Well, more progress today. I painted the stand last night. Looking at it today though it'll need another coat. I cut a hole in my wall today. In the picture you'll see a rectangular hole in the floor already. I cut that hole in the floor 4 years ago when the house was being built in anticipation of setting this tank up. If we ever move, I'll just put a cold air return vent to cover this hole and there will be no patching of drywall needed. This hole is where my drains/return will be going to the basement sump directly underneath.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1242974339

In that picture you'll also see a GFCI plug. I put that plug in tonight. There was never a plug there before. Originally when we were building this house, we were planning for the tank to stick out into the other room(living room) instead of the den. We were going to use the den as an office, but after we had kids, we realized that with an office on the main floor, you can't get any work done unless you ignore your kids. So now we had to add a plug. Wish some fishing of wires, I managed to get a new plug on there (on a separate breaker) without damaging the drywall.

Here is a picture of the plug and hole with the stand in place. Notice the green light on the plug :).....it works!!!! I didn't even electrocute myself.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1242974740

Lookin good! No electrocution? How can you call yourself an amateur electrician :lol:

You wired the plug backwards, supposed to light up blue HAHAHA

Looking good. Yeah it's amazing how much bare wood will suck up paint. <paint paint paint> Looking good! Hey what the? Where'd the paint go? <paint paint paint> Looking good! Hey, where'd the paint go .. again? <paint paint paint> Looking good!! Hey, what the... ?? .... etc.

Found some time today to continue on the project. I cut holes in the plywood to match the holes in my tank. I went to Canadian tire to buy a hole saw but couldn't bring myself to pay $40 for a 4 1/2" hole saw/mandrel. Then I'd have to buy a 3" hole saw for the other holes. So I ended up using a jigsaw. Here's the result. I screwed the plywood on and I also screwed the stand into the wall after ensuring everything was level.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1243227717

This piece of plywood came with the tank when I bought it, so I figured that I might as well use it. That's why it's black. I had to trim it to the exact dimension of the tank because it was overall 1/4" bigger than the tank. I proceeded to prime the inside of the holes so that I can paint it later with that moisture resistant paint.

I also took most of the black plastic trim off of my tank today. The reason for doing this is so that my stand and moulding can be flush to the tank itself when it is all said and done. Then I'll silicone the molding right to the glass so that moisture can't get behind it. I left the 2 pieces of black trim on so that when it is sitting on end as shown, nothing gets scratched. I'm getting excited to get this tank out of my garage. After it's lifted onto the stand, then I'll take the last 2 trim pieces off quickly and clean up the edge before sliding it into position. I'll have to silicone my external overflow box on soon.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1243228032

I got enough energy to prime the stand and some of the wall in the basement sump room. I ran out of primer though. Tony is completely correct, that darn wood just keeps soaking up the paint. One thing I found when I went downstairs to the sump room is a marble :), I guess my kids threw a marble down the hole from upstairs.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1243228097

Just a side question here....does it matter what thickness of foam that goes under the tank? I have some 3/8" stuff that's supposed to be used on the outside of houses before siding. It's got a reflective foil on one side and green on the other. It's pretty soft. Does it matter? Thanks.

Des

Today I painted the plywood on my stand so that at least it'll be nicer to look at until there's a skirt around the stand and fish to look at. Here's the final product (sorry for poor quality pics, all pictures in this thread are taken with a cell phone camera):

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1243312665

Now that the tank is almost ready to go in, I decided to silicone the overflow box onto the tank. As usual, I cleaned the glass with newspaper and vinegar, masked off the area for a "clean" look and went at it. Here are the pictures:

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1243312822

I still have to razor blade off the excess silicone from when I built the box itself. But here is the picture freshly siliconed:

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1243312867

I was pleased with the bubble free joints:

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1243312975

And this is what the tank looks like with all the masking tape off. I'll let it cure for a day before even moving the tank.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1243313034

Thanks for looking everyone. Sorry that this build is so slow and uneventful.

Don't apologize dude, this thread progresses just fine. :)

More progress. I put foam on my tank a yesterday and then my family wanted to lie down on the tank stand :). My daughter joined in later. I almost took a snooze on it.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1243661926

Then with the help on my 2 neighbours I lifted the tank into place. At first I grabbed one neighbour and he tried but didn't trust himself to lift it, so later we grabbed another neighbour and we got her in. My neighbour then proceeded to lift up one corner of my mini since he was in the "lifting" mood. He got the car up about an inch in one corner....yikes.

