My new 300 gall build

[slayer]

Its been a while since I’ve been active on the boards. Quite a few people have asked me to post pics of what I’ve been up to, so I thought I’d share. I recently broke down my 300 gall tank at my house and needed a new tank to place in my new smaller apartment, so naturally being a full blooded reefer I did the obvious, i brought another 300 gall tank . At the photo meeting I saw the new marineland tank, it was love at first sight. After jeremy, alan (sprayin), and tito twisted my arm I decided to shop around for one. I eventually called sal and as always he hooked me up with a great deal. It was surprising light compared to my glasscages 300gal tank. It was ordered and I went to pick it up within a week.
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[slayer]

Its 6 foot long, by 3 feet deep by 27 inches high. It has a starfire front and dual corner overflows with dual 1 inch predrilled holes. I even got the overflow kits thrown in for free
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[tebriel]

Sweet tank, are you gonna' paint the back?

 

[johnr2604]

Very nice.

 

[slayer]

I decided to get started right away by making some rock to cover the overflows. I cut out a template from cardboard, then made a shim out of wood. I used some fiberglass casting i use at work to mold around the overflows to get the correct shape. After i let the fiberglass harden and dry i made a mold.
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[horsesziggy]

can't wait to see it up,as always it will be top notch and a tank of dreams.

thanks for picking our store for buying your next setup..


sal

 

[slayer]

next the pouring of the "rock" over the mold....
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[skriz]

This is going to be a SWEET build!

 

[slayer]

With me constantly moving i needed a stand and canopy i could move easily again in a year or two. With the tank being 3 feet deep its stand could only be 34 inches high (the width of most doors) as i had to turn it on its side to get through most openings. With this in mind i decided that i wanted a steel stand and canopy frame. It would be light weight and strong. I also had to fit everything under the tank so space was an issue with using 2 by 4's.

Heres the steel stand i had made for me
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[slayer]

My next problem was that i love metal halides and saw all the hype about lumenbrights. I read all the articles about the height of canopies required for these reflectors (thankx lee). With the ideal height being around 20 inches i needed a tall canopy to house these monsters. The canopy did not need to be made using heavy high gauge steel as the stand. (the back of the canopy is facing front in the pic).
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[slayer]

This will be my 7th tank build and i have made many mistakes over the years. This time round I wanted a canopy that would allow me full access to the tank, rather then going through some small doors on the front panel. So again envious of jesse's tank i decided that i would use actuators to lift the whole canopy up from the top of the tank, exposing only the metal frame in the above pic. I had pins welded onto the canopy frame where i could attach actuators and had a top frame also made which would lift up from the canopy frame. The top frame would eventually be attached to the wood finish and lighting. Thus when the top frame lifted it would lift the wood casing and lighting allowing me full access from the top of the tank.

The top frame
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[slayer]

Thankx david, I thought about doing the same but with me losing another 6 to 8 inches of space to accomodate the overflows my living room would not exist as the tank would take up all the space. lol..

Tebriel im not going to paint, im thinking about making a live rock wall. Stay posted for pics.

Next its time for the metal to get powder coated....

 

[1mbrews8]

Hey jamie, good to see you back on here. Hope all is well.
Mike in forsyth

 

[sprayin70]

Lookin good bro!

 

[platyplakia]

Hey man! Glad to see you aren't gonna go with that tiny 200 gal you were thinking about. Go big, or go home, right? I have a question though. Are you at all worried about evaporation in an apartment? Specificly condensation on windows and such. Are you gonna run a dehumidifier?

 

[ga-peaches72]

You are not worried about the saltwater eating the metal frame? I was told you could not have a metal frame with our kind of tanks.

 

[FutureInterest]

Wow. Very nice Jaime.

 

[george]

Beauty tank. With 3' of front to back depth, you can create some amazing aquascaping.

What did you use for "rock" on the mold? Looks like sand mixed with something.

 

[FutureInterest]

It's gotta be portland cement.

 

[slayer]

jaime- i was planning to use an exhaust fan in the canopy and vent the air to the outside (just dont tell my apartment manager bout the holes in his walls)

gapeaches- yeap bare metal stands will corode, thats why im getting the frames powder coated.

george- its diy rock made from 1 part portland # 3 cement and 3 parts aragonite sand.

thiago - theres grills cut out in the tank at that level so if the overflows at the top are ever block with ie algae, the vents at the bottom will continue to take in water to the overflows so the tank wont overflow