Lukestimp's 125 Gallon Build

[lukestimp]

<span style="color: black;">A while back I was following a thread on RC of a 90 Gallon build and decided this was the exact style I wanted to go with for my dining room. Originally I was going to go with an In the Wall build but after seeing this design decided against it.</span>

<span style="color: black;">Here is a picture of the finished Build from RC.</span>

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<span style="color: black;">I also had initially thought a 55 Gallon would be O.K., Chrisjet quickly changed my mind and convinced me that a 75 Gallon or 90 Gallon would be a much better option due to the Width being 18”. It took a little effort but I was finally able to convince the wifey to allow me to start working on a 75 Gallon build.</span>

<span style="color: black;">Here is a picture of the framework for the 1st Stand I started working on for the 75 Gallon. This picture also gives you a look at the dining room wall on which the tank will be going. The Back side of this wall is the Garage, this is the reason I was initially going to go with an in the wall type build.</span>
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<span style="color: black;">Later this Framework was turned into my new workbench in the Garage due to the fact that my wife wasn’t happy with the height of the stand sitting above the Chair Rail. It would have been simple to just cut down the vertical supports to the appropriate height but then I wouldn’t have had such a sturdy workbench. </span>

<span style="color: black;">I quickly began working on the new 75 Gallon stand that I completely designed it using Google Sketch-Up so that I could get my exact measurements before ever making a single cut.</span>

<span style="color: black;">I took several pictures as I built the New stand, but my Camera had an unfortunate meeting with it’s maker when I dropped a 25lb Power Supply from work on my laptop bag. The Camera nor the LCD screen survived. </span>

<span style="color: black;">Here is a couple Pictures of the Finished Bottom Half of the 75 Gallon Stand. I left 5 Inches on each side of the tank because I had planned on drilling the sides for overflows instead of the back for wall clearance.</span>

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<span style="color: black;">Now, after all this, I have decided that a 75 just isn’t going to work for me. The wife has even agreed that a 125 Gallon will look so much better here. </span>


<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 16px;">So on to the 125 Gallon Build!</span></span>

 

[triga22]

awsome cant wait to see it grown out

 

[lukestimp]

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">I will try to include as many pictures as possible as I go through this build and I will also give dimensions and pricing of everything just in case anyone would like to do one of these on there own.</span></span>

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Here’s what I bought for the Skeleton of the main Section of the stand.</span></span>

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">2- 2x6x96 No.2 Pine @ 3.73ea. = $7.46</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">5- 2x4x96 No.2 Pine @ 2.44ea. = $12.20</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">2- 2x2x96 No.2 Pine @ 1.35ea. = $2.70</span></span>

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">I didn’t have to buy any screws or Wood Glue due to the fact that I still had them from the previous stand, but next time I’m at the Home Depot I’ll grab a price on those.</span></span>

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Here’s a picture of the Pieces all cut to size and the measurements I used.</span></span>

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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">2- 2 x 6 x 72 ½ </span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">4- 2 x 6 x 15 ½ </span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">2- 2 x 4 x 72 ½ </span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">2- 2 x 4 x 15 ½ </span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">8- 2 x 4 x 25 ¼</span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">4- 2 x 2 x 34 ¼ </span></span>

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">With these measurements, the main section of the Stand will be 35” Tall x 74” Long x 19 ½” Wide once completely Skinned with ¾ .</span></span>

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Here is a picture of the Top section of the frame (2 x 6’s) assembled. I used 3” Drywall Screws and Titebond Wood glue to secure the Pieces together.</span></span>

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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Next I attached the inside Vertical’s (2 x 2 x 34 ½) with 2 ½” Drywall Screws and the Titebond Wood Glue as well. These pieces serve as no physical support, only as a tie down piece for connecting the Outside Vertical Supports to the Upper and Lower sections of the stand.</span></span>

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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Next I attached the Lower Section of the frame (2 x 4’s) to the inside Vertical’s. Once again 2 ½” Drywall screws and Titebond Wood Glue was used to attach everything. </span></span>

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">I would actually suggest you do this step last, If I had it to do over again, I would have attached the actual supportive Verticals next otherwise your cuts better be dead on. Mine were not.</span></span>

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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: 13px;">Here is the Skeleton Frame for the Main Section of the Stand Finished with the Supportive Verticals attached. I added to Horizontal Supports across the Bottom to help support the weight of the Sump. I also Wood filled over the Screw Heads on the Inside Pieces that will be visible inside the cabinet once the stand is skinned.</span></span>

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[lukestimp]

Hey Guys that stand was the one built for the 75 Gallon, but I'm basically building the same one for the 125 Gallon.

 

[jade76]

thats gonna be nice luke. Im lookign foward to seeing this through.

 

[1mbrews8]

very nice!

 

[jetchris]

looks good, what kinda lighting and flow are you going with?

 

[lukestimp]

Chris- I Haven't yet decided those things, I'm still not quite certain if this will be a reef or FOWLR Aggresive. I'm really split between the 2, Ideally I would like to go full blown reef and if I do that I'm thinking that I would definately go with MH's for lighting and would love a OM 4-way for flow. If I do a FOWLR I'll probably go with T5's and a couple Vortech's.

It's gonna be awhile before I'm at that point though, I'm hoping to have the Bottom Section of the stand finished in a couple weeks, and then I'm going to make my decesion on which way to go with this one.


Barbara - You can definately say that again, I had completely built a 55G stand already too. This will be like # 4 or 5.