Here's a picture looking from the living room.
http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1243661975

Here's a picture from the den side, my tolerances were tight. I have about an eighth of an inch on either side of the tank and my overflow is about an eighth of an inch away from the wall. I'm so glad it fit:
http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1243662129

The external overflow - the 2" bulkhead in the bottom of my tank is the intake for my closed loop.
http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1243662167

Tonight I decided to make my first piece of aragocrete. The idea is to make a piece of rock around a 2" plumbing "Y" to use as an intake for my closed loop. I hate the idea of the strainer and trying to hide it with rocks, so I'm making a strainer rock.

Here is the Y with a ton of holes drilled. I've kept the shavings to add to my aragocrete mix to make it more porous.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1243662253

Here's another couple of pictures with straws inserted so that there will be holes to suck water in from. The balloons are to prevent my aragocrete mix from going into the fitting.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1243662493

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1243662527

And finally, my artwork. Hopefully the backside turns out alright. I think I'll put the backside toward the overflow side cause it's going to be rather "flat". The reason I'm using a Y is to try to create more surface area for the suction to create less "suction" points. I don't know if that makes sense. Not to great with words. Hopefully you're enjoying this slow tank build.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1243662709

what a great idea can't wait to see more!

Thanks Subman. I forgot to mention that after the aragocrete cures, hopefully I'll be able to pull all those straws out. *cross my fingers*, worse case scenario, I'll cut 'em flush and they'll be eventually covered in coraline algae anyway.

You might want to do some math, you need about 165 drinking straws to handle a 2 inch feed, likely twice that much considering the friction loss, starving a pump is going to cause nothing but grief.unless your plan is to leave the ends of the wye open as well.

Ahhhh.....you wonder why I have balloons covering all parts of the Y....it's because I took your advice and I'm just going to use eggcrate to cover the two 2" holes at the Y. The straws are just "extra" to spread it out even more. I really did take all of your advice to heart and am planning it the way you suggested. Instead, I didn't use a T, cause a Y takes up less space. You wanted me to draw water from top down, so that's what I'm doing.

Thanks for the advice.

That's why my edit is earlier than your post :)

some very crafty ideas here! Can't wait to see more. Your rate of progress is just fine =) I'm a fellow slow-builder and sympathize entirely. I'm also a dad of two now and I'm scared to set my tank up now until they're older. I do bedtime diaper changes sitting on the floor because I'm too tired to do it any other way!

I'm still intrigued by the rock you let sit for 4 years...that's insane! With the topoff and salt creep I'll bet your salinity is so low it's more like a long freshwater bath for the rocks...

Hmm, that's a slick idea Dez. Nicely done, hope it works out well... I'm sure you'll have no problems getting most of those straws out, though the ones with the 'crinkle' on them might stick pretty good.

Brett.....ha ha. It is kind of sad isn't it. I should have taken the rock out, dried it out and seeded it when the tank was set up if I knew it was going to be 4 years. The funny thing is once in a while I'd push the salt creep back in :). I still don't own a hydrometer. I just ordered a refractometer from J&L along with a bunch of bulkheads and stuff. I will be placing an oceans motions order soon because I can't seem to find one used. Man this hobby is expensive. My wife and kids are the ones getting after me now to get the tank set up, but I try to do it after the kids go to sleep cause I can't let these years go by working on a tank when I could be playing with my children. At least a lot of the things they can help with. I have very much appreciated your tank build. It is immaculate. Maybe one day we'll meet. I used to go down to Calgary lots just for reef stuff :)

I've now removed my aragocrete rock from the mold. I've also taken the straws out. It wasn't too bad. I'm gonna wait a little bit before I begin the 6 week water curing process. Here are a couple of pictures of rock. I think it'll look fairly natural once the coraline algae and stuff grow on it.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1243916555

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1243916590

I'm getting pretty excited to start plumbing. I still have to prime and paint the sump room. But I could get started on the closed loop soon after I order the oceans motions.

That Y looks very... liverock-y. Good job! :biggrin:

I put my new arago"y" in the tank to see what it looks like. After I fully water cure it, it will slip into that male adapter right beside it. I'm quite pleased as it's fairly well balanced. I will have a sandbed so the male adapter should be covered.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1244092370

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1244092620

Great tank build. Rock looks good.

