NanoFever Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 I shall call it Coraline Candy! The before was not very lickable though! Looks really awesome! Link to comment
Addinali Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 You win stand of the month thats for sure! Link to comment
Mirya Posted August 22, 2015 Author Share Posted August 22, 2015 Thanks for the compliments! It sure did turn out purdy! The work on this project still isn't done though. I picked up some plastic square tube inserts off Amazon for the "feet" of the stand. Then I went to my local Home Depot and picked up a half sheet of 3/4" plywood to lay on the top of the steel stand. I picked up some trim to make the edges of the plywood sheet pretty. In process of nailing the trim on, I did manage to whack my thumb with the hammer and have a lovely blood blister... I filled in any gaps or nailheads and sanded the whole thing down. Today I primed and painted it black. I'm going to let that dry overnight, then start sealing it tomorrow. I picked up a spar urethane to make it as protected from water as possible. Once the wood is sealed, I'll be applying felt on the bottom so it doesn't scratch my stand's pretty finish. I also have some cushiony shelf liner stuff for the top. I also bought a bunch of white vinegar and started cleaning up the tank itself. I should have taken a before picture! There were tons of calcium deposits in the tank. Plus the outside bottom of the tank had some paint and gunk stuck on it from the old plywood sheet it used to sit on. I've managed to get all that cleaned up. I need to pick up a acrylic scratch kit to see if I can buff out the scratches in the tank. Luckily none are really deep, but there are lots of little ones. Link to comment
gena Posted August 22, 2015 Share Posted August 22, 2015 Why... today! LICK IT: When it was sand blasted prior to the powder coating, some pitting was revealed. I'm not really surprised. There were some areas that I just couldn't grind clean. (Well, maybe could have if I didn't care how deep I went into the metal!) The powder coater was really apologetic for it. I showed him a picture of the stand before I ground the paint and majority of the rust off of it... and then he understood why the pitting showed up. So, next steps for this rehab... - I assume I'll need to get a sheet of plywood or something to put on the stand to then put the tank onto (since it is a rimless acrylic tank). I can go get that cut to size at Home Depot, then paint it. I'll stick some felt on the bottom so it doesn't scuff the stand and maybe some neoprene on the top. - Cleaning the acrylic frag tank. I think I'll start out with a vinegar bath and then will need to buff the hell out of it. - Fix the plumbing on the tank. There are two bulkhead holes cut into the tank. One doesn't have a bulkhead in it anymore and the other has a bulkhead with a broken seal. Love that color! Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted August 22, 2015 Share Posted August 22, 2015 A woman on a mission!!! Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Thanks for the compliments! It sure did turn out purdy! The work on this project still isn't done though. I picked up some plastic square tube inserts off Amazon for the "feet" of the stand. Then I went to my local Home Depot and picked up a half sheet of 3/4" plywood to lay on the top of the steel stand. I picked up some trim to make the edges of the plywood sheet pretty. In process of nailing the trim on, I did manage to whack my thumb with the hammer and have a lovely blood blister... I filled in any gaps or nailheads and sanded the whole thing down. Today I primed and painted it black. I'm going to let that dry overnight, then start sealing it tomorrow. I picked up a spar urethane to make it as protected from water as possible. Once the wood is sealed, I'll be applying felt on the bottom so it doesn't scratch my stand's pretty finish. I also have some cushiony shelf liner stuff for the top. I also bought a bunch of white vinegar and started cleaning up the tank itself. I should have taken a before picture! There were tons of calcium deposits in the tank. Plus the outside bottom of the tank had some paint and gunk stuck on it from the old plywood sheet it used to sit on. I've managed to get all that cleaned up. I need to pick up a acrylic scratch kit to see if I can buff out the scratches in the tank. Luckily none are really deep, but there are lots of little ones. Update? Have you started working on the tank? Link to comment
Mirya Posted September 11, 2015 Author Share Posted September 11, 2015 I did get an acrylic polishing kit, but haven't actually sat down to start polishing the tank. It's been in the 80/90s here lately, so I haven't wanted to be out in the garage working on the tank. There is supposed to be a cold front moving through this weekend, so maybe next week I can get out there. Link to comment
Mirya Posted November 3, 2015 Author Share Posted November 3, 2015 Update time! Nothing happened with this project at all for a month while I was in North Carolina. But now that I'm (temporarily) back in town and the weather is unseasonably gorgeous, I spent the afternoon working on the tank. The tank is pretty scratched up: So what I did today was sand the crap out of the tank. I used wet sandpaper in 600 then 1000 then 1500 grit. When sanding down an acrylic tank you want all your strokes in one grit to go in one direction. Then when you go to the next grit, you switch direction by 90 degrees. You want your last grit to end up being horizontal. This way if there are any scratches left behind by the last grit sandpaper, they will be somewhat hidden by the waterline. So my 600 grit was horizontal, the 1000 grit was vertical, the 1500 grit was horizontal. Dip the sandpaper in some soapy water frequently to make sure it doesn't get clogged with dust. Sand each area for as long as you think you need to work out the scratches -- then sand more. Sand in patches on the tank, and be sure to overlap your patches. This whole sanding process is a little bit of a leap of faith... because this is how the tank looks in the middle of sanding: Yup, worse than it did to start! My shoulders are totally wasted from all the sanding. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to lift my arms! If so, the next step is going to be buffing out the tank. I have small buffing pads to use on a drill for that. I'll be using Novus polish for the next step. Hopefully, another update tomorrow! Link to comment
