Kessil

tj's shallow reef tank project

monkeybiz

monkeybiz

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hey, new member on the forum and new to reefing in general.

started out with a couple biocube 14's but ditched them after a month after the rock cycled. put the rocks in a rubermaid to continue cycling which is where theyve been for another month. i picked up a 20 long truvu in a trade but didn't like the fact that it had so many scratches so decided to ditch it for a new tank (this tank will be used as a qt instead).

after looking around at different kinds of tanks i decided on a shallow tank. heard gee over at kittertanks did good work so i placed an order for a custom acrylic tank 36x24x12.

he sent me the plans for the tank

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and a week and a half later i had this

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sorry for the teaser pics but i havnt had time to clean it up and take better ones.

so far my setup consist of:

30 gallon sump/refugium
25 pounds of marcorocks to add to my 30 pounds of live rock bought from LFS
tek t5 4x24
2 geismann actinic+, 1 geismann aquablue, 1 geismann midday
eheim 1262
vortech mp10
reef octopus extreme 160 skimmer
20 gallon long truvu QT tank with 2x24w t5 ho retro
maxijet 900 w/ diy sponge filter for qt tank

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found the diy sponge filter here http://www.aquariumlife.net/projects/diy-filter/19.asp

i'll try to get some more pics of the tank up. im just putting off wiping it down cause im scared i might scratch it. how do yall clean your acrylic tanks?
 
Looking good :) My only concerns would be
1) enough rock?
2) is the table in the photo your tank stand? It might be able to handle the compression weight, but any lateral movement can cause a lot of torque on the legs.
 
im hoping the table will be ok. im going to keep a real close eye on it. but it's an extremely sturdy table. it was a display table at eddie bauer in valley fair mall. i saw a posting on craigs for a free table and stopped by to pick it up. in one of the tank pics you can see the steel/metal top that used to be on it, but i removed that and got a piece of board cut to fit to replace it. but i really want to make my own stand, but no tools/time makes it real hard.

yea, i only bought 25 pounds of dry rock, but i have 30 pounds of live rock that cycled for a month in my biocubes and that have been cycling for another month in a rubber maid after i sold the biocubes. do you think i still need more then that?

thanks for the pointers, if yall see anything else i should take a look at that would be great.

-tj
 
Looks like all the right ingredients for a very interesting project! Nice custom pool.

Bracing +2: Brace that table like you tie a load on a truck: 300% more securely than you "think" you need. Don't let Murphy's law enter after investing in your livestock.
 
That table scares the bejesus out of me. With zero cross bracing it'll only be time until it gets rocked and falls. I highly suspect EB had clothing on it and not a heavy arse reef tank ;)
 
monkeybiz said:
im hoping the table will be ok. im going to keep a real close eye on it. but it's an extremely sturdy table.
Click to expand...

Normal tables, even sturdy ones, are not designed to hold the weight of these sized aquariums. Your tank will weigh in at around 400lbs. That is 100lbs per leg each about 3ft tall. That is A LOT of torque if you have side to side motion. In a moderate earthquake (4-5?), where normal tank/stand setups survive, I'd bet dollars to donuts that your stand (and everything associated) will suffer a horrible death.
 
Just have to drive home the worry about that table as a stand. Sure, we tend to over engineer our fish tank stands but it is for good reason, especially in earthquake country.

Love the tank dimensions, looks like an awesome project!
 
Thanks for the suggestions guy. Yall convinced me to go ahead and build a stand. I've never done wood working myself due to lack of tools/time/know how but I'll give it a shot.

http://www.fishandtips.com/index.php

I entered my tank dimensions in here and it came with a 2x2 framed stand. What do yall think? Figured I can go to home depot and have them cut the wood and then glue and screw it together at home. My tools is limited to a basic electric drill, hammer and set of screwdrivers. Am I getting in over my head? And pointers from anyone that has built a stand themselves? The plans calls for angle brackets but I havnt really seen anyone use them when looking through diy threads.
 
I am with Gresham on this, I would not trust HD with doing my cuts for a stand. I had them cut wood before and they are pretty bad. Go to a real lumber yard to get the wood cut. When my friends and I built my stand I had the wood cut at ashby lumber. They did an excellent job on it.
 
well there is a really nice place down here in the south bay. it's called southern lumber. thanks for the warning on home depot.

northbay reefer - i dont really want to modify that table cause it's such a nice table with a unique size. would hate to modify it and then not be able to use it for anything other then a fish tank stand.
 
+1 on Southern Lumber.....you pay more but the quality and variety of wood is much better than what you will find in HD or Lowes. And there cuts are great!
 
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