Dustin's 180 gallon peninsula aquarium (input wanted)

[dustinc]

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...

[dustinc]

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




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





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









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





And Now its ready for Sandblasting and Paint



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...

[WarDog]

Looks awesome! Maybe add some angled support for sway?

[dustinc]

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

[e46er]

Originally Posted by dustinc

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

[dustinc]

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



Then some HOK base coat ( had some left over )



And lastly clear



Hopefully it will hold up to saltwater

[Shaun]

A bit of sway may not be that bad when the "big one" hits BC.

[dustinc]

I messed up posting pictures and didn't set them to shared... I'll try this agian

Well I'm nearly done! just a bit of electrical to clean up and then to start finding frags!

I went with barn board paneling on the stand but I think I might end up re-doing it and painting dark brown it to match my wall




So far I'm happy with the sump, the socks are easy to change, although the Curve skimmer is louder than I expected



So far I'm just dosing Vinegar and Alk, calcium is still higher than I'd like thanks to my salt having 520ppm

[NastayNatron]

Looking good! The barn board looks pretty cool to me.