kien's 150g Room Divider Mixed Reef & Stuff

kien · #1 07-20-2009, 08:34 AM

Back to the stand. Now that the paint has dried it is time to move it into the house. Originally I had a sheet of 1/2 inch plywood which I was going to use for the top but decided I wanted something a little nicer. I was at Ikea looking for ideas for skinning the stand when I came across some counter tops. A nice one and a half inch slab of MDF, awesome. I went with one of the Numerar counter tops that happened to be just the right size at 73" by 25". No cutting required. While I was there I also found some cabinet door panels that I will use for the stand as well. More on that later.

This is always a good sign!

Now that the stand is (somewhat) ready let's get that tank in here. Let me just say, damn that thing is heavy! It took 4 of us to get it in and out of my car and onto the stand and it wasn't all that much fun, but my crew and I pulled it off.

A 1/2" sheet of pink styrofoam sits between the tank and the top of the stand for cushioning. The edge of the styrofoam was spray painted silver to match the trim and the top of the stand.

It sure is a lot bigger in person than it is on paper.

To recap, it is 72" long by 24" wide by 20" deep/high. Here's the external overflow box.

Two of the four 1" overflow holes. My plan is to have 1 drain straight into the 'fuge, merge two of them into a 1.5" pipe to drain into the skimmer section with a gate valve, and then the 4th hole will be the emergency drain.

And here are the two 1" returns drilled into the eurobrace at the opposite end from the overflow.

I put in a special request to move these holes far enough away from the glass panel so that I could easily maneuver a magfloat around the glass without interference.

Clay&Chey · #2 07-20-2009, 08:41 AM

looks good i love my divider tank. Are you going to continue the stand up the back wall conceiling your overflow and return. hidden pipes is the way to go

kien · #3 07-20-2009, 08:47 AM

I might, if I can be bothered :-) The exposed plumbing never bothered me when I had my 90 gallon there, and the 90 gallon was 2 feet away from the wall!

But ya.. I will add that to my "to-do" list and see if I get around to that finishing detail towards the end (pun intended!).

Navarchus · #4 07-20-2009, 09:06 AM

Looks promising

Delphinus · #5 07-20-2009, 03:04 PM

Coming along nicely!

banditpowdercoat · #6 07-20-2009, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kien

Now that the stand is (somewhat) ready let's get that tank in here. Let me just say, damn that thing is heavy! It took 4 of us to get it in and out of my car and onto the stand and it wasn't all that much fun, but my crew and I pulled it off.

HUH??!! Did He say CAR? What you drive, a Hearse?? LOL. I need to see pics of that!!

mseepman · #7 07-20-2009, 04:15 PM

This build is looking so good!! The tank looks great where it's going. Are you happy with the build quality? I'm always wondering because I haven't decided who will build my next tank yet.

In looking at your sump, I see you did something similar to what I did on my current sump (but on a bigger scale) and the first problem that I encountered (about 3 months in) was that acrylic doesn't stick to silicon/glass and some of my baffles started falling over. I haven't fixed it yet, but you might want to research what others have done to combat this.

Delphinus · #8 07-20-2009, 04:52 PM

Kien's just being modest. He actually carried the tank strapped to his back on his crotch rocket motorbike. I offered to help him carry it home but he was insistent he do it himself. At work on Friday he was using the tank as his coffee mug!

Eb0la11 · #9 07-20-2009, 05:15 PM

Looking good Kien. Definitely like Colby's work on tanks. I might go with him for my next tank, but I have a feeling that wont be for 4-5 years haha.

One thing your build shows is that I need to learn how to use my camera cause my shots look like garbage compared to yours.

kien · #10 07-20-2009, 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mseepman

...Are you happy with the build quality?

.. was that acrylic doesn't stick to silicon/glass and some of my baffles started falling over. I haven't fixed it yet, but you might want to research what others have done to combat this.

I am very happy with the build quality. I have inspected every inch of it and it just looks fabulous all around. Polished edges are nice and smooth, silicone is nice and clean, walls are nice and straight :-)

I was somewhat paranoid about this too so I may have over engineered the baffles.. ie, I put gobs and gobs of silicone on.. hehe! That's why it looks like the baffles were installed by a monkey. Did I mention that there were gobs?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Kien's just being modest. He actually carried the tank strapped to his back on his crotch rocket motorbike. I offered to help him carry it home but he was insistent he do it himself. At work on Friday he was using the tank as his coffee mug!

LOL! nice :-)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eb0la11

Looking good Kien. Definitely like Colby's work on tanks. I might go with him for my next tank, but I have a feeling that wont be for 4-5 years haha.

One thing your build shows is that I need to learn how to use my camera cause my shots look like garbage compared to yours.

Thanks! Ya, as I said already, I'm very very pleased with his work. It was worth every penny and let me tell you, there were quite a few pennies involved!

I'm looking forward to plumbing this bad boy up during the course of this week. Targeting Sunday to start water testing it.