Asylumdown's 275 Tank build

asylumdown · #1 12-11-2011, 10:40 PM

Painters are working on the enclosure and the doors for the cabinet are finished.

Mock up pre-paint. The hardware hasn't been installed yet so I just placed the doors in the frames for the pic. The framing panel that will be screwed in after the tank is in is inside on the left:

Inside the tank space is now fully plasticized. The stuff feels almost like rubber. They coated everything, drywall, studs, anything that could be exposed to moisture or humidity.

Back of the doors. This just happened on friday so the coating is still curing. The door on the top left has louvres cut in to it so when the ceiling fan is running, it will draw air from the furthest/lowest point in the cabinet, hopefully keeping moisture in the sump and tank space to a minimum.

If I'm lucky, the tank will be in before Christmas and we can get everything plumbed. Then to cycle! Finally starting to think about scaping options...

mseepman · #2 12-12-2011, 12:20 AM

So could you tell me what they coated everything with...I might want to use that.

asylumdown · #3 12-12-2011, 02:01 AM

I'll find out the name of it from the guys tomorrow. It's a 3 part system, there were two base coats that were like a cross between black primer and paint, it had a really rough texture and just soaked right in to anything that was porous like the back of the drywall. The final coat has gone on like rubbery plastic almost. They said it's commonly used in swimming pools and truck liners.

mseepman · #4 01-10-2012, 05:25 AM

So haven't seen any updates on this lately...what is the latest news?

asylumdown · #5 01-12-2012, 06:06 AM

I'm hoping for an update by Monday. I guess when the glass arrived to the builder who's manufacturing the tank, the top edges had been cut by the supplier really brutally. There was too much of a variance in height from one side of the panes to the other for the guy to grind it down in his shop, so the glass had to be sent back to be re-cut. The tank was supposed to be in before christmas, but that has delayed everything.

At this point we're waiting on the tank to start painting the exterior of the enclosure, and if all goes according to plan it should hopefully be installed on Monday.

The rest of the house is motoring along nicely however!

The only other thing I've been pondering is my lighting situation. I was dead set on Radions for the past few months, but I'm seriously re-considering metal halides now.

lastlight · #6 01-12-2012, 06:40 AM

Halides will get you going cheaply enough (startup) and by the time you're ready for your first bulb-swap there will be a bunch of new and better fixtures not to mention better diodes (in them or for DIY). You want to get the thing running soon so I like your thinking.

asylumdown · #7 01-12-2012, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lastlight

Halides will get you going cheaply enough (startup) and by the time you're ready for your first bulb-swap there will be a bunch of new and better fixtures not to mention better diodes (in them or for DIY). You want to get the thing running soon so I like your thinking.

yah, that's honestly what I've been thinking, especially with the kinds of bulbs Cree has been announcing the last couple of months. It would be like 5 grand to do my tank with all Radions, which is so hard to swallow when there's a good chance they'll be obsolete in a year. I fully believe LEDs are the future, but if I'm going to sink 5 Gs on anything, I want it to be a 100% fully proven technology that does every thing I want, and whose limitations and considerations are 100% known. I think Ecotech really stepped up the game in terms of what people are going to expect from now on. Full spectrum LED fixtures is the way of the future and while I think Ecotech did a great job on their first attempt, I don't think they're completely 'there' just yet1 (neither do they, clearly, or they wouldn't have built in an extra un-utilized channel to the radion). Once all the other major players work through what was already in their R&D cycles, I think we're going to start seeing a whole suite of really impressive and compelling fixtures out there. It might even be a matter of simply waiting for Ecotech to release their next round of light pucks that fully utilizes what the hardware is capable of, but if that's the case, I'm certainly not interested in paying full base price plus what I'm sure will be a hefty 'upgrade', times 6, later.

Moral of the story, if I'm going to spend 5 thousand bucks on LED light fixtures, spending it after MACNA 2012 is probably going to get me a heck of a lot more for my money.