250 Gallon room-divider project log

[jthnhale]

speaking of keeping the tank cool, and canopy's.
I just made a new hood and used three fans.
they are doing an amazing job of keeping the tank at 78.
I have two blowing in, one on each end, and one on top
blowing the air out. I went with the 4" ice caps.
for lights there are two 175 mh, and four 64w pc's.
without the fans the tank will run in the low 80's.
this was my first fan experience, I was surprised how well they
work. No need for a chiller until the summer.

[jeffbrig]

Fliger, glad I could help. I think the quality cabinetry adds so much to the look of a big tank, especially when building it to match the decor. I've never been a fan of the basic LFS stands, especially the low ones for big tanks. The top of the granite on my stand is at 43" . As for my canopy, I have similar cabinetry doors for it, 18" tall. The canopy will have an open top to avoid heat buildup, and I can put fans up there as needed.

Between an early Valentine's date with the wife, and trying to wrap up the kitchen work (sink plumbed, dishwasher plumbed, knobs and pulls installed, undercabinet lighting installed), I didn't get to touch the aquarium this weekend. It's still sitting in the garage, and the stand still needs to be shimmed level. The current plan is to finish the prep work tomorrow evening, and bring the tank in on Tuesday. I'll hold off on new pics till then.

We have family in town next weekend, so I'd REALLY like to have the tank and canopy in place by Friday.

Stay tuned!

[jeffbrig]

The tank is IN:



The tank weighs approx. 350 lbs. With 4 guys it was pretty easy to carry it in and get it up on the stand. I leveled the stand with large pieces of 3/16" hardboard placed underneath instead of small shims (this helps distribute the weight better). I'll add the toe kick and get the canopy build by Saturday at the latest.

[jthnhale]

that is Sweet
It's going to be one great looking reef.
Tell your wife your going to have to move that one curtain
in the back. it's blocking part of the tank

[Generic]

Did you manage to get it leveled out? How did you do it?

Murdock

[jeffbrig]

generic, yep it's perfectly level using big strips of hardboard. I edited my post above while you were posting this

[sixxer]

Looking Good!!!!!

[original-reefland]

That is sooo nice.

[ohioreef]

That is awesome!! Can't wait to see the final product!!!

[Sh0gun]

Sweet!! Godd Luck with the rest of the setup.

[beaver]

Now that's SMOKIN

[triplecrown]

you wife must love your handyman skills
cant wait to see it up and running

[Stile2]

You must have a vrey cool wife. ACtually my wife wants a tank that divides two rooms like yours, but that will have to wait for the next house.

[jeffbrig]

I got a few PMs about leveling the stand, so I'll post some more detail abut what I did there.

My stand has a flat plywood bottom, so there's a greater need to shore up the entire bottom instead of just the perimeter as in other stand designs. I chose this flat bottom design to maximize storage space (and height) under the stand.

I ran to Lowes the other night and bought a 4x8 sheet of hardboard 3/16" thick. I had them cut it making three 30" x 48" pieces so I could fit it in the car (30" happens to be the width of my stand, so this was no accident). Once home, I ripped each of these into 30"x10" pieces, with some 30"x8" left over. The dimensions don't really matter, you're just trying to make manageable pieces that you can work with.

Since the hardboard was only 3/16" thick, I knew I needed two of them stacked on the low end to raise it to level. Since a heavy stand with a granite slab is about impossible to lift (unless you're an NFL linebacker), I used an automotive floor jack and a piece of scrap 2x4 to raise the low end off the ground. (Disclaimer: don't attempt this by yourself, the jack will want to roll under the weight of the tank, so have a helper to position the shims). My wife put the 2 pieces under that end of the stand and I lowered the jack. Now the stand was suspended between the high point and my giant 'shim' at the opposite end.

I then went to town sliding more hardboard under the stand to fill the gaps in the middle. Use 1 or more pieces as needed based on the height of the gap. If I couldn't slide a piece all the way under because the gap was uneven side to side, I simply marked it and cut it off so the edges would be flush. Once I had gone all the way around the stand and crammed as much hardboard in there as possible, I switched to tapered wood shims to make sure everything was nice and tight. Check the level from end to end and side to side periodically while doing this, you may find you're moving it as you work the shims in.

Once all of the shims were broken/cut off, the final step was to apply the toe kick moldings for a nice finished look:


I put one of the canopy doors on top so you can get an idea what the finished product will look like. I'll start working on the canopy tomorrow, should have it ready this weekend. Also, still need to do some fine tuning adjustments on the door hinges and add the handles.

