FINALLY!!! 125 in progress

[Anonymous]

Well after planning and planning and trying to talk the wife into it for six months or so, I'm finally working on the stand for my 125. The tank is sitting empty at my parents house. The stand it came with is garbage, so I've been wanting to put all my snazzy tools to use and build a nice stand and canopy for it before transferring the contents of our 75 gallon reef. Here are a couple photos...all that's done so far is the framework for the stand. Might start cladding it in the plywood tomorrow.


(Oh and btw, I'm using my 2000th post to put these pics up! woohooo!)

 

[Anonymous]

Here's one of my wife (on the right, note the snazzy shark shorts) and our friends, Mike and MaryKay. Mike's a good mate who's been helping put the stand together. We're both soccer geeks, as evidenced by his Liverpool jersey.

 

[Lostmind]

Nice man

Doing almost the exact same thing over here... stand is looking STURDY. I like overbuilding stuff

 

[Anonymous]

Nice man

Doing almost the exact same thing over here... stand is looking STURDY. I like overbuilding stuff

Thanks, I agree, definitely beefing this bad-boy up, since the store-bought stand I'm replacing was made of freakin fiberboard. Nuttin like plunking close-on a ton onto a few strips of wood pulp held together with glue. 8O My stand is going to be a rock. ;-)

Oh and btw Lostmind, in case nobody's mentioned it, welcome to reefs.org!!! :-D

 

[Lostmind]

heheh, the stand I got I just beefed up.. it was 1 step up from particle board, but I didnt feet confident it could hold 150lbs rock, couple hundred pounds of sand plus a ton of water... so I beefed up the base with 2x8's and 2x4's up the legs and did a 1x1 ring around to top of the stand... put a piece of plywood on top to spread the tank weight across the stand as evenly as possible.

oh, thanks - I have found this place to be really helpful

 

[Anonymous]

Here's one of my wife (on the right, note the snazzy shark shorts) and our friends, Mike and MaryKay. Mike's a good mate who's been helping put the stand together. We're both soccer geeks, as evidenced by his Liverpool jersey.

Heh, I just noticed that in this picture you can see the...ahem..."preproduction model" of the stand behind marykay's head. heh. That'll learn me from building to too tight of dimensions and ending up with a stand (well now a heavily reinforced garage shelf-unit) that's 3/4" too small all the way around. 8O :roll:

 

[Lostmind]

So, what you are saying sharky, is that you arent a construction professional either?

Man, I wish one of the books I picked up warned me that I had to have plumbing skills, woodworking skills and crazy, DIY'er problem solving skills before even getting to fill my tank with water! Oh yah, and a warning that I would need deep pockets would have been nice too

Anyways, at least your new bech/shelf unit wont break, right?

 

[Anonymous]

So, what you are saying sharky, is that you arent a construction professional either?

Anyways, at least your new bech/shelf unit wont break, right?

All I'll say is thank god 2x4s are cheap. 8O :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Wow, what progress. Okay so I've been piddling around with it in my spare time, but I'm about ready to stain the stand and start on the canopy now. Hoping to knock the canopy out in a day or two. Parents just brought the tank in today.

Anybody know a good quick way of removing paint from the back of a tank? I had originally sprayed it a pale blue-green color to contrast with some volcanic sand that was in there last time it was set up. Now I'm going with a nice midnight blue color, but got to get rid of the old pale stuff first.

Here are some pre-stain pics...

 

[EmilyB]

So would that t-shirt count as tucked in, or not tucked in, to the shorts.. :wink:

Nice job btw...

 

[Anonymous]

So would that t-shirt count as tucked in, or not tucked in, to the shorts.. :wink:

That would be 'out of the way while I'm measurin boards' tucked in. hehe Gawd that picture of me is horrible. It was about 110 in the garage that day and I was still coming off of a sunburn to boot!

 

[Anonymous]

what is the plan with the half cylinder shelf?

 

[Anonymous]

what is the plan with the half cylinder shelf?

Just a little decorative shelf. ::shrug:: no big plans, just going to tack a piece of 1-by in there and put a seashell on it.

 

[Lostmind]

yah, the semi circle opening is messing with my mind - let us know what it is

As for the paint, couldnt you just use a scraper?

 

[Anonymous]

As for the paint, couldnt you just use a scraper?

I've only got 5 more weeks of summer vacation left. dont' want to spend the whole damn thing scraping. hehehe I tried a razor blade scraper, and it works...sort of. Just a big pain in the arse.

 

[Lostmind]

well, I know there are definitely many types of paint solvent/remover. I am sure you could use one of these...

the paint is on the outside of the tank, I doubt there would be any contamination

 

[Anonymous]

Nice work, Sharkky. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Keep the pics coming

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Looking sharp, John! I'm planning on a new canopy myself. I'd be really interested to see some pics of what you come up with. All the usual thoughts in mind- room for overflow and return plumbing, front-opening hinges, etc.

BTW, all yuor 2x are still belong to me.

HD


Emily- :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

My newest thought is for the stain--I'm a little scared of it, but I'm thinking I might like to try a really pale grey/blue driftwood color stain I saw the other day. I think it'd be shhhhhhhaaaaaaarrrrrppppppppp!

 

[Anonymous]

Stain's on! woohoooo!!!!!