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#1
04-12-2013, 09:31 PM
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The DIY Stand. I built the frame of the stand out of 2x6 lumber to prevent the need for a center brace.
 Just basic good one side plywood for the top and the inside bottom since you weren't going to see it anyway.  Then I assembled the face frames. I originally wanted to build my stand out of maple, however I live in Thompson and you can't be overly picky here. Red oak was available, so Red Oak is what I ended up going with.  Once I had the face frames completed, I began building up some pillars to add some 3D depth to the stand. This was going to be a show tank, so I had to adventure out a little further with my woodworking ability and try and a few new things.  This photo shows a little better how I built up the pillars  And the look of the stand before I added any of the trim   The Rail cap that I built for the top edge of the stand could not be purchased, so I got creative with some oak and my router and made it myself. The trim that you see on the bottom of the stand is actually purchased, its the only trim I was able to buy rather than make. Its a standard 3 1/2" oak baseboard for your walls.  This photo shows the assembly of the rail cap. I designed it so that no end grain would show through when everything is finished. End Grain stains darker than everything else, and I didn't want that to happen on this build.  Then I cut pieces of oak to fill the tops of the built up material at the tops of the pillars.  a 3/4" cove bit and 1/2" 3step bit allowed me to make the trim that finished off the pillars. Here is a close up that shows each of those in one shot. The baseboard on the bottom, the cove that hides the mitres, and the step to provide a smoother transition inside of the pillars.   Then came the stain. I went with a water based Mahogany and 3 coats of water based Poly.    The Canopy was built in a very similar fashion so I won't bother with build photo's. here it is before stain and doors.  With the stain applied. I also painted the inside white with a high gloss acrylic paint. This will help to reflect more light than a dark interior would, directing the light into the tank.  Shiny Shiny lol  And the Canopy with Doors:  
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#2
04-12-2013, 09:38 PM
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My god thats some amazing wood working skills you got there!!!! Beautiful!
Wanna come finish my stand??
__________________
 They call it addiction for a reason...
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#3
04-12-2013, 10:11 PM
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 Wow, that's beautiful woodwork!!! Looks like you've got the canopy on a tank, so let's see some more!!!Thanks for sharing!
__________________
My 180 GL Reef Tank http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=81842 My 55 GL Reef Tank - shut down http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=87764
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#5
04-12-2013, 11:15 PM
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The next step I took care of was soldering up my DIY LED's. I purchased 3 heat sinks, and made 3 separate units. Each unit contained 12 Royal Blue (460nm) and 12 Cool Whites (6500K) wired into meanwell drivers controlled by RapidLED's dimmable controller.   White Test:  Blue Test:  They work! Time to mount Oh wait ... pure Chaos!!  Chaos Cleaned up  You can see that the right side is whiter than the left side. This meant that I needed to adjust the SVR2 setting on the driver for the blues on the left pendant which was taking slightly more amperage than the others. A close up of a single heat sink 
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#6
04-12-2013, 11:26 PM
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Time to move back one step ... because the canopy was built after I had the plumbing done ... but it screwed up my sequence for the Journal.
So lets get to the plumbing. First the tank needed to be drilled. Plumbers putty and a bit of patience to the rescue:  And thanks to trickery of photography ... I'm done   After the holes were drilled I painted the back ...  And then began construction on the Coast to Coast Overflow  And voila!  The pump is a Reeflo Dart (3600 GPH)    And because I used the Beananimal overflow ... 3 standpipes  There is also a 1" line that diverts from my 1.5" piping on the return that circulates back into the sump. This is for a filter sock. But because my overflow doesn't go to the sock, there is a 0% chance of an overflow because of a plugged filter sock.  The return on the pump is diverted into 4 separate outlets of loc-line that have fan nozzles and locline ball valves. This gives me full control in terms of flow. If I have a piece that can't handle the high flow, I can turn down 1 of the ball valves decreasing the flow in one area and increasing it in another.  
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#7
04-13-2013, 02:47 AM
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nice bro looking really good. where is the fans for the heat sink
__________________
180 starfire front, LPS, millipora Doesn't matter how much you have been reading until you take the plunge. You don't know as much as you think.
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#8
04-13-2013, 04:00 PM
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Hybrid Mode
