Another tank in the making, a Mike-Mar retrofit! :D
- Thread starter sfsuphysics
- Start date
DurTBear
Guest
Looking good Mike.
So on the Herbie/flooded drain overflow, you can simply use two standard pvc pipes? On that huge RC thread, "Herbie" used some sort of mesh pvc. But now that I see your design, it looks like it's totally unnecessary. With the teeth on your overflow, snail shouldn't be able to get into the overflow chamber anyway.
So on the Herbie/flooded drain overflow, you can simply use two standard pvc pipes? On that huge RC thread, "Herbie" used some sort of mesh pvc. But now that I see your design, it looks like it's totally unnecessary. With the teeth on your overflow, snail shouldn't be able to get into the overflow chamber anyway.
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Yeah if anything the mesh might more easily catch gunk and clog it up that much faster.
I just fragged a bunch of softies the other day (and by frag I mean break up the rocks they were on
), and man that tank is in some serious need of help, I have anemones crawling all over the acrylic, moving won't be fun.
I just fragged a bunch of softies the other day (and by frag I mean break up the rocks they were on
), and man that tank is in some serious need of help, I have anemones crawling all over the acrylic, moving won't be fun.sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Ok, I was saving this for a complete woodworking masterpiece "Tada" type moment except apparently it takes 9 days to get some T5 endcaps from Dr Foster & Smith via fedex ground.... yet the 4-48" UVl super Actinic bulbs (not for this project, but at $14 a pop I HAD to grab some) got here in 3 days... so go figure...
Either way I needed the endcaps to know where to place everything as far as height of the cross bar that'll hold them (also holds the bottom in....
Anyways, I decided to go old fashioned as far as a hood... even though it's hardly a tada woodworking masterpiece... it gets the job done for now, I'll bang away at it when I get those endcaps *shrug*
Anyways, I started with this, 1-8foot 2x4 (1.5 x 3.5 actually *grumble*) less than $2 (I paid the extra 30 cents or so to get the nicer pieces)
So work on the table saw turn that into this, all squared, perfect smooth, cut a groove in the bottom pieces.
Into this.. no screws, only dowels and glue used in it (don't ask... I figure since I made the stand screw less, I'd do the same for the canopy). The idea is that it can slide back and forth on the top. Unfortunately the woodworking porn ends there as I don't have my fricking endcaps *grumble*
I put a piece of C-channel aluminum embedded in the wood of the canopy with a piece of square aluminum attached to the lumenarc mini reflector so I can slide the reflector itself back and forth as needed.
Well, I did a couple water changes on my 180g tank over the last week or so, with the waste water going in here (I figure it's way cleaner than the water in that softy tank!), used maybe 30g from the soft tank. Tossed in a few of my anemone and some rocks and viola! 1 year old 12k Reeflux bulb is lighting it, I'm also waiting for bulbs so I can toss up some fresh new (stronger) lighting.
In my bid to rid myself of palythoas (which have apparently invaded my stony tank *grumble*), I chipped off a ton of that rock, as well as chipped off some encrusting gorgonian which was actually keeping the BTAs at bay! well I put all the chippings into some tap water, left it outside, and I'll pour it down the drain in a couple days.. hate them SOBs!
Anyways, other tank is still up (maybe half the water in it), I'll move over a couple softies (probably need to keep my tall leather toadstool, although I really don't want to). And other than that I think I'll be ridding myself of some corals shortly.
Either way I needed the endcaps to know where to place everything as far as height of the cross bar that'll hold them (also holds the bottom in....
Anyways, I decided to go old fashioned as far as a hood... even though it's hardly a tada woodworking masterpiece... it gets the job done for now, I'll bang away at it when I get those endcaps *shrug*
Anyways, I started with this, 1-8foot 2x4 (1.5 x 3.5 actually *grumble*) less than $2 (I paid the extra 30 cents or so to get the nicer pieces
)
So work on the table saw turn that into this, all squared, perfect smooth, cut a groove in the bottom pieces.
Into this.. no screws, only dowels and glue used in it (don't ask... I figure since I made the stand screw less, I'd do the same for the canopy). The idea is that it can slide back and forth on the top. Unfortunately the woodworking porn ends there as I don't have my fricking endcaps *grumble*
I put a piece of C-channel aluminum embedded in the wood of the canopy with a piece of square aluminum attached to the lumenarc mini reflector so I can slide the reflector itself back and forth as needed.
