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  1. Hanging the Radion fixture

    With the 60g on the stand, leveled and positioned near the wall - I left a small gap behind the tank to avoid salt-creep damage to the sheetrock - I needed to determine where to hang the Radion LED fixture over the tank. Using a 4' level, I placed it across the tank and set the light fixture on top. This permitted measuring the fixture from all four sides to get it centered. Hence, I was able to ascertain the distance from the rear wall and the right wall precisely for the hanging kit.
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    Categories
    Lighting
  2. Silicone the overflow into the 60g cube and plumbed

    In a previous blog ( link ) I explained how I was securing the internal overflow to the base of the AGE tank. Well, even though it might have worked perfectly, my paranoia gene was flaring up and I kept thinking about how a leak from the base of the aquarium would require a full breakdown to correct the problem. Rather than just hoping for the best, I bought a tube of Aquarium-Safe silicone at Home Depot and applied it to the base of the box and reinstalled it.

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    Categories
    Plumbing
  3. Strengthening the steel stand

    After placing the 60g AGE tank on the Ez-Tube steel stand ( link ), I didn't feel comfortable with how it seemed to jiggle with minimal touch. It was empty, but the tank is heavy enough that it takes two people to place it on the stand. Water, sand and rock would add 600 lbs easily, and there's little doubt it would be even worse over time. Even cleaning the glass with a cleaning magnet would probably be concerning, so I decided to add some wood panels to the stand to limit racking. Plywood ...

    Updated 11-04-2013 at 03:29 PM by melev

    Tags: eztube
    Categories
    Equipment
  4. Visited an impressive tank, Basso System

    Yesterday I visited a famous Brazilian veteran aquarist, Mr Joao Basso, he's been in the hobby for some 40 years now (much like Paul B), and in his recent years has experimented a lot with new tank formats and other DIY projects.

    One of his recent inventions, about 2 to 3 years ago, is a tank system that has no visible overflow nor return, no visible pumps, uses a small return pump (aquarium volume turnover once per hour), looks super hyper clean and has incredible flow using a closed ...

    Updated 11-02-2013 at 05:46 PM by snorkeler (Typo)

    Tags: basso, tank build
    Categories
    Tank Entry , ‎ Random Thoughts
  5. 60g: Black vinyl applied

    Tonight, I applied the black vinyl sheet to the back of the 60g. The back pane of the tank is 24" wide and 24" tall, and the piece of vinyl was larger than that.

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    I cleaned the back of the tank with Windex and newspaper since that doesn't leave lint or smudges. Next, a spray bottle was filled up with tap water with a drop of Dawn dish detergent. I sprayed the back of the tank to get the entire surface wet.

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    Tags: vinyl
    Categories
    Tank Entry