Jestersix

Patrick's 81G - the last dance

Sheeshhh that plumbing is a work of art bro. It needs to be on display too. Great job!
Thank you brotha! When I finished I sat there for almost an hour tweaking things to made sure it all looked right...the wife thoughts i was crazy and asked why go through all the trouble for the back that no one would see..lol

I was too darn woozy from all the PVC cement to give her a straight answer
 
Remember to regularly clean those check valves. They can get gummed up and reduce a lot of flow if you don't stay on it.
I picked up an extra set to rotate them out while I clean them off...

The clarity is nice to be able to see inside, but considering the tank is up against a window and may catch some daylight, may work against me and grow all sorts of crap in there.
 
Cal-steam is the name of that plumbing store.
Went down there today. Unfortunately they don't stock much schedule 80 fittings and its all gotta be ordered. Good to know so I can call it in if need be. They were able to refer me to Ferguson's right down the street from where I work in San Leandro.

From their website it looks like they carry everything..I'm going to drop by on my lunch and check it out.
 
I was able to get some work in between feedings and changing. Reefing with a newborn is rough.

I was going through sites yesterday and found that Alufab put the tank in their custom stand gallery. Pretty cool.
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The expansion box can in from Alufab. Even though is a third of the size of the stand, this took me 3 times longer to build. Tolerances were super tight and wouldn't fit right if the whole thing wasn't perfect. Overall I'm happy with it. If I could go back to designing I would have put this on casters to make it easy to get to the plugs easier, but an easy add on layer on if I wanted.
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Wires draping from the control board bugged me and took away from the look, so I had some acrylic panels made to hide the cords.
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I was following a build on YouTube and was diggin these custom extension cords he made for his tank and decided to try it out. Turns put its easier than I thought. Just need to measure how long I need each one to be to finish it up. I decided to try one put today to see if It looked right.
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Things are slowly getting there. Way slower than planned, but happy with how it's coming along.
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I was able to get some work in between feedings and changing. Reefing with a newborn is rough.

I was going through sites yesterday and found that Alufab put the tank in their custom stand gallery. Pretty cool.
View attachment 59198

The expansion box can in from Alufab. Even though is a third of the size of the stand, this took me 3 times longer to build. Tolerances were super tight and wouldn't fit right if the whole thing wasn't perfect. Overall I'm happy with it. If I could go back to designing I would have put this on casters to make it easy to get to the plugs easier, but an easy add on layer on if I wanted.
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View attachment 59194

Wires draping from the control board bugged me and took away from the look, so I had some acrylic panels made to hide the cords.
View attachment 59195
View attachment 59200
I was following a build on YouTube and was diggin these custom extension cords he made for his tank and decided to try it out. Turns put its easier than I thought. Just need to measure how long I need each one to be to finish it up. I decided to try one put today to see if It looked right.
View attachment 59197

Things are slowly getting there. Way slower than planned, but happy with how it's coming along.
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This is actually insane. One of the cleanest builds I’ve seen hands down. Excited to see your journey and what it looks like wet and stocked
 
I REALLY like this stand. Do you mind sharing how much it costs? Any concerns with the casters over time regarding salt water/creep? Going to start a new build myself soon and could see this fitting my living room well.
 
This is actually insane. One of the cleanest builds I’ve seen hands down. Excited to see your journey and what it looks like wet and stocked
I appreciate that brotha. It's definitely one of my slower builds, but maybe that's working to my advantage in making me think it through properly.

Hopefully I can get this thing up and cycling by the end of summer. Still debating if I wanna go batebottom with white starboard or coarse sand..the longer cycle with the bare bottom makes it the less appealing of the two. I wanna stock this already lol.
 
I REALLY like this stand. Do you mind sharing how much it costs? Any concerns with the casters over time regarding salt water/creep? Going to start a new build myself soon and could see this fitting my living room well.
The stand came put to around $1800 with all the add ons I had. 36x24x36, HDPE shelves, all stainless hardware, light bar, casters, and laminate style panels.

The expansion box was around $800. Priced as a small stand I guess, but it might serve as such if I get around to adding an in line frag tank next to it.

The casters ate powder coated with rubber and stainless hardware, so no real fear of rust, but may be a salt creep magnet if I'm not careful. I'm probably not going to be using them much once it's filled, and will have the thing planted in place. Wheeling it around during the plumbing process has been clutch and saves my back from having to contort and fit under there while gluing fittings. The space is tight back there:
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