Well, I did a couple water changes on my 180g tank over the last week or so, with the waste water going in here (I figure it's way cleaner than the water in that softy tank!), used maybe 30g from the soft tank. Tossed in a few of my anemone and some rocks and viola! 1 year old 12k Reeflux bulb is lighting it, I'm also waiting for bulbs so I can toss up some fresh new (stronger) lighting.
In my bid to rid myself of palythoas (which have apparently invaded my stony tank *grumble*), I chipped off a ton of that rock, as well as chipped off some encrusting gorgonian which was actually keeping the BTAs at bay! well I put all the chippings into some tap water, left it outside, and I'll pour it down the drain in a couple days.. hate them SOBs!
Anyways, other tank is still up (maybe half the water in it), I'll move over a couple softies (probably need to keep my tall leather toadstool, although I really don't want to). And other than that I think I'll be ridding myself of some corals shortly.
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Yes the stand is still standing
Here's a few more pictures I took
Here's the nems a little more poofed out, what a difference a day, and some MH lighting, makes. There are a total of 8 in the tank (they started from a single one, and I probably got rid of half a dozen over the years)
it goes on forever... and oh my god... it's full of tenticles!!!
And this is my first fish I ever got, mean lil' wench! Attached me at least 3 times when I was getting rocks out of the other tank.
I'm conceiving of a little side table to act as a cabinet to hide wires, maybe even throw in a DJ power strip (if I can find one), and the like, so I still haven't skinned the stand (plus I have this crazy idea of putting tiles on it)
Here's a few more pictures I took
Here's the nems a little more poofed out, what a difference a day, and some MH lighting, makes. There are a total of 8 in the tank (they started from a single one, and I probably got rid of half a dozen over the years)
it goes on forever... and oh my god... it's full of tenticles!!!
And this is my first fish I ever got, mean lil' wench! Attached me at least 3 times when I was getting rocks out of the other tank.
I'm conceiving of a little side table to act as a cabinet to hide wires, maybe even throw in a DJ power strip (if I can find one), and the like, so I still haven't skinned the stand (plus I have this crazy idea of putting tiles on it
)sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Ok it was like Christmas today, all my pulserite bulbs showed up, my DF&S stuff showed up, and to think I was going to get some actual work done today!
Granted they've only been on a few hours but man they are MUCH brighter than the old bulbs, granted the old ones were nearly a year old, so the color shift was there. But as Jeremy said, these guys basically looks like a brand spankin' new 12000K reeflux bulb. When my other tank's bulbs go off I'll replace one of the 14000K phoenix bulbs and see if these will be a good replacement.
Also need to figure out what to do with those returns... the concept of pointing the flow in a particular spot it appealing, but power goes out, those things will siphon everything to the nozzle of the lowest one (I tried to break the siphon with just one out, does not work.. BLEH.
I do white balance the pictures though, so a color difference is a bit more subtle to pick up.
Granted they've only been on a few hours but man they are MUCH brighter than the old bulbs, granted the old ones were nearly a year old, so the color shift was there. But as Jeremy said, these guys basically looks like a brand spankin' new 12000K reeflux bulb. When my other tank's bulbs go off I'll replace one of the 14000K phoenix bulbs and see if these will be a good replacement.
Also need to figure out what to do with those returns... the concept of pointing the flow in a particular spot it appealing, but power goes out, those things will siphon everything to the nozzle of the lowest one (I tried to break the siphon with just one out, does not work.. BLEH.
I do white balance the pictures though, so a color difference is a bit more subtle to pick up.
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Ok wandering anemone on glass finally settled down, unfortunately anemone that's on a rock really low does look a tad on the bleached side, he made a move for higher grounds the other day but ended up going back to this original spot.
Added the T5s to the hood, a couple actinic bulbs, I was going to go full on actinics + blues, but I'm not quite sure now. Right now the halide is on for 6 hours a day which I think is fine, in the off time the tank is still lit pretty well from the doors/windows of the room (all indirect) but hey I wanted some pretty pop, so the actinics will do for now. Just trying to chug through one piece at a time, and I really wanted to vacate the old tank because it was really going down the crapper due to negligence (now it's partially got water in it, some palythoa rocks, some aiptasia rocks, and I really should suck the water out before it starts to smell too bad).
I moved all the "maybe try to save for donations" corals to another tank, skimmerless (but I figure no fish, so who cares), it includes a toadstool leather that's pretty damn large (10" tall at least), a devil's hand leather that's quite large too, a rock with a good hunk of GSP on it, and another with a colt coral which is all that's left after I hacked it up and gave it away over the years. Unfortunately all the rocks have those ugly palythoas of one form or another on them, and I really wanted to not introduce these in the new tank at all. So I figure I'll donate these to a good cause if anyone wants them (Steinhart??) or sell the rocks with corals attached as is.
