Neat!! :)

great to know I'm not the only one like that. Fish tanks (preferably saltwater) and those reward points cards get me every time.

Oh ya, back on topic, great for you guys Kevin and Doug, I guess I'm gonna have to check out that toyota dealership when the tank is all setup.

Hopefully it wasn't The Landing, I was the Chef there from Oct 03 to Aug 05 :surprise:

Cool Tank build guys, just down the road from work so I will be watching the progress.

Colin

Thank You all for the encouragement and the kind words.

With the 126" length large angels and large tangs (Sohol, Archilles, etc).

I cannot agree more Keri. Red Coral has the maintenance contract and maintenance was a major factor with Ownership and staff at Stampede Toyota and our maintenance staff is second to none. Now on the other hand I have seen restaurants, dealerships, and business that have aquariums that are maintained poorly which I believe reflect on THEIR products and service as a whole.

Thank you for the offer but the grouper might be a little aggressive as ST wishes might include Anthias and Clowns.


The projected opening date for Stampede Toyota is April 2009 so we must have everything set up, the tank cycled and viewable by then.

- A little more about the setup.
The tank will be viewable from 3 sides with an overflow built on one complete end. A "herbie" setup will nearly eliminate noise. Feeding and lights will be on timers.
Cycle- To help the cycle along we will be using cured live rock and adding around 200 gallons of water from fish bank tanks from the store. The live rock will have sat in this water for 6 weeks or more before placement into the tank.
Due to the tanks minimal depth Red Coral will be making PVC structures to place the live rock down the middle of the tank as it is viewable on both large sides.

The stand has been constructed (trigger coatings) and delivered and set up. Information about the stand (from the trigger coatings mouth) and pictures will be put up this evening Jan 25th.

Kevin

I'm very curious to know what "oversized" skimmer you think is required. Are you going to try to fit this skimmer under the tank? That will be a trick.

At Red Coral we carry Hydor Skimmers and since we sell and service them and they wholesale out of Calgary we felt it would be our best option.
Performer 3000
26 in height
16.5x21.5 in footprint
793 gal heavy stocking
1057 gal normal stocking
3 recirc pumps
1 feed pump

With the inside of the sump at 17" and the possibility of going 21" inside and inside height of stand at 38.5" and also since the sump is dedicated to the P Skimmer we should have lots of room for maintenance. Any suggestions would be helpful. We do not want to carry a skimmer that there could be a possibility of not having readily available parts for and don't really have the room or financing to hold an additional one.

Kevin

Awesome!!! That would be my choice as well! Good luck with the Achilles. ;)

stand update with pics
 

The stand was delivered and will be permanently set up when work on the counter top (that runs from the open end out) begins.
We fastened pressure treated 3/4" plywood on top and bottom of the stand.
Here is a detailed description from Francis (Trigger Coatings) on the dynamics and details of the stand.

"For the steel, I used two dimensions of what industry calls HSS (which stands for "hollow structural sections")

The uprights (legs), diagonal braces and the floor perimeter were made with 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" x 1/8" wall square tube. I used this based on it's rating of 13 Kips for a 3' column (1 Kip = 1000 lbs) so each leg supports about 13,000 lbs of concentric load! In a real world the forces may not be 100% centred straight down so this is why I tend to "over engineer" things.

For the top frame I used 3" x 1 1/2" x 1/8" wall. This unfortunately doubles the steel cost but was used because of the requirement of the 49" wide opening to fit the sump through. A 4' span (beam) in 1 1/2" square isn't even listed in my references, the max width shown is 3' which is only rated at 1800 lbs and almost a 1/4" deflection in the center...too much risk in my opinion with 4000 lbs of water and tank. The 3"x 1 1/2" I used is rated at 3500 lbs over a 4' span with only 0.17" deflection. This is why the stands at BXXXls scare me..4' wide with 1 1/2" tube that not even rated for structural use (less than 1/8" wall)

Enough technical steel info..boring you to death right?

Corners were all mitre cut at 45 deg. so that both pieces of steel are sitting on the uprights (legs)...not relying on just welds to support weight of the tank. Completely seal welded so that no moisture can collect inside the tubes and cause corrosion (another problem with the cheapo stands)

After welding was completed, the entire stand was sandblasted, this removes any rust and/or welding contaminants and also provides a surface that improves paint adhesion.

For paint I used Endura's Intermix 3:1 two-part epoxy primer. This was topcoated in Endura EX-2C polyurethane (Black 160) For more info on Endura's paints check out their website: http://www.endura.ca/

This is the same paint I use for painting about 90% of the time. We use it for oilfield equipment, trailers and heavy trucks."


http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...s/P1240135.jpg

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...s/P1240136.jpg

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...s/P1240137.jpg

http://i377.photobucket.com/albums/o...s/P1240139.jpg

Cheers
Kevin

I was going to say the same thing, great fish but might be to much care issues to worry about.

you got it right on the skimmer kevin...hydor is no problem for me to get you parts...been using one on my personal tank for a while now, and I am going to start switching over all of my customers tanks to them now. They are a great skimmer.