Different Tank Design

[crazyelece]

Well after some thought about setting up another marine system and what I exactly wanted out of it I have decided to do a different tank style. I have a 65 gal hex tank I was originally planning to setup as a freshwater tank with angel fish. This tank was in pretty bad shape when I got it, not that the glass was ruined or anything but the previous owner had done a poor paint job on the tank and stand.

I liked the thread Aquascaper setup when he re did his tank setup so I am going to do a similar thead on this tank. If anyone has any questions or suggestions feel free to throw them out. My original plan is to drill the tank for an overflow and a closed loop system. I am going to use a single pendant DE 150W MH lighting system. The sump is going to be built with a 5 gal bucket unless I can find something better before I set it up.

Some initial pics:

This is a sample of the crappy paint job done to the tank and stand

This is a sample of the refinish job on the tank frame

This is the refinished stand after I tore it apart, refinished it, modded it a little, and put it back together.

I still have to build and mount a door to the front of the stand

My next steps are to finish the stand, build and finish a canopy, and finish redoing the tank frame.

 

[crazyelece]

Well I got a fair amount of work done tonight. First I have a few holes planned for the tank so I drilled a test hole to be sure the panels weren't tempered. It went well with no hiccups.

After that I started designing and building my canopy. I went with the same styling of the stand and used basic pine to match the stand. I finished the build of the canopy and here are some pics of the completed project.

And a view of the inside with the light mounted and a cooling fan installed.

The light is adjustable and I haven't figured out yet where the exact positioning will be. I still have to paint/stain the canopy to match the stand as well as drill a few cooling vents in the top. I also completed the door for the stand but didn't get to mount it or finish it as of yet.

 

[SkiFletch]

Cabinet magnets... GENIOUS! Thanks Crazyelece, I was wondering how I was gonna secure my hood door, dunno why I forgot about this method

 

[crazyelece]

Oh yeah, they work great don't they. They also have some clamp style catches but they are harder to line up and they were metal so would probably rust.

I got the door mounted to the stand and got all the staining done tonight. It should be dry by tommorrow night so I can start painting and polyurathaning the rest of it. I also caulked the inside of the canopy on all the seams so no light gets out of it.

 

[ontheroad]

Nice progress , which I had workshop like that!

 

[Matthew5664]

Love the tank sofar grand job on the stand and hood! wish I had a workshop to tinker around in, make the best use of the kitchen but ther missis don't like it much. What are your plans for the tank coral wise? do you know the volume?

 

[crazyelece]

Yeah I'm glad my wife lets me have the garage for my toys. But she has to, she really wouldn't want me working in the kitchen!

My new drill bit came in the mail today so I will probably setup the holes and do all the tank drilling tommorrow night.

 

[SkiFletch]

Man I wish I had a workshop like that. Have to use the basement and limited tools. I move at a snails pace too

 

[Miss Wiggle]

nice I really like that! definately different

 

[crazyelece]

Ok - late night, got a lot done!

I poly coated the stain on the canopy. I painted the inside of the canopy with a white appliance epoxy to both help the reflectivity and seal the wood to the humidity nightmare about to be unleashed on it. I mounted the light fixture and the cooling fan. I drilled the tank for all the bulkheads. I installed all the bulkheads. I installed the overflow. I finished painting the tank trim and painted the back three sides of the tank (I would have used a self stick backround but the LFS I get them from has recently closed).

Now I want to explain my overflow a bit as you can't really tell from the pics what is going on. I like to keep things very simple and very tidy. My solution to me gobbing on a bunch of silicone to some glass panels (or acrylic) and fixing a nice overflow wier to the back of the tank is the following. First I didn't want to take up a bunch of wasted room with an overflow down the entire back wall of the tank. So I was thinking of just using a HOB like I use on my tank in my basement. But I have all the drill bits to go ahead and drill the tank to make it less of a PITA later so I wanted to go ahead and drill the overflow. My solution was to use the inside portion of a HOB overflow. Drill it, drill the tank, and then connect it all with a bulkhead through both holes. After I lined everything up and drilled the holes I siliconed the overflow weir to the back of the tank. As I did this I made sure to place a rubber gasket between the tank glass and the acrylic weir at the bulkhead opening. I clamped them together with some spring clamps to dry. Then I placed a bead of silicone around the bulkhead where the rubber gasket would normally be. I slipped it through the hole and tightened the nut. The end result - a very good looking overflow weir that takes up minimal space inside the tank. Also a note, I used a black overflow they had at the LFS and it blends in perfectly with the paint on the back of the tank.

Now for some more pictures

Back view of the bulkheads

Overflow

And the finished stand and canopy

Its always fun setting up a new tank - the wife is going to kill me if I can't control this habit!

 

[crazyelece]

Got a little bit more work done on the setup tonight. I stacked all the pieces up.

Then set to work plumbing everything together. I ran out of fittings so I'll have to continue another time.

You can see the closed loop pump mounted at the bottom and the start of my external duruso off of my overflow.

 

[crazyelece]

Well I guess if it weren't for bad luck I wouldn't have any. Like a clutz I tripped over a power cord in the garage. When I went to grab anything to keep me from falling I of course caught the plumbing hanging on the back of the tank. The bulkhead for the closed loop tweaked to hard and cracked the back pane of glass on the tank. So now I am on a slight hold. I started taking the tank apart as I think I am just going to replace the panel of glass and try to keep the tank. I got the top brace off (sort of) and the pane of glass removed. The top brace was cracked so I think I am going to replace it with a new one. I think this may be a weekend project though and the next few are already booked up. So I may be on hold for awhile but hopefully I can pick this up towards the end of the month.

 

[demonmagus]

that's such bad luck... good to know you are still going though