Ok so here's pictures of the tank.
I used a piece of aluminum c-channel in the wood, and attached the lumenarc mini to piece of square aluminum, so I can slide it back and forth as needed for adjustments. The whole top slides on the tank so I can move that as I need room to work. T5s are in, I decided not to use those waterproof endcaps, I've never used them before, and in this setting they made the frame of the canopy way too restrictive, so instead I put them on the stony tank, and grabbed the cheaper quality endcaps from there so everything fits in perfectly. IMO they're over rated anyways. Wired everything nicely, attaching it to the skeleton of the frame. Unsure what I want to do with skinning it, I'm not going to have any flip top, simply going to be a matter of sliding it back and forth (and of course attaching it to the ceiling so it doesn't fall off the back ). I'm really tempted to use some locking pre-engineered flooring material like bamboo flooring or what not, however not quite sure how that'll hold up to the moisture.
A "FTS" right now there's 8 RBTAs, 2 "frags" of zoas that I won at a raffle a few talks ago, and I put in one browned out acro that I don't have any room for in the other tank. I might throw some of my micropthalama that I ripped out of the stony tank as well. Although the idea is to keep this a "low key" softy tank, I figure these acros are easy, and I don't want to keep my frag tank lights running JUST for them anyways. Or who knows Steinhart donations if they'll take them *shrug*. Also is one yuma and a baby, and a rock with some mushrooms on that I think I'll simply keep in there segregated from the rest of the rocks until I find something better to put in its place. 2 Turbo snails, 1 tuxedo urchin, and numerous mini-carpets
Any way you cut it, the "cube" look really doesn't look terribly large for a 80g tank. Most of the tank flow is from a Koralia 4 and a modded MJ1200, which IMO is plenty of flow for the tank, in fact there's one area where a little tornado of detritus accumilates actually gets a few inches off the ground! I'm not quite sure I like those loc-fit hoses for the returns, the return flow isn't terribly strong (it's split between both) so pointing them in one area seems a bit silly, maybe I'll simply point them at the surface, or remove them all together. Overall I'm pleased with the tank. Future livestock (other than fish) I'd like to have are some Florida Ricordias, and maybe some zoas and potentially keep them all segregated on islands of rock... although I'm curious how/if they'll attach to the pvc bottom. I'll continue to bang out some more work on the accompany structures (stand/hood) from time to time. I'm thinking of building a stand that goes right next to this that can act as cabinet, hold all sorts of goods, and house a DJ power strip or something for all the non-timed objects.
And of course the single fish of the tank, looking at the mug I'm glad there's glass between us, I'd hate to run into her in a dark alley. As much as I don't like her, she was my first saltwater fish ever, so its kind of like a wife I mean just look at her, she's got that permanent scowl! Plus I won't feel bad about putting in other "aggressive" types of fish (which typically are the cheaper ones) like damsels, chromis, pseudochromis, etc
Added the T5s to the hood, a couple actinic bulbs, I was going to go full on actinics + blues, but I'm not quite sure now. Right now the halide is on for 6 hours a day which I think is fine, in the off time the tank is still lit pretty well from the doors/windows of the room (all indirect) but hey I wanted some pretty pop, so the actinics will do for now. Just trying to chug through one piece at a time, and I really wanted to vacate the old tank because it was really going down the crapper due to negligence (now it's partially got water in it, some palythoa rocks, some aiptasia rocks, and I really should suck the water out before it starts to smell too bad).
I moved all the "maybe try to save for donations" corals to another tank, skimmerless (but I figure no fish, so who cares), it includes a toadstool leather that's pretty damn large (10" tall at least), a devil's hand leather that's quite large too, a rock with a good hunk of GSP on it, and another with a colt coral which is all that's left after I hacked it up and gave it away over the years. Unfortunately all the rocks have those ugly palythoas of one form or another on them, and I really wanted to not introduce these in the new tank at all. So I figure I'll donate these to a good cause if anyone wants them (Steinhart??
) or sell the rocks with corals attached as is.Ok so here's pictures of the tank.
