That's quite the jump, most people at least buy a biocube in between :lol::lol:. Tank is looking great, cant wait to see it up and running.

:lol: That's funny. I thought that the stand was the easiest part of my build! 4 Legs, some deck screws, glue, paint, run to Ikea for some panels, done! :biggrin:

Nice tank. I see tangs in the future!
I agree with the earlier comment. Find a larger home for the goldfish or take them back to the LFS.

So while waiting for some hardware to get to my place I ended up painting the back of the stand where all the piping was.

I used some flat black latex paint to do the back. I took out the old bulkheads and decided to put some new ones in while I was painting. did about 5 coats and then sanded it down with a sanding "pad" that is used for drywall. The sanding pad actually worked really well.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...eads/001-1.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...eads/002-1.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...eads/004-1.JPG


So everything looks great... all is well.. paint is dry. I go to remove the tape and the bulk heads and the paint starts coming off with them!!! it was like it was taped on paint! LOL. So I had to use a blade to seperate the paint and the tape I used.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...eads/005-1.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...eads/007-1.JPG

Now that I got the old bulkheads out, paint done, time to put in the new bulk heads. As you can tell from the previous picture I left some room to make sure the bulkheads touch all glass. The holes drilled in the tank arent the greatest so I decided to fill the gaps with silcone. I taped up the bulkhead threads as close as I could get to the glass so I didnt get silcone in them. I also taped the bulkheads to the glass on the inside of the aquarium to keep them in place.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...eads/017-1.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...eads/019-1.JPG

The trick I found to making the silcone look good is to use a plastic spooon to clean up the excess silcone. worked flawlessly! Combined with the tape I added in the previous step they seam looked very nice. I also taped up the wrench that I tightned the bulkheads with so it wouldnt scartch them up.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...eads/023-1.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...eads/024-1.JPG


Stay tuned, this build is starting to catch some speed. Most of the hardware should be in next week and I thought of some great ways to "recycle" a few things that I have at work..... Ill be posting some pics of the "recycling" tomorrow...

OK, it's been 3 days...What happened to the recycling?

recycling is done
overflows made
overflows are in
reinforcement of glass is done
drains are done
return is done
electrical is done (I like what i did here btw, i think its slick)
leak tested last night

but i guess you guys want an update with pictures? Well i went and get a new camera too so the pictures are even slicker now. ill be posting them tomorrow night probably.

Sorry this took so long for an update but I did the plumbing, then got mad at the plumbing and have since removed it (picture show old plumbing) and I will be redoing it tonight I think. I also wanted to wait to get you guys pictures of the newest "design" i came up with and got someone from work to help me create. Im very impressed with it, its in the last pictures on this post (dont you dare skip ahead, read!).

I was sitting at work thinking.... "Milad, where can you get some better magnets to hold up the panels of your stand"
While I was thinking that.... these were sitting on my desk..
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...s/IMG_0551.jpg

Eureka!!
Hardrive have super strong rare earth magnets in them! Well when we decommsion a PC we destroy (physically) the hardrives for security reasons.
So here is a quick how-to to remove the magnets
First unscrew the side that has all the writing on it (should be about 7 screws). you need special screwdriver for these.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...s/IMG_0556.jpg
then just peel it open
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...s/IMG_0554.jpg
pry the magnets out (some are screwed in, others are not)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...s/IMG_0557.jpg
And boom, two magnets (each harddrive has two, one upper and one lower)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...s/IMG_0558.jpg

these magnets will tear skin so they can hold up my panels easily.


now off to the electrical and plumbing....

So what I went and did was grab a bunch of plumbing and electrical items from Rona (the how to people) and started installing away. I wanted to split the load of the aquarium between two breakers and it happens that where this aquarium is going, there are two sockets that are on different breakers! and after reading the thread on the GFCI thing I decided to throw two in for the fun of it.

These are just two GFCI outlets in a plastic box. This was probably one of the easiest things to do but one of the scariest to turn on because ive never actually done electrical wiring though my old days of car stereo installer and trailer wiring installer came in handy
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/025.JPG
The two wires are running through the gray conduit on the right. I ended up using 14 guage wire
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/027.JPG
used a tension reducing thingy at the end of the conduit, simple to install and only couple bucks
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/033.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/036.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/042.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/043.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/056.JPG

I needed some overflow boxes and I went through a bunch of different designs and ended up with one on the inside of the aquarium. One thing I hate about this is that it takes up so much room and looks ugly..... until I came up with a way to fix that (more later). I used bunch of 3/8 in glass for this. Was about 15 bucks per piece.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/017.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/023.JPG

This was my first silcone job and I think I did ok. I was surprised how strong the silcone was!

So one thing that scared me about buying this used tank is that the rim was brittle in one area and cracked. I dont want water everywhere so I read around and came up with a plan. First... try to seal it
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/013.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/014.JPG

I cant remember what I used for the seal but its for patching hot water tanks. I then decided that wasnt enough so i did the following:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/015.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/016.JPG

Clean eh? I thought so. Two 3/8in x 27 1/8in x 3in glass. I had 1/16in on each side to fill with silicone once I taped them into place. They came out really nice and I think they will add a bit of extra support to the tank to ease my mind.

Im not really showing the plumbing because I think I did it wrong so i ripped it out, but we did leak test it before i ripped it out
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/058.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/062.JPG

for some reason this fish didnt want to go in, hmmmm

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/065.JPG

tunze wave box thanks to mike olsen!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/049.JPG

as you can see by the above picture I threaded them on the outside when I was suppose to slip them on the inside! not only that, i didnt use purple premier! doh

So now you are asking yourself why I had two overflow, well, this is a herbie setup so I pulled some strings at work and got my guys to cut me up some arcylic
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/066.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/069.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/076.JPG

Looks nice right?! WRONG!! I didnt like it at all. It looks two clunky, to much stuff, to many 90s. This is why i didnt want the overflows inside. UGH dammit
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But wait.. what did I say at the begining of the thread? In comes my co-workers with their
holy **** elite skills.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/078.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/077.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/070.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/072.JPG
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2361330/Aqua...umbing/075.JPG


now thats what im talking about!!! hope you like!

btw the reason the glass for the overflow wasnt taped up when I was putting it together was because I came home after drinking a few bevies while watching the canucks lose so i forgot I could tape it to control the silcone and make it look clean.

live and learn!

Is your wave box upside down?

i dont think so....
is it?!