Stand and Hood 95% Done!!

[ldzielak]

Well I finally got arround to finishing off the stand and mounting my light box in a hood. I still have a base board to install, main doors under tank need more work and latches on the closet doors. Then I will use a clear varathane to seal it all up. Guess what I did all weekend.

Oh, yeah it's all solid maple, I'm sending my wife the bill!!

http://www3.telus.net/public/a7a92965/fish/Stand.jpg

Some Construction pics:
In action (http://www3.telus.net/public/a7a92965/fish/Stand2.jpg)
Construction Zone (http://www3.telus.net/public/a7a92965/fish/construction_zone.jpg)
Light box mounted in hood (http://www3.telus.net/public/a7a92965/fish/light_box_in_hood.jpg)
Outlet of light box (http://www3.telus.net/public/a7a92965/fish/light_box_outlet.jpg)
Outlet of hood (http://www3.telus.net/public/a7a92965/fish/hood_outlet.jpg)


Lee

[StirCrazy]

Lee, how did you do your overflows? can you describe them with a couple good pics please?

Steve

[Aquattro]

Looks awesome Lee!!

[smokinreefer]

looks sweet!

[ldzielak]

Sorry Steve this is the best picture I can find on my laptop, (I'm working in Port Angeles this week)

http://www3.telus.net/public/a7a92965/fish/light_box_outlet.jpg

These are 2" to 1.5" reducers. I held the 1.5" part with chanel locks, and cut 2 cuts on my chop saw side by side. Then rotated and did it again. This way I got 1/4" slots, and about 2.5" long. Inside the reducers there are vanes that direct the water flow just right. They are not that quiet, unless you have enough water, then they are not bad. But they are great for surface skimming and handle full 1/5" flows.

These were the original screens on 90 elbows, the 2 1.5" units would only take about 500-600 GPH before they would over flow the tank. Now I run about 1000 GPH with lots of room to spare (Using MAK4, will try MAG18 soon) But they were dead silent, even when I cut out every second screen. They did not provide good surface skimming.

http://www3.telus.net/public/a7a92965/fish/Over_Flows.jpg
http://www3.telus.net/public/a7a92965/fish/Over_Flows_Top.jpg

Lee

[zulu_principle]

Looks great,

Can you come to my house and build one ??


Wendell

[ldzielak]

Wendell,

Well maybe after the meeting I could take a look at the job and give you a quote. I guess I could not charge my normal rate of $190/hr :lol:

Lee

[christyf5]

Wow Lee, the tank looks awesome. The stand is a great design. I kinda wish I had put a bit more planning into mine.

Christy :)

[Samw]

Wendell,

Well maybe after the meeting I could take a look at the job and give you a quote. I guess I could not charge my normal rate of $190/hr :lol:

Lee


So that's how you can afford such a large money pit. Setup looks awesome Lee.

[Delphinus]

Mmmmmmaaaaple. Schweeeeeeeet!!!!

Nice job Lee! :)

[Jack]

Sweet job Lee, gonna have to come up and take a look when you get back.

[Mak]

Forget the stand :P I love the tank :shock: :wink: ... j/k both are very nice, I used Maple as well with a high gloss finish 8) .

What kind of lighting do you have on that puppy?

[StirCrazy]

Thanks Lee, I went and got some peices today to make my version of it.. I added a part to it and what I ended up with was silence.

don't mind the pipe in the close one that was something I tried but it didn;t work and I forgot to take it out LOL, it was the far one that sounded like a water fall.
http://members.shaw.ca/s.l.s/temppics/overflows.jpg

thanks for the idea for a easy fix for my overflow Lee.

Steve

[BC_Grl]

Just magnificent! :D
Looks like alot of work went into this one. I am starting to like the side being covered up. My husband wanted to do that when we built ours, but I veto'd it. Now I like it becuase it gives you more room for stuff that won't fit underneath! lol

[ldzielak]

Thanks all for the encouragement, it was many hours and it turned out just how I had planed. Planing it for a year helped too...

Steve,
Glad the overflows worked, how did you make them quiet? Not that I need to know, since my hood is a big muffler, almost no sound escapes. I have tried a few things too, before the hood was on, but because my drains go horizontal then into the sump, I think I stuck with this.

Wendel,
I only wish I made that kind of money. LOL.

MAK,
Check out my tanks specs, I just updated them.

Jeanna,
I really had no choice about the closet at the end, my skimmer was too tall to be under the stand and not have the outlet submerged. My boss who I got it from and the pump said he used to run it with the gate valve wide open, so I figured I could not have any back pressure.

[StirCrazy]

hehe, i made a insert for them to prevent the water from falling to fast..
my stand deadens a lot also but I always had that babbling brook sound.

my drains also have a long horazontal run.

now i can hear my skimmer! :wink:

Steve