So when i wanted to start a saltwater tank, first things first is that i already had a tank.... but i had nothing to put it on.... I searched a lot of places for a stand but they were expensive as all get out... so i built one, with the help of my father in law who is a master carpenter and journey level contractor ofcourse :) plus he gets great deals on building materials.. Here is the construction phase, i do have a finished picture but it was on my phone that is now in the pacific ocean.. So when i get home i'll take a picture of the finished stand.
Kman's tank
- Thread starter KMan
- Start date
Here is the final stand pictures with the tank on it.. the tank i'll be using is a 55ga long TruVu Acrylic tank. It was setup for an over the top set up, but i'm going to plumb it properly and do a overflow box inside on the back left corner inside the tank and just drill in bulkheads and such.
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motorcyclereefer
I am Graffiti Petey
Yay! Another build thread!
Waddi
Shenanigans?
Looking good!
ErinCahir
Sausage Wrangler
LOVE the tile in the top!
little_fish
Moderator
Looks good!
You might consider trying to find a glass tank, acrylic scratches so easily that it can quickly become ruined in a saltwater tank.
You might consider trying to find a glass tank, acrylic scratches so easily that it can quickly become ruined in a saltwater tank.
Thanks everyone very much! The tiles are called a black sand granite, it's very beautiful indeed. My issue i'm going to run into is if i should do PVC for the plumbing or a flex tube, if i did PVC to limit the amount of bends in the piping i would have to push the tank all the way to the back.. thoughts?
Yes i've found that it does scratch very easy.. But before i put sand or anything in it, i'm going to resurface the acrylic to make it look like new. I'll probably get glass and i'll probably just build one.
little_fish
Moderator
I think you will be much better off getting the glass now. Its a major pain to move a tank and even the sand will scrape the acrylic
So i've added the plumbing, although nothing is sealed to the tank yet or i haven't cleaned the excess off the pipes, this is just a mockup of what it will look like once the final touches are on it... i wanna test it and make sure it's all gravy before i have a what the french toast moment.. -
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So today, i finished up all of the mock plumbing and i'll be making some changes in the back area and I have some concerns with the return i havn't figured out yet.. 1 being that the Pump has an 1/2" out barb, and my tank is set up for 3/4", I can figure something out eventually but i'm afraid of losing a bunch of pressure due to friction. Anywhere I've painted the back of my tank a flat black and now i'm just waiting on it to cure and i'll put the plumbing back on and get the tank plumbed and ready to go! Oh yeah and my refugium came in today :) :^:
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So i've added more stuff.. my refugium came in, and then i've also sealed the inside of the stand, lights came in and they are Coralife T5's with Lunar. Only thing i'm waiting on is the reefkeeper controller unit, then i'll be ready for some rock/sand and start cycling. I've adjusted the return as when i had the tank sitting on the back side of the stand i just didn't like the look of it... so i extended the back of the return so my return line wouldn't kink.
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little_fish
Moderator
how many bulbs does the coralife t5 light have? It might not be enough to keep corals.
2 x 10,000k 65W
2 x Actinic 65w
4 x Lunar LED
*i think* my tank is not that deep i think my tank dimensions are.. well i'll measure when i get home in the morning..
these were used on my brother tank and he had the same size and worked just fine for him.. he upgraded to some $1500 light system
little_fish
Moderator
that should be good for a variety of corals :)
I hope so, my next step is to prep the acrylic and sand and polish. It can be a handful but a respirator, Hand sander, buffing wheel an about 2 hours and it will look like new :) I'm going to build a glass aquarium for a friend as a quarantine tank so it will e good practice for me. Im looking at some dry live rock today from a dive buddy of mine who gets rock. Im at that 90% mark and I'm ready to fill this sucker already
Not sure those are T5's, they look like Power Compacts to me. :question:
