Build: 200 gallon frag system

oh man, what a weekend.

So i went to home depot, and bought a few panels of thin ply. had him cut it into 6 inch strips, and got them home.

Mounted all the ply to the walls
IMG_1239.jpg . IMG_1241.jpg

Had a bit of an issue with the cuts, so it's far from perfect.

Then had to go through and paint in all the cracks (figured out early on that it was insanely time time consuming to try to paint as I went. Even got the wife to help with that :D
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And finally, painted it.
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This was a long weekend so not going any further. next weekend ill get the trim up, and finish the boards that go around the tanks. I ordered a heavy weight water proof fabric which will cover the lower sections, should work pretty well.
 
thanks, it was more of a necessity as I didn't trust just finishing the ply and not having cracks form over time. this way it should be good for the long term.
 
okay, so kinda a strange weekend.

I attempted to do black trim, and it just went badly, so i pivoted and used my sprayer to spray the entire thing grey. I also hung the cabinet in the back which will house the power and controls safely away from water. Also went ahead and finished the sump stand in the middle, so at this point, I am basically done with construction.
IMG_1257.jpgIMG_1259.jpgIMG_1260.jpg

Next up I will be putting the curtains on it, and then starting to look at the pond liner. Finally getting into the actual tank stuff! I am pretty happy with the way the system looks. I chose grey due to it's more neutral reaction to tank light so hopefully I can take pretty good video in there. I wanted to do my company colors but I snapped a picture, and rendered it, and it was just too bright to use. Ultimately I think I want the color people see to be coming from the coral :)

On a side note, got another supplier recently and insanely good pricing, hoping to relaunch with an inventory of 300 + frags and some colonies.
 
This is looking awesome man! Im glad the system is starting to come together. Let me know how this goes, I wanna try something similar when I finally get a house in the area.
 
@Onefallleaf Thanks! If I had it to do over again, I would have done a full shed as it simplifies a lot of things. Still I had to work with what space I had, my home has about 10ft of yard, real cookie cutter neighborhood :D

@futureinterest Not quite, it's about 5 inches too tall. If I ever had to move it, I would have to sawzaw the top off, and pull it out, or demolish and rebuild. Our next move will hopefully be a home with land and I want to do a full "shed" of some sort anyways.

@jrhunter0000 Thanks, I checked the other day, been going since early october, but it's just a little every weekend so it's really more fun than work. :)
 
On a side note, i installed the curtains, and pretty much hate it. it makes it look like two coffins, and it's creepy :D

I think I will just finish the floor underneath it, and leave it open. more maintainable anyways.
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Once you get a lil saltwater on black curtains its going to look awful anyways :p
 
it's an out door canvas type material, supposed to be waterproof, but you are right, salt will show on it bad. looks like im not quite done with construction :D
 
I actually think the curtains make the room feel smaller. It's pretty easy to do the floor, it's just 1x2 wood, screwed down then stained. take me a couple hours to do both sides.
 
What's the purpose of the curtains?

Having it open to grab containers or bags for the frags will be easier. If it's just for pic's then a cheap sheet that goes up temporarily will do. Even black plastic sheeting.
 
I just wanted to cover it so it looked a little cleaner, but ultimately have decided against it.
 
so while managing the bulkheads in pond liner is a bit of an obstacle, the real elephant in the room on the project is managing the air.

I am thinking of doing this in stages, for this winter, I will just run a dehumidifier, and figure out how to make that work. I have about 30 inches of height underneath the tanks where I can place the dehumidifier, and when needed the air conditioner. If needed, I will build boxes under the tanks to hold each unit, and do a force air approach to make sure air circulates properly throughout.

At minimum I need to have the dehumidifier in placer before I can spin them up. Also need to probably think about a door at some point :D
 
Just a quick update. removed the curtains, and finished the floor under the tanks.
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Looks much less creepy :D

Just got my 1.5 inch bulkheads in, hope to get the liners put in and the bulkheads managed within a week.
 
Well I got a wild hair today so I decided to cut one of the liners to fit, and went and cut it in the wrong axis so it's too short, and now I have to reorder the liner :D Thankfully lowes has it in stock so hopefully I can still get the tanks lined this weekend.

I did get to take a quick look at how it's going to look when it's in, and how well the liner is going to be managed. I am pretty confident now I can get it to look pretty clean with just some work.
thumbnail_IMG_1270.jpg

I've given a lot of thought to how to employ the liner in the most reliable way.
So these are the steps I intend to take this weekend:
1. Go buy a new pond liner :D
2. The tanks will be lined with a thin foam (the kind you might pack plates with) to make sure the liner itself doesn't come in direct contact with the wood
3. The liner is cut (correctly this time) and placed in it's basic position.
4. I will then pour the sand in the bottom, which should help weigh down the liner, further helping it reach it's permanent position
5. I will then manage the liner the rest of the way
6. In the area where the overflow will be, I will remove an square area of about 12 inches and coat the entire area in silicone
7. the liner will then be pressed and smoothed flush to the silicone, which should give me a solid surface to do a clean drill hole
8. Using a glass hole saw, I will carefully cut a clean hole in the liner and start into the wood
9. Finish the whole with a fine toothed hole saw
10. Bulkhead gets installed, and generous silicone applied all around the bulkhead.

At that point, It's just a matter of doing standard pvc.
 
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