Shrimpchips's 100g (Live!)

[shrimpchips]

Yep, I've made some decent progress. My acrylic things should arrive on Friday (a member of a local forum is making them for me), and I'm still waiting on plumbing from a local mail order store. Other than that, I'm just waiting on having a new 15A circuit installed behind the tank, and it's ready to go.

I built the stand in our living area (of a 600 sqft condo), so I had to cut everything at my parent's place and bring it over to assemble.

Here's the stand progression:
2x4 frame:


There's no screw strips for the uprights - instead they're pocket screwed into the base and top rails:


Everything was glued and screwed together:


I got it all skinned (1/2" ply for first layer, 3/4" for the finishing layer). The doors were just mocked up to see how it would look all together:






Now it's down in the garage - it just got two coats of Kliz (white) for the interior tonight, and I'll do a coat of black stain on the exterior before work tomorrow and after work to finish it off.

Tank got delivered today too


Custom angled overflow:


Sump tank (25g):


All nekked!




I was hoping to have it running by the end of the month, but I guess not. Hopefully I'll have it wet by the second or third week of November.

[kien]

Originally Posted by shrimpchips

I was hoping to have it running by the end of the month, but I guess not. Hopefully I'll have it wet by the second or third week of November.

You still have 3 days, including a weekend coming up! Get to it!

Great looking stand and tank! This one is going to be a beauty.

[reefermadness]

Wow ....cant believe I missed this. Looks great. Holy planning batman.

[shrimpchips]

Kien, I can only hopw that my tank will look half as nice as your tanks do. Your rockscapes always inspire

Darryl, nice to see you here. I don't post on "that other site" anymore, so updates are here or on RC

I made some more progress on the stand yesterday/today. I got the second coat of Kliz on last night, and it looks pretty good - makes it much brighter inside of the stand. My last stand was painted black inside, and it makes it very dark, even when lit inside. This time it should be a lot easier to see things when it's nice and bright in there:


Here's the stand after the first coat of black stain:


I'm going to do a second coat tonight, then it should be done. Just going to let it air out a few days in the parking garage, then bring it back upstairs.

[Rbacchiega]

tagging along. looks like it's going to be a great tank

[shrimpchips]

Had a local forum member make some acrylic goods for me which he dropped off today- 3 dosing boxes, a little stand for my doser, and my black baffles. Everything is top notch, and I'd recommend him to anyone looking or some custom acrylic fabrication in the GTA.

Here are the dosing boxes. Exactly as per my design, and they're amazing. I had the brief thought to turn one into a tank for my desk (....so I may have to place another order with Jamie soon!)
My original plans:

Jamie noted that the 2" opening would be too small to get a hand in to clean (good eye!), so after consulting with me, we changed it to 4". The result is:


You can see the little doser stand on top.


Lid detail (it seals the box nice and tight - perfectly made!)


More close ups:


Baffles were made in black to minimize the amount of light thrown around the sump, and prevent algae growth where it's unwanted:


Mocked up in the sump (with return pump and skimmer, of course):

[shrimpchips]

Now that I have the dosing solution boxes, sump baffles and my 10g top off reservoir (my former 10g tall reef tank ), I put it all together under the stand. Thanks to the acrylics and the white interior, it looks really clean.

Dosing box fits perfectly with a few mm to spare:


All together now!


Frontal shot:


Right (ATO reservoir) side:


Left (Skimmer) side:


Lots of room above the skimmer:


Behind the sump there's about 1.5" to run electrical and hide anything else:


And a nice little space for storing everything else, and maybe even a future frag tank/species tank of ~10g:


Very excited to start seeing everything come together!!

[fishytime]

sweet dosing station.....looks very shiny.....and like it cost a pretty penny.....sorry if I missed it but is that the BK mini 180?