280gal + history of my aquatic adventure

[DarinSchmidt]

lol, sort of, i had my vibran fivefingers on. It did cut them a little, but nothing happened to my skin.

[DarinSchmidt]

and yeah, i knew the glass was tempered, but i thoguht that maybe the diamond cutting wheel would have worked because it would be scraping the class off basically, but i thought i had a 50/50 chance of it working. But either i spend 150 and drive it 50miles away to have them cut it or pay another 200 for another sheet of glass. Granted, i could have used the glass for something else, like another tank but i dont think the wife would have liked that.

[DarinSchmidt]

but im ordering new glass, non tempered since its more glass than i needed anyways. My tank is 25" high, non tempered should do just fine in this application.

[DarinSchmidt]

forgot to mention that the glass should be in by wednesday, if not, they said to give them a call. I cant get down there till Friday anyways to get it, but i hope its there waiting on me early in the a.m. on friday. Got to stop out at USPlastics too and pick up another sheet of that black acrylic. Not sure i will have enough to finish my last LED unit.

[DarinSchmidt]

OK, well the glass came in yesterday. it has cured for 24hrs, not completely cured but enough that i was able to get it up and running. Here are the pics of everything. I didnt take any pics of it completely filled yet, may do that tomorrow or later tonight.













I'll take some more pics tomorrow of underneath and what not. I havent put the paneling on the stand yet nor made the doors yet, havent quite decided yet on how or what i want to do with them, so by the time the MAY Ohio Reef meeting happens, i may or may not have that completed...... Been looking around on the internet for ideas the past couple months.

[DarinSchmidt]

next is to get all the electrical ran and clean up my mess... hate this part

[lazylivin]

It is coming along nicely but aren't you worried it is going to bow or split apart with no bracing on top from front to back?

[DarinSchmidt]

no, i have a 4" brace  made out of 3/4" marine plywood along the entire front and back, the back also has the 2x4 back brace as you can see in one of the images above. The back is not going to bow much if at all, i doubt that the front will either. 1/2" class is rated for tanks with more than 34" height, i only have 25", i think, i might be wrong on that one, i'll have to check. But 1/2" glass, 1x2" solid wood around the glass, 4" eurobrace made of 3/4" marine plywood, screwed every foot, I feel pretty confident. I feel confident in it, but i guess only time will tell.

Its a eurobrace, just like in the pic on the 2nd or 3rd post.

http://www.3reef.com/forums/i-made/eurobracing-29500.html

[DarinSchmidt]

i just did a quick measurement. it has maybe bowed 1/16", i think thats pretty tolerable, u? The tank has been full for about 6hrs.

[DarinSchmidt]

[DarinSchmidt]

all the fish and the corals are in the tank now. i put some bioboost in there to help out a little so thats contributing to the cloudy water. This is only about 1/2 my tank.



I'll get some better pics once the water has cleared up.

[lazylivin]

Looks good. You built that tank and setup quick. Nice work

[DarinSchmidt]

thanks. not an easy task, but well worth it

[Learning_The_Hard_Way]

I have never seen a plywood tank, does the wood ever get satuarated or does the paint prevent it 100 percent?  What do you think you saved in costs by doing it this way?  you are one hell of a DIYer! its fun to see.  I love that about this hobby is if you want it you can most of the time just make it. Fun!  Those sharks swiming down there? you have a fish list?

[DarinSchmidt]

I have never seen a plywood tank, does the wood ever get satuarated or does the paint prevent it 100 percent?  What do you think you saved in costs by doing it this way?  you are one hell of a DIYer! its fun to see.  I love that about this hobby is if you want it you can most of the time just make it. Fun!  Those sharks swiming down there? you have a fish list?

I wouldnt ever say 100% when it comes to plywood, but 99.99% sure, theres always a case where something happens that shouldnt. I actually have it layered like this:

Plywood - resin - paint - silicon
So there are 3 barriers before water can actually get to the wood. Marine plywood is supposed to be water tight/proof. But i applied a layer of resin to be extra safe. But with resin, it dries hard, semi flexible but can crack if its too thick or if the wood bows too much. So i applied the paint only for the color i wanted and put a thick layer (about 1/8") as a flexible water barrier. I dont think that i should have any water issues unless something crazy happens.

This tank cost me about 900 at most including the stand so far (still need the paneling and doors), last i checked, on petsolutions, they wanted a 250g tank with stand for around 3grand. Not sure if that came with pump and everything, but even then (not including lights) i may be up to around 1200-1500. So 1/2 price with some elbow grease.

Yes, i love to do DIY stuff because of the amount you learn from it. If something goes wrong, you pretty much know how to fix it with having built it and learning what everything does. Liek my LED build for instance.

yeah, they are called "sharks" but they are brackish catfish...

Hmmm, fish in my tank:

2 flower anemones


1 rose tip anemone


3 yellow damsels


3 3stripe damsels


6-7 domino damsels


2 yellow tailed damsels


2 bull shark carfish


1 sea grass wrasse


1 sailfin tang


1 powder blue tang


1 tomini tang


1 blood red fire shrimp


2 purple firefish


2 twin spotted signal goby


1 pink spotted shrimp goby


1 bali damsel


1 maroon clownfish


2 Ocellaris clown fish

[DarinSchmidt]

oh, and an orange eye urching

[micki]

Do your clowns do ok together?  I would love to get a black and white pair but I don't want to give up the false percs I already have. 

[DarinSchmidt]

well given the space i have for them, i havent ever seen them pick any fights. They seem to be pretty content with eachother.

[micki]

I guess that is true.  I once had 2 pair of false percs...they got along well for a while then the fighting began!  I ended up seperating them before someone was killed.

[DarinSchmidt]

yeah, it happens, dang fish seem fine one day, then another wants to get territorial.... I usually take the agressive one to the LFS if i cant find a buyer.

[DarinSchmidt]

figured out how i want to make the stand. It's a design thats stuck in my head for almost a year. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12235818&postcount=89, it's simple, clean, and i'm going to make it two tone. SO if anyonne wouldnt mind helping me out with constructing the shell to my stand, i would appreciate it. I'll feed ya, cloth ya, give you a place to stay for a while, anything. Well, almost anything.... I just want it to look really nice once it's done.

[DarinSchmidt]

well, actually, i think i'm going to go a head and build the canopy for it as well. I ws going to hang my lights, but i dont feel like drilling into my ceiling since i'll hopefully be moving within a couple years.

[DarinSchmidt]

[Boonjob]

Marine plywood is supposed to be water tight/proof.

My boat interior says differently ... In the last 8 yrs it has been redone twice due to marine plywood water damage/rot lol.

But none the less it looks great and I hope it works out perfectly well for you

[DarinSchmidt]

hmmm, well if anything, its more solid than the standard $20 sheets of plywood on the shelf.