Stone's 225 Carbonate Factory

[Stones]

For whatever reason, the previous owner decided to keep the overflow comb for himself so I was left with nothing but some silicone residue on the top of the pieces of glass that formed the overflow. So I figured this would be a perfect time to test out my new table router.

First I cut the pieces of acrylic to size with an 80 tooth blade on my table saw.


Since the max height my overflow comb could be was 1", I decided to go with 3/8" acrylic in order to make the comb a bit more rigid. After I cut the pieces of acrylic to size, I started cutting out the notches using my router table. The router table worked real good to cut the first few teeth but since the fence on the table would only go back 2 1/2", I could only cut 4 teeth. Since my overflow is 14" long, and I had 18 teeth to cut out in total, I had to come up with another idea. So I tried building a secondary fence and feeding the acrylic in perpendicular to the "proposed" feed direction. The result, an Epic Failure.


So after destroying half of the 3/8" acrylic that I had, I decided to build a stationary jig and hand router the teeth into the overflow comb. This time, I was going to leave the pieces uncut, router the teeth in, then trim them to size on the table saw in order to give the acrylic a bit more rigidity when routering out the teeth.

Here is the jig I quickly built

After cutting out a tooth, I'd just readjust my piece of acrylic, clamp it back in place and cut out another tooth.

All the teeth cut out and my acrylic is still in one piece. Amazing!

And all trimmed to size and dry fit

Siliconed onto the top of my overflow. Here you can also see the 2 outlets from my return pump. Each of these will be getting a 3/4" pacific coast flow accelerator which is basically a smaller version of an eductor.


Well that about ends the DIY portion of my build until I get around to bracing my drain plumbing (since it is ridiculously heavy) and manifold into my stand as well as installing the doors on the stand and finishing the exterior.

[Delphinus]

Great looking build..

That first picture is a bit.. ouch ... but this tank looks to be shaping up to be a good place to regrow all you lost and then some, so I guess just keep looking forward..

[Stones]

And what do we have here!

And after the quick install





And here is one of the sweet moonlight I got Sfiligoi to install into the fixture.


Lastly here is what the tank looks like after I got the black trim removed off the top. It took a full week of my RO/DI running 24/7 to get the waterline to where you see it now. I can't wait to see this months utilities bill!

[lastlight]

Yahoo looking great! Might I say...top shelf?

I loved your corals in the old 90 so I can't wait to see what you do here. Where are you buying 80w bulbs from? Nice touch with the added moonlights too.

[christyf5]

Great looking build! Nice to see it all coming together

[Stones]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Yahoo looking great! Might I say...top shelf?

I loved your corals in the old 90 so I can't wait to see what you do here. Where are you buying 80w bulbs from? Nice touch with the added moonlights too.

Thanks Brett. I ended up getting the 80 watt bulbs from Reef Geek. They had great prices on the bulbs but shipping alone was over $100. I see Oceanic corals now carries a few 80 watt bulbs so I'm hoping to get replacements from within Canada. Hopefully one of the sponsors will pick up the GE 6500K daylight in an 80 watt bulb. That tube has got some serious PAR.

[lastlight]

Yeah I loved the colors of the ATI bulbs but you could pick that GE out of the mix if you weren't squinting so hard your eyes were shut. Great for greens and yellows.

ReefGeek packs their bulbs bomb-proof. I was super impressed.

What's your bulb layout look like?

Damn I just noticed you still have the other fixture. Talk about PIMPIN'!

[Stones]

Yeah, Reef Geek does pack the tubes extremely well. I was a bit worried since they had so far to travel but I don't think the bulbs would have broke even if UPS had rolled their truck.

As for a bulb combo, I went with 6 ATI Blue Plus, 3 ATI Aquablue specials, 1 GE 6500K Daylight, and 2 KZ Fiji purples. When all the tubes are on, the tank has an ~14K look to it so I'm much more pleased with this than my 8 bulb fixture tube choice which gave me more of a 10K look.

I also just sold the 8 bulb Stealth yesterday. Now there are 2 of us in Regina in the Italian Lighting club.

Not the best pic but you get the idea


Also made some progress on getting my electrical cord holes cut in the eurobracing. 1 down, 3 to go.

Hole saw jig I made out of acrylic. Keeps the bit centered and acts as a damn to hold water around the bit.


All finished up with the uniseal installed. I ended up with a few minor chips on the bottom side but I'm not worried since its only the eurobracing and you won't be able to see them once I have the trim installed around the top of the tank.

[lastlight]

Nice touch with the uniseals.

Yeah that combo is darn near exactly what I was running but I used 2 procolors instead. I never had coral in there but to my eyes it sure looked like ANYTHING would have looked very nice under it.