I used a piece of aluminum c-channel in the wood, and attached the lumenarc mini to piece of square aluminum, so I can slide it back and forth as needed for adjustments. The whole top slides on the tank so I can move that as I need room to work. T5s are in, I decided not to use those waterproof endcaps, I've never used them before, and in this setting they made the frame of the canopy way too restrictive, so instead I put them on the stony tank, and grabbed the cheaper quality endcaps from there so everything fits in perfectly. IMO they're over rated anyways
. Wired everything nicely, attaching it to the skeleton of the frame. Unsure what I want to do with skinning it, I'm not going to have any flip top, simply going to be a matter of sliding it back and forth (and of course attaching it to the ceiling so it doesn't fall off the back ). I'm really tempted to use some locking pre-engineered flooring material like bamboo flooring or what not, however not quite sure how that'll hold up to the moisture.
A "FTS" right now there's 8 RBTAs, 2 "frags" of zoas that I won at a raffle a few talks ago, and I put in one browned out acro that I don't have any room for in the other tank. I might throw some of my micropthalama that I ripped out of the stony tank as well. Although the idea is to keep this a "low key" softy tank, I figure these acros are easy, and I don't want to keep my frag tank lights running JUST for them anyways. Or who knows Steinhart donations if they'll take them *shrug*. Also is one yuma and a baby, and a rock with some mushrooms on that I think I'll simply keep in there segregated from the rest of the rocks until I find something better to put in its place. 2 Turbo snails, 1 tuxedo urchin, and numerous mini-carpets
Any way you cut it, the "cube" look really doesn't look terribly large for a 80g tank. Most of the tank flow is from a Koralia 4 and a modded MJ1200, which IMO is plenty of flow for the tank, in fact there's one area where a little tornado of detritus accumilates actually gets a few inches off the ground!
I'm not quite sure I like those loc-fit hoses for the returns, the return flow isn't terribly strong (it's split between both) so pointing them in one area seems a bit silly, maybe I'll simply point them at the surface, or remove them all together. Overall I'm pleased with the tank. Future livestock (other than fish) I'd like to have are some Florida Ricordias, and maybe some zoas and potentially keep them all segregated on islands of rock... although I'm curious how/if they'll attach to the pvc bottom. I'll continue to bang out some more work on the accompany structures (stand/hood) from time to time. I'm thinking of building a stand that goes right next to this that can act as cabinet, hold all sorts of goods, and house a DJ power strip or something for all the non-timed objects.
And of course the single fish of the tank, looking at the mug I'm glad there's glass between us, I'd hate to run into her in a dark alley. As much as I don't like her, she was my first saltwater fish ever, so its kind of like a wife
I mean just look at her, she's got that permanent scowl! Plus I won't feel bad about putting in other "aggressive" types of fish (which typically are the cheaper ones) like damsels, chromis, pseudochromis, etc
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Minor update, so far no leaks
Although I do see that the silicone is peeling from the pvc, I'm wondering if that's because I didn't scuff up the PVC, either way it's not a terribly large concern for me simply because I really didn't want any silicone there at all, I really prefer the clean look without any run over (plus I can't imagine that it adds any strength to it). It seems to be holding incredibly well to the acrylic overflow though which is quite cool, I wish I had a data sheet for strength of this stuff PVC vs Acrylic, might be worth it to do an acrylic bottom instead of PVC.
Worst thing is my softy tank is not so softie anymore, pocciliporas have moved over, might move the stylos too but the woman is already pissed I moved these over, they're her favorite, but to me all I see is real-estate hogs! I put the micropthalama high on the rock (I completely remove that piece from the other tank, there's another big colony on the ground in the back not sure what I'll do with them though). And I put yet another becker/cali tort piece in here as well, because well yeah there's like 4 colonies growing in my SPS tank as it is. The anemone wandered a bit more, but they stopped... right up against the glass too *sigh*
Although I do see that the silicone is peeling from the pvc, I'm wondering if that's because I didn't scuff up the PVC, either way it's not a terribly large concern for me simply because I really didn't want any silicone there at all, I really prefer the clean look without any run over (plus I can't imagine that it adds any strength to it). It seems to be holding incredibly well to the acrylic overflow though which is quite cool, I wish I had a data sheet for strength of this stuff PVC vs Acrylic, might be worth it to do an acrylic bottom instead of PVC.
Worst thing is my softy tank is not so softie anymore, pocciliporas have moved over, might move the stylos too but the woman is already pissed I moved these over, they're her favorite, but to me all I see is real-estate hogs!
