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Midnight

Midnight's 300g Build Some Parts and Stand draft

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Midnight
, 02-26-2012 at 09:48 PM (2829 Views)
Last Thursday we closed on the new house in Charlotte. The family and I went to the mountains of NC for the weekend and I snuck down to the Atlanta Reef Club for their frag swap and presentations. The swap was great, lots of fraggers and some vendors with their products up on display. Not only were they there to help explain their products but many of them contributed to the raffle. The presentations were on sumps, plumbing, and aquascaping. Marc Levenson spent about two hours on his topic of sumps and plumbing and then he teamed up with Scott Fellman for the talk on aquascaping. I finally figured out what he meant by providing a acrylic support for his rocks, he owes us an article on this.



Last week I had ordered a couple of things from the equipment list that I didn't already have.

The fist was 4 Stunner Strips from http://www.ecoxotic.com/. These arrived fast and well packed. I ordered 4 of the 36" blue with magenta strips that will be used in place of florescent actinic supplementation. I have unpacked one of these to test over my current tank once the other lights go out.





The other item I ordered was the Boosted RODI unit from http://www.melevsreef.com/shop/index.html. This unit is not stolen as it implies, but, rather It has a pump to help it produce more water and makes it more efficient. The efficiency will be more important at the new house since I will have to pay for water. This is not as well packed as an Ecotech pump but it gets the job done and keeps costs down.







Lastly I have been battling, it seems, with my LFS and their Stand guy. They want to build my stand just like they have built every other stand they have done. And I want them to build it my way. Not only can we not agree on the design but also the materials used. I am also finding out that of the three other people with custom steel stands, they are wanting to charge me about twice what the others have paid.

This is the Stand they want to build.



If you notice it using 1/8" material and angle iron. I want them to use 1/4" tubular steal all the way around. I am also not happy with all the cross bracing. I don't mind a gusset in the corners, but the cross bracing is atrocious.
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Comments

  1. melev's Avatar
    What are your other options to getting the stand welded and powder coated? What about contacting a welding shop directly? I can dig up more pictures of my stand for you to show them.

    Nice to see you at the frag swap this weekend, Michael.
  2. blakew's Avatar
    Congrats on closing on your house.

    Looks like you picked up some goodies. I'll be interested to see how the leds work for supplemental/actinic lighting. One of the "knocks" I've read about the AI Sol led's I've planned for my upgrade is they need something more in the red spectrum. One of those magenta and white strips may be just the trick.
  3. Midnight's Avatar
    Marc, I think that will be the next step if they don't come back in the next response with something acceptable. I did give them a deposit up front to get the ball rolling, however, that was in good faith that they were going to build me what I want. i can live with their pricing if I can have what I want. In Charlotte, the lack of great store selection puts this store on top. But it doesn't compare to any of the stores that I have seen elsewhere that I would consider great.

    Blakew, I hooked up just one of the LED strips last night with all the other lights off and it looked amazing. I have never seen the red and yellow corals pop before.
  4. Midnight's Avatar
    Well I think it is official! Neither of us really want to work together on this project anymore. /sad face



    Michael Wade
    		10:18 PM (11 minutes ago)
    to Greg




    Please just apply towards the tank.

    Sent from my iPhone

    On Feb 27, 2012, at 10:00 PM, "Greg Sowers" <    greg@fintastic.us> wrote:


    Michael,

    If you wish us to handle the stand, it will be $2,633 FOB Fintastic plus tax. The below is from Mark that details the project proposal:
    I can build a stand just like he has suggested in the photo with no open tube ends, essentially two identical mitered frames, one top with two additional cross members in the center of the frame, and one bottom frame with no cross members in the center, with four legs at the corners welded in between the two frames, with the additional hangers needed for the walk board, and a walk board with two support members that will be inserted into the hangers for support. The walk board support members will be made from stainless steel 1"x2"x1/8", and the walk board itself will be constructed from plywood coated in polyurethane. The stand will be powder coated with a poly coated double OSB flooring top for a thickness of 1 1/2". The top will be screwed down. The overall dimensions of the completed stand will be 30" deep x 72 1/4" long x 48" high. The stand will weigh approximately 425 pounds. The difference in price is due to several reasons, one - more steel more cost, two - more steel more labor time in cutting, grind beveling ends for welding and drilling to mount the top, three - it's a lot heavier and takes more man power/labor to move and deal with, and finally more heat time for powder coat to get piece to temperature.

    Please let me know if we are to start this stand or do I apply your deposit only to the tank?

    Greg Sowers

    <image001.jpg>
    2135-C Ayrsley Town Blvd.
    Charlotte, NC 28273
    www.fintastic.us
    704.525.0049 ext. *828




    This means that I get to go hunting for a welder, however it should be much cheaper than the quote above.
  5. melev's Avatar
    Why not have my guy make it and ship it up there? I doubt it would be half of that quote, and he's made it before.
  6. Midnight's Avatar
    Marc, if you could ask him and find out what freight would cost? You should have my address, but if you need it I'll email it to ya. I found a website of a guy here in Charlotte, I am gonna see what he says. I have a feeling he'll be more reasonable, but if he's not then I might have a made in Texas stand.
  7. melev's Avatar
    I called in for a price for the stand itself. If we can get an estimate of the weight, we can figure out shipping ourselves.

    Btw, you don't want mitered seams, you want strong welded butt-connections as far as I know. Those corners are key to the strength.
  8. Midnight's Avatar
    Marc, if you look closely at your stand, your top and bottom frames look like they are mitered and welded together to make it seamless. The uprights and then welded to the top and bottom frames like you would imagine. I think yours is mitered from looking at the picture, the rounded edges meet at the very corner.

    Two questions though, are you using http://premiumaquatics.com/aquatic-s...03816LR20.html or http://premiumaquatics.com/aquatic-s...E03616R30.html

    Also did you order all your black fittings from Savko?
  9. melev's Avatar
    Got you a price, I'll PM it to you. I checked the corners to see if they were mitered, but I really can't tell.

    The black plumbing fittings came from Savko.com and flexpvc.com

    The sand was 30lb bags of Reeflakes.