Edit: I just noticed you can see some of my leftover shimming materials on the floor by the tank. That should help give a better idea of what I was doing.

I have a ceiling guy coming by tomorrow morning to popcorn the ceiling (note the bare strip over the tank where the wall used to be). The tank is covered by a foam sheet to keep dust out while I'm working, but it will also be covered in drop-cloths before any painting is done.

[Mantis806]

beautiful! simply gorgeous. are your doors made of solid wood? what kind of wood is it? i'm going to start a stand project and i'm trying to find a nice wood to use. looks like a really fun project. goodluck!

[jeffbrig]

I'm surprise no one has noticed the mini-stonehenge inside the tank. My wife thought it would be cute to put it there while it's sitting empty. I hope she realizes it's coming out when the water goes in...

I really appreciate everyone's compliments on this whole project. It's been a lot of work, but it finally feels like it's getting somewhere.

I have 2 boxes arriving fom Marine Depot tomorrow, primarily MH lighting. I'll go over the equipment more in the near future when I start unpacking and setting stuff up.

Mantis, everything you see on the outside is solid maple, purchased pre-finished from kraftmaid cabinetry.

Originally posted by triplecrown
you wife must love your handyman skills

We do pretty good in the home improvement department (the new kitchen is a testament to that). I really don't think it's any particular skill, just a combination of basic experience/knowledge of working with the tools and problem solving skills for when things go wrong, and believe me, they always do.....

[reef-guy101]

mind if I tag along? I'm planning on adding a room dividing tank to my kitchen/living room myself, and your experience here has been invaluble!!!! That setup though is....WOW..... Love the custom stand, I'm in the process of finishing my basement were a 75 gal custom in-wall setup will be going, but that doesnt even compare to that piece of art! GREAT WORK!!! Keep us updated!

[Data]

I will also tag along on this one, great job so far, if you need a helping hand, let me know, I'm also in Fort Lauderdale.

you know that big al's is opening their first US store in our area right now?
timing for you looks good on this one

big al's info

[jeffbrig]

Data, wow, that should be a pretty cool LFS when it's complete! It looks enormous (40k gallons of livestock displays). If its a quality operation with good people, this could be a great place to buy livestock from.

[Data]

when I started buying "stuff" for my aquarium, I did a lot of price comparisons and ended up ordering everything from big als.
shortly after I found out they're building a store in our neighborhood.
I'm absolutely 100% happy with everything I got from them and the service, shipping time etc. was excellent.

btw, maybe one day I get to see your aquarium in person.
I live in fort lauderdale isles (bimini lane) how about you?
if you need info about any lfs, just ask me, there are tons around and I visited all of them, but there are only a couple of good once.

[jeffbrig]

I live in Plantation. Love to hear your recommendations about LFS, especially who has the best corals. I've been to a few near me, aquacon (MarineLife USA) is probably the best I've seen so far for corals and they also have some ORA tank-raised livestock. I haven't really price shopped yet, just looking for a good selection. Still haven't seen anything that blows my socks off, like some of the pics people post on this site!!

I spoke with one of my co-workers (another reef guy) who has shopped at Big Als north of the border (I had no clue he was Canadian). He said up there they leaned a bit towards freshwater, but who knows how the local store will be set up.

[Simms142]

Very nicely done....

[Data]

aquacon? Ohh, I think that's the one on university and 50th (just south of commercial)
I didn't like it much.

beverly's is one you might want to check out, they have two stores.

Pembroke Pines
SW Corner of Pines Blvd. & University Dr.
8356 Pines Blvd.
Pembroke Pines, FL 33024
(954) 322-1112

and in

Coral Springs
NE Corner of Ramblewood Dr.
& University Dr.
1299 N. University Dr.
Coral Springs, FL 33071
(954) 255-PETS

and then there is a small one, but IMO they have the best life rock,

Reef Life Inc
(954) 983-2663
5925 Ravenswood Rd
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312


I'll be gone for the weekend and be back on monday, if you have any more questions I'll answer them when I'm back.

[IMPERATORFAN]

Very nice! Granite and acrylic makes a lot of sense. Is your canopy going to rest squarely on top like you've demo'd or is it going to overlap the side of the tank?

Looking forward to watching the progress on this one.

BTW ... beautiful doors ... well worth the expense IMO since the tank is right there by the kitchen.

Scot

[jeffbrig]

Thanks Scot, I espcially appreciate that coming from you. The thread documenting the construction of your stand was one of the things that inspired me to build a 'furniture grade' stand.

Data, I'll have to check out Reef Life. I found them on switchboard.com when searching for LFS, but I haven't been to their store yet.