I put the micropthalama high on the rock (I completely remove that piece from the other tank, there's another big colony on the ground in the back not sure what I'll do with them though). And I put yet another becker/cali tort piece in here as well, because well yeah there's like 4 colonies growing in my SPS tank as it is. The anemone wandered a bit more, but they stopped... right up against the glass too *sigh*
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Good god it's been a while since I updated this thread
Update 1:
Took tank down, aiptasia were just getting too invasive for my liking, removed all I could find (chipped off rock), build a "refugium" off my other tank, put it in there, aiptasia ended up coming back... I've been squirting them, got about half a dozen Cree LEDs illuminating the "fuge". Oh yeah that whole rock in the middle is basically one big jumbled mass of rose anemones
Update 2:
Tank is going back up! Not sure where these guys will go in the next tank... but every place I put them has some disadvantage, so why not rebuild the old tank! Actually decided to test some ideas for the "next tank" on a smaller scale first before I go big scale, that includes back wall out of rock (ok the acrylic overflow out of rock), LED spotlights, and maybe even the whole "building a room" bit around the tank
So without further ado one rock covered (almost) overflow.
First step, lay the tank down, much easier to not let gravity fight you too much!
Then cut a bunch of rocks like this on the wet tile saw, MUCH easier to attach flat to flat than rough bumpy to flat.
The first rock attached! A monumental occasion... except it really didn't stick very well, acrylic strangely is very non-porous Easy fix for this was to drill slightly in into the acrylic to make golfball like dimples (acrylic is thick enough such that I didn't drill all the way through... well except that one time..) Btw used hydraulic cement I got at Home Depot, which is the really dark grey stuff
A few more added to get the base.. I was doing this whole project upside down too, so I don't really expect things to look terribly right I'm banking on the "coraline will fill in the gaps" mentality.
So I ran out of rocks, but I had to see what it looks like up right, a shot through the dirty side.
A shot through the dirty front
Picture from above, I used quite a few rocks that had natural holes, so there are quite a few nice places for critters to hide, however I fully expect (but don't want) anemones to climb this and plant a foot down in the holes.
And with some phototrickery with my camera and an LED light source, voila! Instant cool colored rocks
The water in there is for the bottom set which have had a few months to set up, I figure if those stay, the rest will stay given enough time to harden.
Update 1:
Took tank down, aiptasia were just getting too invasive for my liking, removed all I could find (chipped off rock), build a "refugium" off my other tank, put it in there, aiptasia ended up coming back... I've been squirting them, got about half a dozen Cree LEDs illuminating the "fuge". Oh yeah that whole rock in the middle is basically one big jumbled mass of rose anemones
Update 2:
Tank is going back up! Not sure where these guys will go in the next tank... but every place I put them has some disadvantage, so why not rebuild the old tank! Actually decided to test some ideas for the "next tank" on a smaller scale first before I go big scale, that includes back wall out of rock (ok the acrylic overflow out of rock
), LED spotlights, and maybe even the whole "building a room" bit around the tank So without further ado one rock covered (almost) overflow.
First step, lay the tank down, much easier to not let gravity fight you too much!
Then cut a bunch of rocks like this on the wet tile saw, MUCH easier to attach flat to flat than rough bumpy to flat.
The first rock attached! A monumental occasion... except it really didn't stick very well, acrylic strangely is very non-porous
Easy fix for this was to drill slightly in into the acrylic to make golfball like dimples (acrylic is thick enough such that I didn't drill all the way through... well except that one time..) Btw used hydraulic cement I got at Home Depot, which is the really dark grey stuff
A few more added to get the base.. I was doing this whole project upside down too, so I don't really expect things to look terribly right
I'm banking on the "coraline will fill in the gaps" mentality.
So I ran out of rocks, but I had to see what it looks like up right, a shot through the dirty side.
A shot through the dirty front
Picture from above, I used quite a few rocks that had natural holes, so there are quite a few nice places for critters to hide, however I fully expect (but don't want) anemones to climb this and plant a foot down in the holes.
