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Neanderthalman's 40 Breeder


neanderthalman

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neanderthalman

I've gone with blue, and it's a cobalt blue, not too dark, but not so light that it looks cheap. I wouldn't have minded it being a little darker, but it's about the same colour as blue acrylic, so I'm going with it. Speaking of which, I really need to get some acrylic now, for the baffles in the sump and for the overflow. I find that the the black bulkheads don't look bad at all against the blue. I dunno about a black overflow though...we'll see how yours turns out - I don't think I've seen pics of it.

 

What really looks awesome is the white bottom. I can't believe I've never seen it done before. I think I'm going to plant some xenia directly on the glass bottom, away from some rocks so it can't overrun the SPS that will eventually dominate this tank. That and a zoa garden, maybe some GSP. All stuff that grows quickly, is easily fragged from the glass, and would make for a pleasing foreground - nothing too tall. That would look nice all filled in.

 

The bonus is that, with the height of the tank being so low, I can actually reach down to the bottom to scrape it with a razor to keep it clear of coralline. Hopefully 1600gph will be enough to prevent debris from settling, but again, it's shallow enough and wide enough that I should be able to blow/siphon the debris away.

 

I'm thinking I might have too much liverock for the look I want, so I'm torn as to whether I should sell some, or just keep it in a bucket, replenishing the water with my weekly water change water. I know I have a bigass rock that needs a good smashing. Way too big to effectively aquascape.

 

I shall post pics of the results of the painting and drilling tonight!

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neanderthalman
Wow! Now I feel a lot better about trying to drill only 7 holes in my 40BR.

 

 

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about that many holes in a 40 - I had four holes in a 10gallon, and it was fine. I think I'll have to go and take a look-see at your tank thread.

 

typewriter_guy_c.jpg

 

noo nenoo nenoo nenoo nenoo

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neanderthalman

I'll be doing a standard full-height three-sided toothed overflow in blue acrylic to cover the two drains in the center. I'm keeping the intake for the closed loop out of the overflow to reduce the necessary size of the overflow and eliminate a potential source of microbubbles.

 

I really need to get to the plastics shop to pick up some acrylic so I can do the overflow and baffles. I also have to raise the tank on something before I can move forward on the plumbing. I don't think I'll get to either until next week, though maybe I can get the false floor done on sunday.

 

In other news, my parents are going to be taking the bowfront off of my hands, but the stand is so water damaged that I trashed it. But, before demolishing it, I salvaged the top, hardware, plastic skin, glass door, and measurements of all the parts, and my father and I are going to rebuild it out of plywood next weekend. I don't know who thought building furniture meant to be around water out of MDF was a good idea, but they were clearly somewhere between idiot and moron.

 

My OM super squirt should be shipping today, apparently they've had some delays at OM, but hey, it happens. I can't do the closed loop plumbing until I build a shelf on the back to hold the pump anyhow.

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Sizzlersonthebrain2
I also think people who argue that point need to lay off the crack, clear silicone doesnt disappear, it just looks like you have clear silicone...

 

black looks much better anyway.

 

Sexy tank btw.

 

I have to agree the clear looks good at first but as it ages it turns opaque and is ugly.

 

 

Dude... that stand is SEX. Talk about similar interests. Well, now I know who will be building my stand when I move home :D

 

lol yes i love the hidden hinge after seeing what Kevin did for your office tank stand I fell in love with that clean look.

 

neanderthalman I really have enjoyed reading this thread being a 40 breeder guy myself I have been slowly working on a new stand for mine. its 48"H x 48"W big enough to hid all equipment into as we have a baby on the way and I want all of it out of reach for a few years. The canopy will have 6 inches enclosed on each side as well to hid wires plumbing etc and be tall enough to house my lumenarch and vho's.

 

 

I also love your white bottom on the tank itself that looks sweet!!

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neanderthalman

Thanks for the comments Sizzlers. The extra six inches of space would be pretty nice, the space under this thing is pretty cramped, doubly so with the electrical panel. Just...don't ask what I'm doing for a canopy right now.

 

My OM super squirt showed up today, and it is freaking sweet. I'm so stoked.

 

Unfortunately, I got nowhere on the false floor or the acrylic this weekend, save for finalizing the dimensions of the pieces I need. I'm going to get a quote for having the teeth cut for me, and for just the blank pieces to DIY. I'd rather have them do it, as I'm sure it would result in more evenly cut teeth than i'd wind up with doing it myself.

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Sizzlersonthebrain2

I'm going to have to start a Thread on mine pretty soon as I transform it from the "hill-billy" stand to a nicer one. This doing it on a budget kills me ..... but with a baby on the way we have lots of more important things to get first.

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hey bud i noticed you were in canada as well and i was wondering where on earth did you find that 40 with the black silicone. i can't seem to find them anywhere near myself. tank and stand looks great and will definitely be following this one. make me even more excited to get mine going even sooner than i had planned lol.

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neanderthalman

Thanks for the comments guys,

 

I've been delayed this past week. The plastics shop that I tried to go to for the acrylic is now defunct. Sign is up, but the store is empty. So now I have no idea where I'm going to get my acrylic. The only other shop I know of is over in Hamilton, almost an hour away, and I wonder if just driving out there might be less effort than trying to find somewhere closer.

 

I got the tank with black silicone at PJ's pets. Try them out, they actually had a couple in stock, they weren't special order or anything.

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I got the tank with black silicone at PJ's pets. Try them out, they actually had a couple in stock, they weren't special order or anything.

lol pj's. i completely forgot about that store. i'll definately check them out when i go back looking. thanks and i'm looking forward to seeing your progress.

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neanderthalman
lol pj's. i completely forgot about that store. i'll definately check them out when i go back looking. thanks and i'm looking forward to seeing your progress.

 

hahaha... I know. PJ's. :rolleyes:

 

I only went in because I was in the mall, and decided to get a competitor's price. I don't recall if it was higher or lower, but I bought it when I saw the black silicone.

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hahaha... I know. PJ's. :rolleyes:

 

I only went in because I was in the mall, and decided to get a competitor's price. I don't recall if it was higher or lower, but I bought it when I saw the black silicone.

 

i went into a petsmart yesterday to visit one of my buds who work there and i randomly decided to look at their tank selection. i saw a black silicone rimless "top fin" 40 long there. it was sexy. i would have bought it but it was the long and not the breeder. thanks again for the info, i'm going to check out pj's tomorrow hopefully to pick up a tank. fingerscrossed

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for this tank for literally years.

 

LOOKS AWESOME Neanderthalman!

 

 

 

 

 

 

edit: ok really, its only been months, but it feels like YEARS.

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neanderthalman

argh. leaving for work. I will post some progress pics tonight. I have the hard plumbing all cut, just need to cement it together. I will also have the closed loop pump mounted by tonight.

 

Still having problems sourcing acrylic from somewhere local.

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kenthenanoguy

Finally Neanderthalman is moving forward with his tank build! Haha just kidding man, I know how busy you are. But good work, as usual!

 

Maybe I should start a thread on my new tank build.

 

What do ya think?

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stoney waters

This is getting interesting. I really like the look of the stand, and everything seems well thought out.

 

I thought I held the record for slowest tank build :P

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