Here is a second picture. As you can see in the first picture there are five openings in the canopy for maintence. I found this to be a problem when servicing the lights and adding or moving rocks around. So I made the whole front of the canpoy hinged so that you can lift it up and not worry about being cramped.
I will be running 3 - 400w mh's and 2 -250's. So as you can imagine it will get very hot in there. So I came up with the idea of having a rear cabonet with venting. As you can see by the picture I will have 3 - 8 inch vents. Two will be blowing in at 500cfm each and one will be pulling out at 500 cfm. The slots above the sdie ones will be a passage to the lower cabinet for the wires which will go into my router (same as extension cords, but I will be using electrical outlets and hard wire). The router wires will goto the sub-basement where every thing will be pluged in. This will make for a neater cabinet.
This will be a reef tank. It a 240 clarity plus tank the tank is 8x2x2. It will be Acropora spp. dominate. I still have not decided on the return pump. I will be running two closed loop pumps on the main tank for circulation both will have a 2 way motor actuated ball valve for random water movment on both closed loop pump (pump recommendations welcome). I was going to go with the 150 gallon rubbermaid tanks for the sump but have decided to go with a 9x4x2 made of plywood and a pond liner. Fish will be limited to keep focus on the corals. The sump will have a mico atoll and will have 2 - 20 or 30 gallon surges (not sure yet). Here is a picture of my old 125. This project will take a while but will be woth it in the end.
I really wanted a large tank volume. I feel that with the large sump I will be able to create a refugiam that actualy would benift my main tank. Most people will put a 40 gallon refugiam on a 125. That 40 gallon tank after adding sand and rock and not to mention most of the refugiams are not filled to the top woth water your over usefull water volume is about 10 gallons. Now there is nothing wrong with that, but I do not see any real advantage to a refugiam of that size. My refugiam being 24h x 48w x 108 you would have a total empty size of 539 gallons, but I would never fill that to the very top. I would be filling it to about the 19 inch mark which would give me a total water volume of about 426 gallons, but that is with no rock or sand. With sand and rock displacement added your now loking at a total refugiam water volume of about 336 gallons. With the refugiam being that size I really think that your pod and plankton population would have a better chance of survival before going into the main tank. Now this is all theroy. I have no idea if this will benifit my tank or not, but I'm sure willing to try. Here is a picture from a fellow reef keeper (Guy Comstock). I hope he does not mind me using his picture of his refugiam. This is my inspiration. His sump is 8x8x2.
Now if my tank does better because of this set up thats great if not it's the lagoon that my wife said I can,t have. . Anywho thats my answer to How come?
The stand its self is 33 inches tall. This will put the tank (24 inchs tall) at a perfect centerd sitting view 42 inches. The canopy is 17 inches tall. I'll start applying the bondo to the inside of the stand tomorrow nite. I will be using basic body filler to fill in inbetween 2x4s and any cracks in the stand. After they are filled I will prime the bottem and it will be painted white. MY old stand was stained brown in the bottem and I found that even with lights insided it still seems to dark.