And with some phototrickery with my camera and an LED light source, voila! Instant cool colored rocks
The water in there is for the bottom set which have had a few months to set up, I figure if those stay, the rest will stay given enough time to harden.
seminolecpa
Past President
You seem to be missing pictures of that other tank
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Seems that way, but that's for a different thread
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Ok so the first thing that I wanted to not do is have 2x4 wall studs for a tiny little corner of the room that did not need structural support... so I did the next best thing I ripped 2x4s into 1.5 x 1.5" bits and essentially built a light duty wall around the tank, this also helped with the free floating parts, the longer horizontal beams here are screwed into the cabinet, and the vertical pieces off to the side are supporting those to lessen the torque a bit, not to mention the smaller vertical pieces are attached straight up to the ceiling where that ceiling piece is anchored. So it'll hold no problem, and no weight will actually be on the tank top itself, there's a sizable gap there so that any "mess" won't be absorbed into the wood, in fact no wood actually touches any part of the tank except for the stand. That piece at that top that looks super crooked... not attached yet AND there's quite a bit of distortion due to the size/height of the thing and how close I am to it (camera lens issue)
And the other side is completed... don't know what that "looks like someone's ass just exploded" stuff is on the door, I actually haven't noticed it until I looked at these pictures. But everything is level and straight and I'm happy
Added a couple types of access points to the tank (other than from the back) basically I want to try a couple different things simply to see what grooves well. My hinged doors were first, the first one was absolutely perfect, level, fit evenly all the way around... then I built the second door... and couldn't understand for the life of me why it wasn't level when everything else was... my conclusion the hinge wasn't on perfect, as a result there was a tiny slant to the way it closed, overall I fixed it to "good enough" level and I'm done with it (there's only so many times you can redrill holes). The other side I opted for a fliptop design with a small piano style hinge... that was infinitely easier.
Also put some polyurismell on it to protect it from moisture that will inevitably get to it (thought about paint... but didn't really want to have to do it all twice, prime + paint), downstairs stayed locked up for a few days, back door open a fan pulling air out ... and it still smelled, then I went camping for 3 days came back and it was only slightly smelly... I'm sure I lost a few brain cells applying it.
Now while there is water in it, I just realized I might actually have to go through a fricking cycle process here! Not since I've had my 135g have I had to cycle a tank, simply put I had stuff move from tank to tank.. Oh well no decaying matter so hopefully it'll go quickly, and hopefully I can find an ammonia test kit somewhere around here
Still needs to be done is to put up the walls to make it solid, I was going to go all plywood (with a nice pretty side) then stain it, but I think that might be too much wood grain for me to stare at, plus there'd be all sorts of inconsistencies in the wood grain, it'd probably annoy the hell out of me, and I'd be stuck with it. I think I am going to do greenboard, and paint it, then simply use plywood for the doors. Then I need a circulation pump, as all the ones I have now don't have any sort of threaded end, and I've had the vinyl hose flip away from the tank and empty the sump WAYYY too many damn times for me to do that again... AND I also have to get my LEDs system setup. Since that will take some time....
Here's a fat kitty in a little box for your amusement
Google Earth view
And the other side is completed... don't know what that "looks like someone's ass just exploded" stuff is on the door, I actually haven't noticed it until I looked at these pictures. But everything is level and straight and I'm happy
Added a couple types of access points to the tank (other than from the back) basically I want to try a couple different things simply to see what grooves well. My hinged doors were first, the first one was absolutely perfect, level, fit evenly all the way around... then I built the second door... and couldn't understand for the life of me why it wasn't level when everything else was... my conclusion the hinge wasn't on perfect, as a result there was a tiny slant to the way it closed, overall I fixed it to "good enough" level and I'm done with it (there's only so many times you can redrill holes). The other side I opted for a fliptop design with a small piano style hinge... that was infinitely easier.
Also put some polyurismell on it to protect it from moisture that will inevitably get to it (thought about paint... but didn't really want to have to do it all twice, prime + paint), downstairs stayed locked up for a few days, back door open a fan pulling air out ... and it still smelled, then I went camping for 3 days came back and it was only slightly smelly... I'm sure I lost a few brain cells applying it.
Now while there is water in it, I just realized I might actually have to go through a fricking cycle process here! Not since I've had my 135g have I had to cycle a tank, simply put I had stuff move from tank to tank.. Oh well no decaying matter so hopefully it'll go quickly, and hopefully I can find an ammonia test kit somewhere around here
Still needs to be done is to put up the walls to make it solid, I was going to go all plywood (with a nice pretty side) then stain it, but I think that might be too much wood grain for me to stare at, plus there'd be all sorts of inconsistencies in the wood grain, it'd probably annoy the hell out of me, and I'd be stuck with it. I think I am going to do greenboard, and paint it, then simply use plywood for the doors. Then I need a circulation pump, as all the ones I have now don't have any sort of threaded end, and I've had the vinyl hose flip away from the tank and empty the sump WAYYY too many damn times for me to do that again... AND I also have to get my LEDs system setup. Since that will take some time....
Here's a fat kitty in a little box for your amusement
Google Earth view
