Just mirroring my scnrs thread. Don't mind me.

The Concept

48x30x20" ~ 18" Waterlevel
DIY 6x54w T5HO + Icecap SLR Reflectors + Osram Ballast
DIY Skimmer + Sicce PSK2500
DIY Red-Dragon 1200gph Return
DIY 2x Maxi Mod 2010gph

Sump













Light


Failure


Attempt #2































Skimmer




Prototype 1.0, 2.0, 3.0


















Stand


Unfinished

WOW!!!
sick DIY


cool dimensions as well

what is the approximate gallonage?

Display

NICE

It fit PERFECT in the Yaris. Cake to get in, and pie to get out. Pie's not quite as easy as cake to make, but its still simple and straight forward. Thank god(litte G) for Richards help with the heavy lifting at OC aquatic.



After the 6 hours ODYSSEY to the OC and back in rush hour both ways, the tank rests on the lawn while I beer me, and my helpful roommate.



15 minutes later, we pull the tank inside for some preliminary hole measuring and general unboxing.





There she is. Mmmmmmm. 48x30x20" polished and beveled edges (we sprung for a few extras).

The tank was ordered through Kevin and the great other doods at OC Aquatic. It is a Lee-Mar. The silicone work is VERY nice. Not 100% OMG wet myself ada nice, but more then nice enough for my standards, and MUCH better then I could do personally.

The tank is 1/2" glass throughout.

The bottom has funny plastic piece attached to the bottom, and 4 holes.

2x 1.5" - Return + super secret pipe
2x 1" - Herbie Standpipe

I'm drilling the stand, but the festool is not enough to push a 4" hole saw. Tomarrow we'll have the tank on the stand. We simply ran out of time tonight, as it is quick approaching last call, and I want to be in a drunken stupor ASAP after driving from 2pm today.



BIG hole saw.



A little perspective to show you guys how big these ######ers are.



"Cutting" the neoprene. Its kinda impossible to cut in a circle.



1.5" bulkheads, and a 1" bulkhead



The eagle has landed.



Trying to do my plumbing with almost not supplies (read no money)



Start with some thread -> slip adapters. I use threaded bulkheads so that in the future I can reuse them, also if you screw up the glue on a slip bulkhead, you need to dump the bulkhead and try again.



The two pipes for the herbie. That stand pipe gets the gatevalve. Each end if terminated with a durso type end, to prevent gurgling. I may need to add some S bend sink traps to these in the future.



Ran out of plumbing here. The bucket is being replaced with a SQUARE reservoir to fit better and hold more water.



Light test.



OMG WHATS THIS!?



Nobody I know is getting presents this year because I just bought this for myself instead. Suckers.



Some preliminary wiring layout...

wow VERY nice! love the canopy

Now that my RKE is here I can finally start building my RKE pedestal.
I should have plenty of room for all the cords, as well as router/bridge for the RKE to go wireless.



AND enough room for a DJ Power-Center to run my pumps.



YES all the cords will run along the floor to and from the pedestal.



Making use of the additions to my burgeoning clamp collection.



Skip a few steps with the router, and saw to get here.

Sorry I freehanded the router and lost, so I need to go back and add a little trim frame around the head unit.



How it sits relative to the tank, with all the cords inside.

The Dj powercenter is in there! I had to make the thing a LOT bigger then my intial plans.

Wow! That DIY light fixture is nice; it looks like the ATI fixtures.

ADA comment made me lol.

Looks good, T5 <3

this will be an awesome reef.

i plan on incorporating some of your ideas into my next-to-be-designed reef and will be watching closely (if you don't mind).

again, very clean. nice job

EDIT: did you make the lighting stand adjustable? i can't tell from the pictures

By my calculations 124G

Nice looking build!

Cool, I'm watching this one.

oh my,
Thats one hellofa sweeeeeeeet setup!

WOW!!!

Wow! Looks pretty neat! (^o^ ) <3

Won't there be deflection in the front & rear part of the table from the tank? Most of the loading is running through there, or it seems to me like it is. Or is the bottom of that tank flat? If it is, then it would make sense not to have front & rear supports, since the center would carry the load. Maybe I'm thinking too much about it. Hahaha! (^_^ )

I'm jacking your stand concept and I am sending it to China right now.

lol.

were you at the last senior show?

im in love with your sweet tank

YOU JACKASS! I've been looking for you!

Get back on the irc chan!!!!!!!! >:O

I wasn't there. I had to go to honolulu (where i'm still stuck until monday).

very nicely done!

Amazing build, good idea with the RKE stand.

more info on the skimmer?

