Daplatapus's upgrade

[daplatapus]

So a wee bit more progress. I started the canopy for the tank. I ended up using a cabinet grade 5/8" pre-finished birch plywood. I'm going to seal the ends with Diamond Finish Varathane. Here's a pic while putting it all together in the shop:





Then I brought it in to dry fit it and make sure everything is going to work as I think it will. And as normal, nothing does, lol:


There's a slight twist in my legs that's apparent if you look close, but I'll be taking another sheet of ply and cutting out the access holes so that will straighten all that out and keep that front nice and square with the rest of it. I will be using pocket door rail running from front to back for each of the 3 light fixtures I've built. If I see the need in the future for it, I can also add 2 more rails 6' long running from left to right to give me even more flexibility for light fixture locations.




I have thought of one issue I'm not completely certain how to overcome yet. When I mount my light fixture, my wiring comes out of the back of the heatsink. And it's big. 20 wires in one, lol.



When I go to push the fixture all the way back out of the way to work in the tank, I'm not sure where that 12"-16" of wire will go. I may cut a 1" oval hole in that back sheet so that it just slides behind the tank.
Any comments or concerns, fire away. I'd rather find out now than later

[daplatapus]

Little bit more accomplished over the last week or so. Today we got rained out at work so I spent a bit of time sanding my face frame's for the cabinetry. So here's a couple pics of the frames dry-fit on. Everything is getting a coat of Claw Lock sealer, then 3 coats of white, then another couple coats of clear to help give it that nice polished look. Doors are going to be shaker style. I will also have a window sill trim (that matches all my window sills) to cap the top edge at the lower part of the tank and a crown moulding on the top to match my existing crown moulding that goes all around my house.
Starting to look like something! Next.... plumbing





And here is the left cabinet space. There's a cavity between the top cabinet and the bottom cabinet where all the plumbing will be run through. I cut the side of this gable out to allow me to fish all my wiring up inside the wall for my Apex and for the ducting I have that will run into the canopy that will be hooked up to a HRV in the fish room downstairs.