vlangel Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 What a transformation! This is going to be incredible. What she said! Link to comment
gena Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 I tried sanding an acrylic tank once. I had one little scratch and bought an aquarium sanding kit. Scared the crap out of me when I started..it looked worse than before LOL. I'm sure yours will turn out perfectly . Sounds like you know what you are doing unlike me! Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 Wow, we're not talking elbow grease, total back-into-it-grease! So you'll need to rent yourself a room in a hotel room w/ hubby that has a hot tub in it to soothe all your muscles. First time I've seen the tank- such gorgeous thick glass. Link to comment
Nanofreak79 Posted November 3, 2015 Share Posted November 3, 2015 I'm tired just from looking at the time spent and the major elbow grease. I'd paint my car that candy purple, looks too nice for a frag tank stand. Lol Link to comment
Mirya Posted November 4, 2015 Author Share Posted November 4, 2015 Ta Da! There are still some scratches in the tank, but it is so much better than it had been! I think the only way I could have gotten out all of the scratches was if I had an electric palm sander. I can't imagine hand sanding them all out... BTW these are the supplies I used, for anyone researching doing this on their own: I had mentioned I trimmed a half plywood sheet for the tank to rest on. Here is the bottom side of the plywood, with some self-adhesive felt applied: Then I used this stuff for the tank to rest on, on the plywood. I picked it up at Home Depot awhile ago. I see that BRS sells 1/4" neoprene now though, so that is a good option to use too: Lastly, here is the tank on the stand! So now that this shiny project is done, it is going to sit fallow for a bit. I am awaiting to hear the results of some job applications, so I won't be getting this tank set up to run until I hear back on those. For now my lighting plan is to use 2 Kessil 360wes. A sponsor of my local reef club is changing out their lights in the store and selling some Kessils for cheap. Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted November 4, 2015 Share Posted November 4, 2015 Looks awesome! Impressive work with acrylic Link to comment
spectra Posted November 5, 2015 Share Posted November 5, 2015 Great job on the tank and stand. Kind of stinks you had to sand the stand even though the powder coater would blast it anyway...... Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted November 5, 2015 Share Posted November 5, 2015 It turned out so well. Scary venture I bet while you're doing it but you rocked it. I'm super impressed with your skills. I'd be nervous to try that. I don't blame ya, see what happens. I hate feeling like something is on hold. I feel like that w/ my tanks. I"m really believing thought that Dec will be the last month I'm here. Link to comment
Mirya Posted November 5, 2015 Author Share Posted November 5, 2015 Looks awesome! Impressive work with acrylic Thanks, Harry! Great job on the tank and stand. Kind of stinks you had to sand the stand even though the powder coater would blast it anyway...... The powder coater did tell me that I saved myself money by sanding the stand as it saved a lot of time in the sand blasting booth. Originally I had thought I'd be painting the stand myself, but had I known from the outset that I was going to get it powder coated... yeah I probably just woulda had them blast it. Link to comment
spectra Posted November 5, 2015 Share Posted November 5, 2015 The powder coater did tell me that I saved myself money by sanding the stand as it saved a lot of time in the sand blasting booth. Originally I had thought I'd be painting the stand myself, but had I known from the outset that I was going to get it powder coated... yeah I probably just woulda had them blast it. Yeah that's what he said He was blowing smoke up your butt......I have blasted things for over 30 years and it does not take much time really compared to using a sander. Also the color that you picked and said needs 3 coats.....I think you could have gotten away with something different. There are a bunch of colors like that. What really matters is you were happy in the end and it looks good! Not trying to rain on your parade Link to comment
Mirya Posted November 6, 2015 Author Share Posted November 6, 2015 I sent a link to the Photobucket album to Serdar, the owner of Phishy Business, whom I had bought the tank and stand from. He loved it and joked that he should hire me to work on the other tank and stand he has. (He had a pair of these set-ups, but kept one for himself.) Now that the frag tank rehab is complete for now, I moved on to another project. Hint here and a link to the new thread: Link to comment
Beer Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 Did you end up getting this set up? Link to comment
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