Blog Comments

frankly with 2 over flows if they're going to the same section in the sump their height is only marginally important at being perfect...

You said it yourself... you're looking for 700gph flow... so 1 smaller box will cover it....

Consider that 2nd smaller overflow your emergency drain when something bad goes down... if it's a slight bit higher then oh well, just means less chance of it being clogged when your primary overflow fails to do it's job

Originally Posted by DJ in WV

Looking good phil. Shop? Looks like a hanger wish i had someplace that size to work.

Yes I live in a hangar with a small apartment on top. Check out my photo gallary titled "My other Hobby" under my profile.

Phil,

I spray painted the back of mine 2 colors from HD, Brilliant Blue (gloss) and Lagoon (Satin), no specific patterns. I attempted it the 1st time thru with the tank upright and all the paint ran, so I had to flip it on its side so to speak and then the paint didnt run. I'll post a seperate thread with pix as I cant add them here. A.

Looking good phil. Shop? Looks like a hanger wish i had someplace that size to work.

After soaking for 2 days most of the crud just wiped off. A razor scraper made short work of the rest. So no, not too much elbow grease.

A little bit of elbow grease? Dont you mean a lot of elbow grease?

Looks much better cleaned out. Keep up the good work.

There was a 300 gal blog here a while back that was painted dark blue on the bottom fading to sky blue at the top. I'm going to try and do something like that.

Hey Phil, lookin good! Personnally I would refinish it since you're going to make a hood for it anyway .............. easier then to get them to match. What color are you going to paint the back, that's something I'm starting to think about on my 60" tank.

Hat, I'd love to have a full reef this size, and will probably eventually get there, but for now I just don't want to spend the time and money. Too many other irons in the fire right now.

It cleaned up nicely Phil, good job! I say refinish it. Everything else is getting redone, shoot go for it. And, go for the reef, ya know ya want it! ;-)

Thanks. Since I do live in an earthquake zone I'm going to fill in the back with a sheet of plywood to give it some additional shear support. I'm also debating whether or not to refinish it, or use it as is. I do plan to make a matching hood though.

Looking Good, That stand looks like the same type that I have underneath my 120gal. Amazing that those designs can hold the weight.
Aaron

Thanks. You too. Be sure and contribute with your own build blog with LOTS OF PICTURES!

Sounds great, Phil. Enjoy your new project!!!!!

Michael, good suggestion. I'm actually planning to cut out the carpet under the tank and lay down an 8' peice of 3/4" ply. My floor trusses are on 24" centers so I want to try and distribute the weight across 5 of them. My Structural Engineer also suggested, that for my own peace of mind I could put doublers on the top cord of the 5 trusses supporting the weight. That won't be too hard so I'm going to go ahead and do it.

Originally Posted by Alaska_Phil

Thanks all. I'm honestly not sure what direction I'm going to go with it. I wasn't looking for a big tank, was actually hoping to score a 75. So I really don't have much idea what to do as far as landscaping and livestock yet. A few things I do know, it'll have fairly large sump with skimmer, algae scrubber and possibly a refugium with live rock rubble. I plan to use 2 part dosing and will most likely go with T5 lighting.

Lilrodyreefer: It's going on a second floor, and I was worried about the weight too. But my floor structure is accessible, so I gave the details to one of the structural engineers I work with and he said it would be fine, as long as I locate the tank across the trusses so the weight is carried by several. And he gave me some ideas for reinforcements for my own peace of mind. If you think about it, it's the same cross section as my 65, just longer, so it's the same weight per floor truss, just spread over more trusses. Fun part will be getting it up the 2 flights of stairs in the first place.

Hello Phil,

I'm new at this hobby. I'm currently building a 180g reef tank. Melev made my sump and I plan to have the tank delivered to me in March or April.

Since I'm putting the tank in my dining room, and since there is a basement under the dining room, had a structural engineer inspect my home. All is well with the joists that will be under the tank. The engineer did make one recommendation that sounds good to me - he said that since the wooden stand will be placed on carpet, I should put a sheet of 3/4" exterior grade plywood (stained + exterior-grade oil-based polyurethane) between carpet and stand. His reasoning is: the plywood will more evenly distribute the weight, and if I have to tap-in a shim (or shims) to level the tank, it will put less stress on the stand if I tap the shim between carpet and plywood. I gave this a good bit of thought and I'm going to do it. I cut the plywood so that 1" of it shows all the way around the stand (that is, the cut plywood is 2" wider and 2" longer than the stand).

I've received so much great info and guidance from Melev and this site, I'm trying to "contribute" where I can. Maybe this will help you.

Update: The tank is home and set up in the hangar for a leak check. Funny, it doesn't seem that large in there. It's -23F out today, so by the time we got it home in the back of the truck it was pretty icy. As I started to fill it, ice formed on the sides everywhere the water touched. At one point I though it had a pretty major leak, turned out to be the ice melting off the sides where I'd splashed some. LOL

Hey Phil, check out: http://www.reefaddicts.com/bookstore.php ;-)

So can anyone recommend a good book on reef safe fish? I have a couple good references on corals, but none on fish.

nice thats good to hear man. good luck with everything and keep us posted on pics cant wait to see the tank when its in.