Marineland 150DD cube build

[Bigkahuna]

Look what just showed up today:

Maximum Reef Aquatics, a MR vendor, gave me a nice deal on the 150DD Starphire front and red oak Monterey stand. I'm going to be bringing over most of my equipment and livestock from my old tank, I can't wait to see how my Radions look over this this thing I probably won't get it fully up and running for a while, especially because I want to build a rockscape base and build some nice structures which are probably going to take some planning so stay tuned.

 

[jerl77]

man i need to order my 250 dd tank keep the pics coming

 

[Alex]

Fill it up,now........

 

[Bigkahuna]

I hate to disappoint but I'm waiting on delivery of some PVC gate valves to build a herbie and I need to pick up some black vinyl from a local sign shop to cover the back before I put some water into the tank to test it. Right now I'm just building a waterproof tub in the base of the stand out of some PVC shower pan liner to protect the wood floor from occasional spills. I also decided to put it in the corner of the room which should make the corner overflow a little less noticeable.

The overall game plan is bring over all my equipment and livestock from my very old 75G in my office to this new tank. The problem is I don't have enough equipment to run both tanks 100% concurrently, I do have some extra pumps I could use to get a makeshift sump up and running in the new tank but I'm trying to figure out the best way to get fish, inverts and live rock over to the new tank in the least stressful way possible. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

 

[strgazr27]

DAM! That is pretty. Just cant understand why they put a corner overflow on a tank that would likely be viewed 99/100 from both the front and sides :scratch:
Looking forward to the build.

 

[Bigkahuna]

DAM! That is pretty. Just cant understand why they put a corner overflow on a tank that would likely be viewed 99/100 from both the front and sides :scratch:
Looking forward to the build.

Thanks, I really do love the look too and the stand is about the best looking/built one I've seen from a tank manufacturer. You'd have to go custom to do better IMHO and for the price I paid for the stand on sale at just over $500 I don't think I could have done it any cheaper. The stand is a little short because they needed to keep it at the 27" mark to fit through doorways, thank God they did too because I still had to take my front door off the hinges to get it in sideways. The nice thing is that even though there is a center brace between the front doors severely limiting the size of anything you want to get into the front the side panels come off leaving pretty good access to both sides.

ETA - I agree they should probably make a center overflow standard on these things but you can basically put the tank on the stand with the overflow in the back left or right as there are cutouts in the top of the stand for both sides. The only downside is if you have a starphire front glass it won't be on the "front" any longer. In the end the whole cube-like dimensions of the thing negates having 6 inches or so of one side having an overflow box, I might put some car window tint over the overflow area to make it less visible but still have the ability to inspect it.

 

[Mattl22]

Sweet tank what u putting in there?? sPS!!!!

 

[dubcity03]

 

[Bigkahuna]

Sweet tank what u putting in there?? sPS!!!!

What are SPS? I as thinking some goldfish and guppies with a large scale model of the Titanic on the bottom with a bubbler coming out Leonardo DiCaprio's mouth to add some much needed dramatic effect?.

:joke:

My plan is to do some SPS. I have some ORA Birdsnest, green and orange monti caps along with a bunch of softies currently that will be brought over. Nothing crazy but I'll probably start leaning more into SPS territory as this tank matures. My plan is to get some PVC sheet as a base under the crushed coral with some holes drilled into it to attach some PVC rods that will serve as a support structure to build some vertical Bommies. Because there is no rush on this build I'm planning to go overboard in the planning department

 

[Ziggy]

Nice tank!good luck.

 

[rideit6578]

good luck and keep the pictures coming.

 

[xxxAngeloxxx]

:shocked: wow the tank looks more wonderful in a clear picture then seeing it on line good luck with the set up buddy =)

 

[Dee12dee12]

good luck with the build

 

[Bigkahuna]

Tonight I'm gonna probably fill test it so after I drain it I can get the black vinyl on the back which I got from a local sign company. Im almost done building the PVC 40mil shower pan tub to line/waterproof the stand and tommorow I have my light mount coming which I hope to get configured. I decided I wanted some kind of adjustable mount for the two Ecotech Radions because depending how the aquascape turns out and the oddball 36x36 footprint I might need to play with the light position. What I ordered was a black multi-arm LCD mount off of Amazon. I'm gonna mount it on a post behind the stand and they should give me tons of adjustability. I'll post some photos soon of the progress probably after I get the mount.

 

[Bigkahuna]

This is what I'm using for the Radions:

The actual reach is more like 20 inches, the description online said like 18 inches, so it should work well for me while letting me completely control where the lights are pointed. It is all solid steel and weighs about 20 Lbs. so it should be really sturdy and have no problem holding the two light weight Radions up over the water.

 

[dubs]

Nice tanks and gl on the build I am also working on my 150 build so it nice to see a similar size tank going up keep the pics coming

 

[Bigkahuna]

Thanks, I finished up the waterproof liner for the stand and next I'm gonna level it and test fill it. It's been slow going with the impending holidays etc. I decided to put the tank kitty corner to make better use of space in the room. I'll post some photos of the liner and new position in the corner. It looks pretty level where it is, maybe 1/8" off and the flat bottom of the stand makes me wonder how I'd level it if I decided to get last little bit level.

 

[Galantra]

Nice,maybe we should start a cube club. Still working on mines now would love it filled

 

[OGGISPORTS]

Very nice tank

 

[Bigkahuna]

Nice,maybe we should start a cube club. Still working on mines now would love it filled

Not a bad idea. Hopefully I can do this nice tank some justice.

Very nice tank

Thanks.

Here are some updates:


Work on the PVC shower pan liner:

The bare inside:

The new location in the corner:

Doors open with the liner installed:

and for the final?

We have water!