Custom Cabinet for 90g Reef (Build Thread)

[H20ENG]

Lookin good.
I think those vortech motors get pretty warm. Do you have enough clearance and ventilation?
Use that fancy jigsaw and cut a big hole for your bulkhead nuts. Someday you'll thank yourself

[jmpreef]

Beautiful work! So if we can learn from your choices, you would have chosen birch and do you think it would be a smart presanding and sealing after cutting the major parts? Maybe even sanding and sealing the whole sheets of plywood before cutting?
Once again nice work and quite an inspiration.

[RedEDGE2k1]

Originally posted by jmpreef
So if we can learn from your choices, you would have chosen birch and do you think it would be a smart presanding and sealing after cutting the major parts? Maybe even sanding and sealing the whole sheets of plywood before cutting?

DEFINITELY would have used birch....the cabinet would have been completed long ago if I had.

As far as sanding/sealing before assembling...no, I don't think so. Running saws along the wood panels would have scuffed up the smooth sufaces, wood glue would need to be sanded off in some areas (I'm not even sure wood glue bonds with the sealer, I'm sure it prefers bare wood), and a lot of sanding sealer & sanding labor would be wasted because half of the cabinet doesn't get those treatments. So, it would be one more headache during the build, keeping up with good/bad faces of ply, which panels to seal/sand, etc.

In the long run, I think it's less trouble to just do it one step at a time.

[RedEDGE2k1]

I'm addicted to Marine Depot....love that website. Just placed an order for an AquaController Jr w/ DC8, two Jager 200w heaters, and a dual R2 moonlight system.

I had the Neptune Systems 2-LED controllable/dimmable moonlight setup in my shopping cart....but the $80 price tag was bothering me. Also, I think I'll want my moonlights on all the time (when the MHs are off, that is) anyway, so the lunar cycle function isn't worth it IMO.

Should get these new toys mid next week, hopefully around the time the cabinet is painted and ready to go in the living room. I'll wire up my metal halides, T5s, and moonlights....and get the ACJr hardware mounted in the cabinet along with some standard power outlets from Home Depot for non-controlled devices, such as the UV bulb/pump.

[RedEDGE2k1]

Originally posted by H20ENG
I think those vortech motors get pretty warm. Do you have enough clearance and ventilation?

There is 3" of clearance; the motor housing is ~2.5". Heat shouldn't be a concern, because

a) I don't plan to keep them turned all the way up, as they're kinda loud at full power

b) The entire side of the tank has 3" of clearance, so there's plenty of space for heat to rise up and away from the motor housing.

The unit has an auto-shutoff feature if the temperature gets too high, so if the pump starts turning itself off after everything is in place, then I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Solution would simply be a fan blowing on the unit from inside the cabinet.

[swjim]

I just finished reading through this thread. It's a really great project, you've done an incredible job. I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of the finished project with the stocked tank over the next few months.

Once again, great job!

[stan the man]

Given that you are placing this on the second floor...I was wondering if you have any advice on checking for how much load can be placed on second floor aquarium installations. I am contemplating a 135/150 gallon in a bonus room over the garage...
By the way, thanks for such a great and detailed post. I want to do my cabinet like this one, and now I have a receipe to follow!

[gary faulkner]

stan the man



[welcome]

[RedEDGE2k1]

Originally posted by stan the man
Given that you are placing this on the second floor...I was wondering if you have any advice on checking for how much load can be placed on second floor aquarium installations. I am contemplating a 135/150 gallon in a bonus room over the garage...

As long as your tank sits close (within a foot or so) of a load bearing wall, you'll be fine. Modern floors will hold any standard sized tank....and I say "standard size" in hopes of preventing any sarcastic responses mentioning 1500g custom tanks.

And speaking of modern floors....if your house is 100yrs old, even better. They built houses like fortresses back in the day. Might have to level it out with some shims, however....floors sag over time.

