Dustin's 180 gallon peninsula aquarium (input wanted)
 

Well we finally got a saltwater store in red deer so I am getting back into the hobby after being away for over three years...

Equipment list
Euro-braced 3 sided star fire tank (currently being built)
DIY metal stand
Bubble Magus Curve A9 (new dc model)
2 X Jebao RW-20
Jebao DCS 9000 return pump
South Seas Base Rock by CaribSea
Jebao 4 channel doser
and 3 Full spectrum 120watt Chinese led lights

Anyways on to the stand...

Stand underway
 

Had a bunch of old metal laying around the farm so I decided to put some to use... Not sure if this stand is built well enough but I basically copied what the store had...


First Cutting all the Angle Iron to be used for the top and bottom


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Qp...U=w800-h600-no

As you can see I had to cut notches out for it to fit together

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Gx...s=w800-h600-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/zl...w=w450-h600-no

Getting everything squared and welding it... as you can see I'm not a professional by any means...


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/8t...A=w800-h600-no


https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/t8...s=w450-h600-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/T-...o=w450-h600-no

Top and bottom done, I made the bottom 5 inches longer to accommodate my sump to stick directly under the external overflow

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/oI...U=w450-h600-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/H7...w=w800-h600-no

And Now its ready for Sandblasting and Paint

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/js...s=w450-h600-no

I am going to paint it later on today so let me know if you have any suggestions so I can change it now rather than after its pretty...

Looks awesome! Maybe add some angled support for sway?

I've been on the fence with that... I think I might want a little bit of flex in the stand as so it sits level

I would add some angle supports and shim it as needed las opposed to accounting for flex in the frame

I checked out a couple professionally build stands that the company that is building my tank built... and they used much weaker angle iron and square tubing with no shear bracing ether, I used 2" angle iron and 3/16" thick 1 1/2" square tubing, the lower angle iron also works as a mini shear bracing... once I get the weight of the tank on I'll double check everything... But I got it painted today..

First a couple coats of primer

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/bl...k=w859-h644-no

Then some HOK base coat ( had some left over )

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/9B...4=w859-h644-no

And lastly clear

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/2c...8=w859-h644-no

Hopefully it will hold up to saltwater :biggrin:

Tank Arrived
 

well it was a much longer wait than anticipated but the tank finally arrived
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/fR...Q=w852-h639-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nX...1=w852-h639-no

Filled it up and added some FIJI Pink sand (much too fine for my liking, will mix some Seaflor into it later) here is a video of two RW20's in wave 1 mode
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1Q...JHU193bGZSczh3

And finished my AquaScape as well as adding two fish Coral beauty (quarantined with CP for two weeks) and a Sixline (used the tank transfer method for him as I've read wrasses do not like CP)

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/3J...J=w852-h639-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/IA...m=w852-h639-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a-...d=w852-h639-no

Ill be using Coralife salt for now here is what I got for readings

Coralife Marine Salt
Temp 77F
Salinity 1.022 Calibrated vertex refractometer
Cal 450 Red Sea Pro
Alk 8.1 Dkh Red Sea Pro
Mag 1220 Red Sea Pro

This should translate to
1.026
Cal 526
Alk 9.5 dKH
Mag 1427