New Wife, New Life, and The tank I've always wanted! - Part 1

[Siderjan]

Let's fast forward a year and here's me making the stand.

Here's the bottom put together.


Bottom and top finished.


Sides are out on.


Supports aded to the sides.


All supports on. Frame of the stand is done and it only took one Timmie's.


One thing about building a stand without any plans, you make mistakes in measurement and have to modify on the fly. Here's me modifying the stand.


I'm saying the floor isn't level....so I'm adding shims to the stand to level it.


I'm putting 1/4" floor underlay for a undercoating on the stand.


I've worked for years in tobacco in my younger years and loved the smell of curing tobacco, and thought of lots of uses for the slates so I called a farmer friend of mine that doesn't grow anymore and got a couple bundles of slates to use over the underlay.


I have the door marked out and ready to cut.


Here's a better view of it.


Doors are almost cut out.


Time to paint the back of the display tank black while I wait for my kids to come home and help me finish cutting the doors out. I had to clean a years worth of dust off the tank so the paint will stick.


Taped and papered...time to paint.


After one coat of paint, here's what it looks like.


I thought I should see if everything fits on/in the stand before I carried on.


Everything fits. Refugium is a little tight but it fit.


I was going to wait to plumb the tank til I had the stand finished but my oldest son has his first girlfriend and doesn't like to come home and help his Dad. I scratched the back of the tank when I tried carrying it from the garage to the basement by myself.


Here's the scratches. I have a little paint left to cover them up.


Plumbing is all dry fitted. My memory isn't what it use to be. I thought the the ABS fitting was 1 1/2" but it was 1 1/4" so I have to wait til next week to get a reducer.


Here's my refugium/Sump plumbed and in place.


I've labeled it.


Plumbing is glued and finished.


The tank is in place.


Here's the doors trimmed out and almost finished. Just need to wait for the lumber store to get the handles in that match the hinges.


I didn't like that you could see the black trim on the tank so I added some trim to the stand to hide it.


I did the same to the side.


Let's open the doors and have a look.