[gary faulkner]

Originally posted by stan the man
Given that you are placing this on the second floor...I was wondering if you have any advice on checking for how much load can be placed on second floor aquarium installations. I am contemplating a 135/150 gallon in a bonus room over the garage...
By the way, thanks for such a great and detailed post. I want to do my cabinet like this one, and now I have a receipe to follow!

You really need to know what size the floor joists are. Some bonus rooms are not even strong enough for storage. Best get it checked out by someone knowledgeable about floor loads. Structural engineer or licensed General Contractor.

HTH

[RedEDGE2k1]

I spent last weekend using 320-grit sand paper and a sanding block smoothing out the sanding sealer. I couldn't use my power sander, because it was too powerful and would go right through the layer of sealer. This was a loooooong process....and again I was kicking myself for not using birch plywood in the beginning, which would have saved me from this freakin headache.



As you can imagine, after all that labor I was sick of dealing with the finishing process...so I decided to take a break from it and work on installing electrical outlets/switches in the cabinet. I purchased all the electrical components at Lowe's.



I started by measuring/cutting a rectangular panel to go inside the bottom-left cabinet. Note there is about 3" of space left above this panel, allowing cables and whatnot to run behind the panel and through the hole drilled at the top-back of the cabinet and into the sump area.



I traced out a hole pattern to cut, to accomodate two 4-gang boxes w/ coverplates.



I cut the holes out with a jig saw.

[RedEDGE2k1]

I used 12-gauge heavy duty extension cord for the wiring, as it's more flexible and easier to work with than Romex.



I used four GFI receptacles in case one ever trips, it will only turn off two devices, not everything in the setup. This peace of mind was well worth the extra money, IMO. I only installed 8 outlets because I will be also be using an Aqua Controller Jr with a DC8 module, which has an additional 8 controllable outlets. This gives me a total of 15 outlets to work with (the DC8 module takes up the 16th outlet). This is enough for what I plan on running, with outlets to spare.



The four GFI outlets are connected to one-way switches, allowing me to turn off devices at the flip of a switch.



The extension cord is stranded copper, so I had to use wire nuts to connect everything. The completed wiring was a mess!



....but it all fits down into the deep electrical box easily.





Test fitting everything in the cabinet....



My two IceCap ballasts and T5 ballast will be installed behind the electrical panel, underneath the gang boxes.



At this point the electrical panel was complete, so time for testing. I used a house fan to check the functionality of each outlet, as well as the GFI test/reset buttons. Everything worked!



And finally, the painted electrical panel.

[RedEDGE2k1]

This week I've been spending an hour or two each day after work priming/painting the cabinet. At this point, everything is finished except the cabinet doors, which have only been primed so far. I'll finish painting them tomorrow (maybe ).

Primer



Semi-Gloss Paint





My finishing sequence has been as follows:

1) Power sander, 220-grit
2) Skimcoat entire cabinet with Elmer's Wood Filler (water added)
3) Hand sand, 220-grit
4) Apply one coat Minwax Sanding Sealer
5) Hand sand, 320-grit
6) Apply one coat Sherwin Williams "Pro-Block" acrylic primer
7) Hand sand, 320-grit
8) Apply one coat Sherwin Williams acrylic semi-gloss white paint

I will probably add a second coat of paint, but I haven't quite made up my mind yet. At this point I'm just sick of painting.

[cannarella]

Beautiful paint finish in that last picture.

[stan the man]

Man, that's one beautiful looking stand!
Don't feel too bad...I'm painting my house! Hoping to be in your shoes give or take a year, but still planning the tank itself on paper.
Think I will stick with a location on the ground floor--easier to reinforce the joists from the crawlspace. My bonus room's walls are actually just knee walls tied into the roof joists, so it'd be pretty tough to change anything.
Now I just have to sell my wife on the idea of an aquarium/china cabinet in the dining room...

[cannarella]

Toss the china and get a bigger aquarium.

