So a wee bit more progress. I started the canopy for the tank. I ended up using a cabinet grade 5/8" pre-finished birch plywood. I'm going to seal the ends with Diamond Finish Varathane. Here's a pic while putting it all together in the shop:

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Then I brought it in to dry fit it and make sure everything is going to work as I think it will. And as normal, nothing does, lol:
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There's a slight twist in my legs that's apparent if you look close, but I'll be taking another sheet of ply and cutting out the access holes so that will straighten all that out and keep that front nice and square with the rest of it. I will be using pocket door rail running from front to back for each of the 3 light fixtures I've built. If I see the need in the future for it, I can also add 2 more rails 6' long running from left to right to give me even more flexibility for light fixture locations.
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I have thought of one issue I'm not completely certain how to overcome yet. When I mount my light fixture, my wiring comes out of the back of the heatsink. And it's big. 20 wires in one, lol.

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When I go to push the fixture all the way back out of the way to work in the tank, I'm not sure where that 12"-16" of wire will go. I may cut a 1" oval hole in that back sheet so that it just slides behind the tank.
Any comments or concerns, fire away. I'd rather find out now than later :)

Little bit more accomplished over the last week or so. Today we got rained out at work so I spent a bit of time sanding my face frame's for the cabinetry. So here's a couple pics of the frames dry-fit on. Everything is getting a coat of Claw Lock sealer, then 3 coats of white, then another couple coats of clear to help give it that nice polished look. Doors are going to be shaker style. I will also have a window sill trim (that matches all my window sills) to cap the top edge at the lower part of the tank and a crown moulding on the top to match my existing crown moulding that goes all around my house.
Starting to look like something! Next.... plumbing :)

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And here is the left cabinet space. There's a cavity between the top cabinet and the bottom cabinet where all the plumbing will be run through. I cut the side of this gable out to allow me to fish all my wiring up inside the wall for my Apex and for the ducting I have that will run into the canopy that will be hooked up to a HRV in the fish room downstairs.

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That's really nice. I want to do shaker doors on my stand too. Following along

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Finally got into the paint booth:

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2 coats of M.L.Campbell Clawlock. Tomorrow it gets 2 coats of white and hopefully another 2-4 coats of clear after that throughout the week.

I really have to get started on the plumbing :)

Got 2 coats of white done yesterday. Pics look the same so I won't bore you guys with them. Headed to Nanaimo today to pick up plumbing supplies and other stuff for work.
Got a call from Jeff at LifeReef last night... my new skimmer is on it's way! Yay!

Looking great Dominique .
You better hurry up and get it done, with this weather you'll be back outside building the wife's garden fixtures. :mrgreen:

Lol, you have no idea how accurate that statement is :) She's already chomping at the bit for a few things to get done.

I got a couple hours this aft to work on some of the plumbing. I had to fish all my lines up through the wall from the basement, so I opted to run that section in white spa flex. Only down side is how stiff this stuff is, but with a little grunt work I was able to get them all in. I'm planning running a Herbie set up, it's worked extremely well for me so far. Using Beananimal's flow guide, the numbers work for running a single 1" full siphon, but it seemed close, so I ran 2. This also gives me the ability to run Beananimals silent overflow should the desire hit me. I also ran a 1-1/2" safety overflow.
The returns are probably overkill. I'm planning on running 2 Waveline 12,000's. The output's on them are 1-1/4" so I ran 2, 1-1/4" lines. One on the front of the tank and one at the back. My plan is to run a line across the front with 3 - 3/4" loc-lines and the same across the back, each on their own pump. After the first 3/4" loc-lines come off, I'm going to reduce to 1", then when the second comes off, reduce to the final 3/4" loc-line.
Yesterday, while in Nanaimo I got most of the hardware I need for my cabinet doors although I've yet to order them. Hopefully that'll happen early next week.

Any suggestions on doing something different/better, let me know.
Anyway pics:

Lots of pipes for such a small hole

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Lookin' good, Dom!

One recommendation I have is to brace the spaflex to take stress off the bulkheads on the overflow box. Because the spaflex is pretty stiff and has a BRUTAL shape memory that tries to make it coil back up, it ends up putting constant stress on the bulkheads over time, especially in a tight space. I've already had one bulkhead fail because of it (the sideways torque caused the external plastic nut on the bulkhead to skip a thread and come loose - that was an exciting day). And now that I'm typing this I can see the back of the tank and am noticing a lot of salt creep on one of the bulkheads, telling me that it's not far off from a repeat. I think I'm going to replumb and use hard piping.

Wow beautiful set up so far. Gonna follow along

:popcorn:

Thanks man. Funny you mention the issues with the flex torqueing on the bulkheads. As I was putting it together I was thinking the same thing, but was hoping if I left for a day or two it would get used to the turn I put in it. Maybe I'll cut that section and put 2 - 45's there on that last turn directly below the bulkheads.


Thanks! I'm really hoping to get it wet this summer. Been a long haul so far.