dave

Wow
 

Awesome concept.

Wow.... That is gonna be one sweet mancave!

awesome concept.

i know man cave sounds so BAD lol

Where's your poker table going Dave? :lol:

Glad you're finally doing a build thread. You should post some pics of your current tank while you're at it.

When the glass is cut if you need a hand with hauling it give me a shout.

yap free pizza and beers for anyone willing lol, my current 440 looks like azz no way am i posting it:redface:

Wow! You can even have a view of the tank thru the bathroom!

not really, there is a hallway from the tank to the bathroom. Believe me i thought about being able to do that, but i would think it would be really uncomfortable for the person on the other side :redface:

one-way glass on that end of the tank Dave. Come on pull out ALL the stops =)

Looks great Dave

Looks awesome Dave!!

HOLY CRAP!! That's amazing! Definetly make it viewable from the bathroom! I moved my 55 into the bathroom while I was swapping things over to my 160 and I (and my wife) loved it! I just wish we had a set up that was condusive to having a tank there, but it would be to hard and obtrusive to plumb... :(

Go take a look at your tank and look from the front through to the side, and hold your hand on the side... can't see it, right? Do it. You know you want to. Only problem is that you may have house guests taking really long bathroom breaks!! lol

lol your going to give all your fish pink eye everytime you flush

LMAO!!!

Just a little update or more like change of plans, after reading a thread about a drop off tanks i figured why not:mrgreen:

http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/a...e-version2.jpg

http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/a...-version21.jpg

please ignore the colours on the stands, it was just to allow me to visualize how it would come together, the finished product will be powder coated black.

Now to the good part

so i have basically narrowed down my search for lights down to two units

first option would be 8 or 9 of the pacific sun black python XM units
http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/a...riums/bpxm.jpg
or four of the vertex illumina 260 6' fixtures
http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/a...mina-sm2_5.jpg

flow will consists of

8 to 10 vortech mp60wes
6 to 8 vortech mp40wes


skimmer

bubble king 500 external
like my man Albert says "why go second best just pick the mac daddy of them all" lol. Will Albert you make is so easy:wink:

that's it for now

Thanks Dave

This is gonna be an awesome tank!

Awesome!!!!!!! Me want :mrgreen:

Dave your gonna need to take some scuba lessons to clean the drop off mang!:razz:

Wow, this is amazing, if you get this built you'll have to start charging admission to get in your house. Can't wait to see this unfold.

Dude I *Just* talked to you yesterday and you've changed skimmers! You are hilarious dude I am curious to see how faithful you can be to your current plans.

What happened to the mitered top edges on the tank?

will Albert from proline called me a sissy for even thinking about settling for second best:redface: it is the bling bling factor or what he likes to call "mac daddy"

as for the mitered edges i may go back to this but the cost! just can't get my head around this

the stand will be ordered on tuesday when i get back to work, so i only have a couple days to change my mind lol equipment on the other hand that's a different story

you're going to regret not going with a 650 haha =)

dude the thing is way toooo much money lol from what i was told there is only about 10 of these thing floating around northamerica

I doubt they float. they're heavy as hell I'm guessing!

Didn't you worry, you have a surprise coming:mrgreen: or may you know already

tell proline to man up and sponser the build :) I'm sure they dont have too many tanks using the most expensive products they carry - could make for a nice "advertising" piece :D

following along as long as the drool doesnt wreak havoc on my puter

i am drooling.... Dave, what kind of software do you use to draw this awesome man cave?

You're going to need this in your 'man cave'. My wife won't let me... :(

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=h...74&tx=55&ty=66

i used google sketchup great program

lol i would like to but if i did i would be single for the rest of my short life:redface:

The cost?! At this point you're worried about the cost of some mitered edges? Looks like the tanks are covered though, aren't they? How would you see mitered edges anyway?

I think you would be better off without the 45 slope on the drop. Looks like a small space at the bottom?

the mitered edge was base on another tank i was playing around with, i showed Brett this design and that was what we were talking about.
http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/a...iums/dave1.jpg
http://i938.photobucket.com/albums/a...riums/dave.jpg

i like how corals look when viewing from top down, i found them so different from what they look like straight on, so i wanted to do a 45 edge to the top of the tank to get the same effect. Believe it or not, to do the miter it would cost a small fortune so it will be shelved for now

i may in the end drop the slope on the drop off but i was just thinking it may be easier to build a rock wall with the slope in place. i was hoping to do a wall off zoa's in the lower area's, lps in the middle and clams on the top

thanks Dave

Ah ok! That's a pretty awesome design with the edges mitered like that! Very cool!

You could do something like spread silicone on that slope and then sand...then you could get Zoas growing up it...or Favia? or Cyphastrea? or Montis? That would look cool!

Very cool. So when do you start this project? :)

it already has, been planning this for some time now:biggrin:. the stand was sent to the builder on tuesday and just waiting for him to come back to see if the are any problems with the design. the only thing is he is leaving for holidays on the 17 so it may have to wait until he comes back. once the stand is done we can start working with some of the glass panels. the tall panel and the one with the cut out will be sent to get tempered, then we start the build:razz:

Dude this is gonna be an epic build. I can only imagine what your bills are gonna be like lol. Ur gonna have to start swimming to scrape and clean the algea of your glass lol.

Ya, I only have ~21 square feet of glass to clean and it drives me nuts.

it will be a pain lol and i am lazy at that to

so have you got the new tank set up yet?