[FUA]

your wiring job is neat and logical. I really need to do something like this as my current wiring set-up just on my 10g is embarrassing.

[jmait769]

Very nice RedEDGE2k1! Your planning and foresight are paying off. Following along makes me want to build another stand!

Jay

[RedEDGE2k1]

The cabinet is now fully painted. Over the last several days, I took my time and finished the cabinet doors, as well as some second coat touch-ups where it was needed.

I put a bead of white caulking around the sump area, to help keep any spills from leaking onto the hardwood floor underneath the cabinet. It's probably hard to see in the picture, but here's one anyway for good measure.



I installed my two IceCap metal halide ballasts to the backside of the power panel. There was no room left for the Advance T5 ballast (it's long and skinny) on the panel, so I attached it to the inside of the cabinet with two screws. Notice the four unpainted poplar blocks behind the panel -- these are the attachment points for the power panel. These blocks are screwed to the cabinet, and the power panel is screwed to the blocks. This will allow me to remove the power panel from the front, if ever need be.



View from the front, showing the array of gadgets. The Vortech controller, DC8, and AquaController Jr all fit nicely. The AquaController is attached with velcro, in case I ever want to remove it for easier use/programming.



I wired the lights with heavy duty extension cord from Lowe's. I left enough length in the cord to allow the top to be removed without disconnecting the lights.



The lights are wired to the ballasts with homemade quick-disconnects -- simply the male/female extension cord ends. This will allow the top section to be removed and totally disconnected from the bottom section without removing the lights, if the need ever arises (moving, etc.)

[RedEDGE2k1]

Here you can see the layout of the T5s and metal halides. After this picture was taken, I moved the metal halides closer together. For whatever reason, I originally mounted them too far apart. After the correction, the bulb centers are now 1'4" apart, and 1'4" from the sides of the tank....basically, they're now properly centered over each side of the tank.



I drilled holes in the light panel and ran wires from the sockets up through the holes. This kept things looking neat.



The wires leave the light panel through four 3/8" holes, where they are connected to the extension cords with wire nuts.

[RedEDGE2k1]

2x54w Actinics only





2x54w Actinics + 2x250w AB 10k Metal Halides





My last bit of work this weekend was getting started on the moonlights. I say getting started, because I ended up calling it a night before I finished installing these. these are "R2 Dual Moonlights", purchased from Marine Depot.



Each unit houses five LEDs, with each one tilted to spread the light out over a wide area.





It will take some thought as to how to install these...I would like them to be centered, like the metal halides are, so they would cover the tank with moonlight nicely. This isn't possible, because I can't mount them near the metal halides out of fear of melting the plastic. I think I will cut some oak stock to fit in the mogul base standoff bracket, and screw the moonlight units to the wood. This would place them only about 6" off center, and away from the brunt of the metal halide's heat.



Your advice is welcomed!

[RumLad]

Well it's about time we got an update RE21K!
I thought you may have just given up, with all that hand sanding and turned it into a fancy workbench or something

As usual your forethought is paying off with a very professional end result. It should give years of trouble free service.

Cheers, now lets get a tank and some water on that beast. (There is still going to be a reef installed right? The better half isn't trying to staore the good china in there now, is she?)

[RedEDGE2k1]

Come on, only six days between updates!

In other news....I had to return the two 200w Jager heaters I bought from Marine Depot, because they are NOT fully submersible as the website description claims. Maybe some of their models are, but these are NOT.

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_viewIt...ct~EJ1119.html

When I called to get an RMA # for the return, the Marine Depot rep even argued with me a little bit....until I opened the box and read the instruction manual to him where it clearly states "CAUTION....do not submerge below water line."

Anywho...any advice on two good heaters for ~$30 each?

[cannarella]

I am a fan of the stealth heaters.

[RedEDGE2k1]

The 250w stealth is only rated up to 75g? Weird....

Will two be enough for my 90g w/ 20g sump?