Thanks Doug....can't wait to get all the stuff to start plumbing the closed loop!

Did you pickup one of the used OM that was posted the other day?

Working on a deal.....

Excellent... wanted to make sure you saw it. :wink:

Good thing theres 2 OM-4 for sale LOL. I have one spoken for too. last piece to my plumbing puzzle


Your tanks coming along nicely, I may add

The funny thing is that I ordered new OMs the night before the posting came out. Good thing they didn't ship it out yet or else I would have had to pay shipping back to return it. I held out for so long ordering. Glad you got one too Dan. Looks like you're setting up the exact same dimension tank as I am. Wish Mine was eurobraced though, but I got the tank for dirt cheap so I can't complain.

Om
 

You guys will love the OM4, I have an 8 way, works great and i just changed out the drum to a version 3. stirs up everything quite nicely i might add.

I'm sure looking forward to it!

Om4
 

I might have to hold it for ransom! Just kidding Dez, you'll have it Sunday, as planned.

Ya, I have my little giant sump return running right now, I SOO want to get some OM flow happening

PS, how did you get such bubble free joints? The ones on my tank are ugly....

Eurobraced or not, I like yours.

Bubble Free Joints I think cause of practice. I used to build tanks here and there as I got free glass (Just small ones though). And I've also helped quite a few friends build bigger tanks. Also, I'm in construction by trade so I use a silicone gun lots cause clients can be pretty picky with the way caulking is put on. I think the key is running the bead of silicone in a STRAIGHT line and then setting the glass on perfectly the first time. I think if you move it around to adjust the joints don't seem as nice. I hope this helps. I am by no means great, but I just take my time (as you can tell by the time frame of this tank build)

Tonight was one of the happiest evenings this year. My family and I were out at Ikea cause it's about time we get a new couch cause our 2 love seats are 9 years old now and we're not going to have a couch on the wall the fish tank is on once it's running. So this is probably the couch we're going to get:

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1244264549

Anyway, that's not why I'm happy. I could really care less about the couch, although it'll me much more comfy than a $250 love seat that's 9 years old. This couch is 10 ft long and it'll be facing the tank :)

The reason that I'm super happy is cause first of all Ikea here in Edmonton is redoing all of their displays so they're clearing display stuff out for 40% off. I looked at this mirror which was beautiful....paused for a sec and thought, I should measure this.....it might by chance fit my tank for the picture frame side. The measurements were EXACT! 59" X 21 1/4". CRAZY. We loaded this mirror on the top of our jeep with string and cardboard and home we went. I couldn't wait to put my kids to bed.

Taking the mirror apart wasn't too bad, undid a few bolts and took the top part of the frame and slid the mirror out.

I proceeded to cut out the back to hollow it out a bit where the fireplace switch (see page 9 of this thread to see where the fireplace/fan switch is on the left of the tank) is and hung the frame. Look at this......BEAUTIFUL! My wife and I just sat and admired it for a while. What are the chances that this fit? The best part is all I have to do later is dowel the top piece and it'll just slide off for access to the top. All I have to do to switch the fireplace on is pull the bottom out a bit and turn the switch on. Nice!

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1244264229

Heh .. neat.

Question though. Why not consider moving the switch?

Simple answer - I'm lazy.

Also, we don't use our fireplace much at all. It is REALLY EASY to switch it on and off now. If we moved it, it would involve fishing wire......probably down to the basement and back up another wall.....not my cup of tea. Also switches are not that esthetically pleasing to look at , so this is a perfect solution I think - cover it :).

All I can say Dez is......
AWESOME!!!

I am loving this build!!!

Also, the kids won't turn the fireplace on and off now :)

Subman:

Thanks for the props :o).

I found some time this morning to modify the frame that I got from Ikea so that I could have simple access to the top. Here is a picture of it without the top. Basically to take it off I have to lift up one side of the top and the other side will slide off easily, fairly simple. It just "snaps" back into place. I did this with the placements of the dowels at an angle and glued the dowels into one side.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1244409527

Here is a picture of the dowels glued in:

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1244409569

And a close up of the quality of the mitre when it's back on:

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1244409669

After it's all back together with "livestock" in the tank...

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1244409692

And finally, full view of the room. That little 5 gallon nano on the left will be taken down after this tank is set up.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1244409761

Thanks for looking!

coming along nicely

Looks great Dez, I like the mirror idea!