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schg's ADA 30c reef


schgr.cube

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Ah, perfect then! I was thinking you were going to conceal the drain under a low level rock, like the pump output pipe is. That should work great! Just looking out for ya :)

 

Haha no, I'm glad you were making sure I was doing things right. Sometimes I get too into my own ideas and don't notice their faults. I'm going to have to bore out a hole through the whole rock to get the PCV though, so that will probably be my biggest issue.

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I would suggest a hole saw if it's deep enough to go all the way through the rocks. LR is very brittle and will shatter if a normal drill bit gets caught. You could also epoxy rocks to the outside of the pipe, if all else fails.

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I would suggest a hole saw if it's deep enough to go all the way through the rocks. LR is very brittle and will shatter if a normal drill bit gets caught. You could also epoxy rocks to the outside of the pipe, if all else fails.

 

Yeah, my second option was to cut the rocks in half, and kind of chisel out where the PVC will go then re-connect them around the pipe. This is one of those things that I will have to just look at all the options once I have the materials in hand, and go through a little trial and error.

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Very nice, I think I'm going to stick out the bowfront, I might have a few questions for you relating to plumbing :-). Yours is def looking very nice though, keep the updates coming.

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Very nice, I think I'm going to stick out the bowfront, I might have a few questions for you relating to plumbing :-). Yours is def looking very nice though, keep the updates coming.

 

Thanks man! Should have some more coral coming on Wed (moneys tight, stocking will be a sloowwww process) so it should look a little nicer soon.

 

Just PM me any of your questions, I would be glad to help!

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It's back!

 

091609tankagain.png

 

Finished up the silicone (2nd go at this) tonight, will finish cleaning it up tomorrow to even out some of the seams. EVERYTHING is now ordered for the lighting, I have half of my plumbing, I'm about 80% sure what I'm using for return pumps, and I am going to have my glass bit sent down so I can start the plumbing too.

 

 

So here is my big dilemma, which honestly just depends on my laziness. My two options are to:

 

A: Custom build a stand for it, sized perfectly for the tank and finished however I want. This would be great, but would probably limit my sump size and obviously take more effort / money.

 

B: Buy a brown faux wood cube from Target with a front door on it. This would be cheap, easy, and have enough room to make a pretty big sump, but would not look as clean.

 

Any input?

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As for A, i already had that planned out before i had any thought of selling it!!!

cubestand.jpg

Cube2.jpg

 

If you want the sketup file let me know!

Here is the actual creation:

002-3.jpg

 

 

Sorry for whoring your thread, lol!

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As for A, i already had that planned out before i had any thought of selling it!!!

cubestand.jpg

Sorry for whoring your thread, lol!

 

Ah! I like it! I was thinking something shorter so I could put it on top of a desk or something, but maybe I should go tall to have room for ATO, extra power, etc.

 

Go ahead and send the sketchup to schgriffith@gmail.com if you'd like, I would love to use it for an example.

And don't worry man, you're still involved in this! lol

 

2nd try with the silicone looks great! Nice clean lines, definitely better the second time around. Great job :)

 

Thanks! It still looks a little off, but most of that is just stuff that was on top of the tape and will be cut off tomorrow. A few spots are still off, but as long as it holds water I don't really care.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Got a few pictures from my buddy sammy113 of the LED build so far. Since I don't have the proper tools (aka drill press, I live in an apartment) we decided to let him finish the build completely instead of just building me the acrylic box. It's about 80% done (just needs the top and splash guard put on), and he has done all this in the past 2 days!

 

100409ledbox.jpg

 

100409ledson.jpg

 

Enjoy!

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Thanks guys! Sammy is great with acrylic, so I knew that I would get exactly what I wanted from him. He's also having a blast building this, so that helps too.

 

 

Acrylic apparently is being cut tomorrow, so I should have that to ScooterNerd shortly so he can begin construction of the new tank (not sure if I want to keep it 10" cube or go with a 12" cube). Once I have that, I will build the stand (going to skin it in black to match the light), build the sump, and start the plumbing. This thing is probably at least a month away from even seeing water again, but who knows how things will turn out!

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Nice. Good work Sammy113. Looking forward to seeing it over a tank.

 

Yay, evil likes it. I also want to thank evil for helping me pick out the equipment for this build (I really didn't know anything electrical before starting this) and putting up with my obnoxious PMs. Maybe I should start a list of people to thank for this build...

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Thanks Evil! :D

 

Hey Sam how are you planning on hanging the light?

 

Not sure yet. I'm thinking about spacing this kind of close to a wall and hanging it from the wall. But with this being a 4 sided tank, it will be hard to hang this cleanly.

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Light is done! Sammy did an amazing job, and has more than exceeded my expectations. We are already working on other ideas for the future of both this tank and my larger tank for acrylic projects.

 

But words are boring, pictures are fun!

 

DSC_0039-1.jpg

 

DSC_0035.jpg

 

DSC_0034.jpg

 

DSC_0032.jpg

 

DSC_0029.jpg

 

And here are the comparison shots between Sammys 12LED unit with optics, and my 9LED unit without any (although it was built with enough room for optics if I decide to run them).

Sammys:

DSC_0027.jpg

Mine:

DSC_0028.jpg

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