Need to know more about the skimmer and what the light fixture is made of?
Thank's

SWEEA A$$ TANK TAGGING ALONG.

What can be said?

HOLY SH*T THAT'S AMAZING!!

The skimmer is all diy with some help from AA in socal. Its run by a modded sicce psk2500(enlarged volute, revise venturi, mesh modded, and a inlet restrictor). I still need to build the new vac-formed 4" neck.



The light fixture is of course DIY. I built it on a pine moulding frame, with pocket hole screws, and glue. The top panel is made of mahogany (its all they had that wasn't warped), which a layer of vinyl was upholstered, stretching over the sides. Two pieces of birch cabinet ply were glued to the ends, and flush routed. Everything was sealed up with about 5 HEAVY coats of spar varnish(used for sealing wood on boats).

best.

nice tank!!! i love how your making a lot of your equipment by yourself! i also like what you did with the reefkeeper....preeeettttyyyyy slick...

i am trying to make this canopy.....not easy for me!

haha i dont think you ever put more than 1 or 2 words down at a time.

How stable is the light pendant? Think it would work at 12' long? Is the top a ply mahogany or solid? How thick?

i am pretty sure you could make it work....not too many could build a tank like yours

12' ? I know that's not a typo... man.

It probably could work. The construction is VERY LIGHT weight. The trick is finding 12' pieces of wood that arn't warped to hell to build the frame on.

I used 1/8" mahogany ply. The pendent is pretty light even WITH the ballasts in there. I would definetly hang it from more then 2 points.

Why don't you commision a custom di and get a one-off aluminum extrusion.

I already have a couple of poplar 1x4x144's that are nice and straight (for now) I could chop to build the frame. The ply I figured would have to be doubled up (2 8' sections and 2 4' sections) to get to 12' but was worried about rigidity... It would be hung from 4 points but connected to only 2 cables. The ballasts are out of the pendant, so it only has to support the lights but I don't want it to twist on me. I guess, I'm just asking for your thoughts. I could build it as 3 pieces (not literally but supported in the middle as if) to help support it, but just nervous if it would be a waste of money to attempt. As for the custom, I'm out of money on the project. My wife kindly reminded me of that again tonight.

Ha Ha

After seeing the sketch up drawings I thought to myself "Maeda should really how this to calvin"

Lulz

also

EPIC!!!!

I hate when they do that.

I THINK you could do multiple pieces if you supported them... Hmm. I would also the upolstry would help hold it together.

What dimension were you thinking? 12'x?x5" ?

Probably be about 12" wide... Just has to hold 4 bulbs wide. Did you find the upholstry at a local fabric store or did you get it through a specialty shop?

That's going tobe another problem... Getting a12ft piece of fabric without any creases is going to a pain. what about 3 lights? that would simplify things...

It's vinyl for boat furniture. You can get it at just about anywhere, and i used some good 3m spray upholstery adhesive.

I guess I just have to hope I can stretch it smooth, or drape it to get any creases out of it. Thanks for taking the time to share your experience and advice. Guess I'll try to build the structure this weekend.

If you use vinyl, try and iron it with a piece of parchment paper between the vinyl and the iron. Do this before you stretch it.

And make sure you drape the vinyl with a lot hanging over. PULL and staple to the frame.

Cut after a few days. The vinyl has a tendency to shrink. :| I have about 1/8" or just under on one of my sides showing a bit of wood on my light due to shrinkage.

and NP. I wanna see that tank finished! It's been in process around as long as my white whale of a project.

Look. 80$ sitting on the table.



After unsuccessfully using the pins method, I got this. :\ I suck doing this acrylic stuff.



Playing with the router, to fit pipes, as well as smooth edges.



Super anal silicone work.



Dry fit.

What pump are you using for your DIY skimmer? Do you have any more details on how you built it?

Nice Setup!!

this is sick looking diy project. im tagging .

looking good M, I'll try to get on chat tonight.

great setup. Your DIY skills are great. i can tell every detail was thought of for this tank. i hope it turns out to everything you wanted it to be.

This is an AMAZING build, seriously.

Thanks for the support everyone!

I'm slowly but surely working along. Right not im stuck designing and building peripheral systems (ato things, waterchanging reservoirs, etc.)

I also kind of blew my budget for the month. and I have to save up for the impending government rodeo on my ass that is tax time. Damn 1099s, and damn me for not being able to save my money for a year.

'ALLLLLLLLLLLLMOST there...'

No reflectors? or am I just blind?

They're on the bulbs; you can see the clips near the end caps.