270 Gallon SPS tank for JBNY

[onehundred20]

looking good who is building the tank agian?

[JB NY]

Aquarium Obsessed.

[Lunchbucket]

onehundred20 - You asked the same question I was going to

Looking nice Joe. Can't wait to see you have a tank again!

any reason you went w/ glass over acrylic??

Lunchbucket

[JB NY]

Originally posted by Lunchbucket


any reason you went w/ glass over acrylic??

Yeah, everyone I spoke to who had an acrylic tank for more than a year or two regretted it due to how easily it scratched.

[JB NY]

OK so I finally got to work this weekend getting the stand ready.

The first time I made my stand I had no real experience with building wood projects. I did the entire project, with the exception of a screw gun, with hand tools. The large pieces, like plywood, that I need to get cut, I would bring to HD or the local lumber yard and have them cut for me. But I remember even cutting all the 2x4 with a hand saw!! It took me about 5 weeks to put the stand together.

Now, 6 years later I've accumulated a good amount of power tools and what a difference it make having the right tools at hand to get the job done!!

So earlier in the week I went out and bought about 8 sheets of plywood and another 8 2x4. After work for a few days I cut them all down to size.

This weekend I did the assembly of just the stand skeleton, from this I will add the finished sides and drawers.

I know it's been a long time coming, but finally I can start dumping on you guys a ton of construction pics. so here goes.

The first pieces are the supports. I decided to use 2x4's and then attached 1/2" plywood on either side to help strengthen the piece. Using it this way should make the supports plenty strong. Thanks to AcroSteve for the idea.

Anyway this is that basic idea.



I decided to use pocket screws for the joinery, so I started to drill all my holes in the 2x4.



Next I checked everything to make sure it was square before screwing them together.



A few times I had to go back to the table saw to make an adjustment.



The pocket screws help to create a nice tight and strong joint.



Finally all the pieces are together. The next part is attaching the plywood to the outsides.

[cali_reef]

I like the table saw and miter gage.

[JB NY]

Attaching the plywood wasn't too hard. I wanted the 2x4's to sit flush with the top of the support so I had to notch a section of the plywood after it was put on the 2x4's.

First I set up a separate area that I could assemble the supports and still have access to my other tools if I needed them. So fist I put the support of assemble studs down.


Next I put the 1/2" piece of ply on top of it.


I aligned everything up to get ready for glue up and attaching the screws. Before I permanently attach the ply I checked to make sure the bottom of the support is square so that all of the support will uniformly touch bottom for stability.



After I'm happy with that, I attached the ply to the studs with screws. With that done I need to notch out the sections that will receive the studs for the top support. So I cut away a rough hole leaving about 1/8" all around, then hit it with a router using a flush trim bit and use a hand saw to square up the rounded edges.

[JB NY]

Originally posted by cali_reef
I like the table saw and miter gage.

Thanks, yeah that's a sweet miter guage. Incra makes some great stuff. It works awesome.

[JB NY]

So with the one side of the ply put on, I flip it over and do the other. Then I do the whole thing two more times and voila. I have my three supports.

I marked them so that I would remember which ones were for the left, middle and right sides.



Another shot with the studs placed just to make sure everything was lined up correctly.

[Lunchbucket]

Ahh...that is one fear I have of an Acrylic tank is the scratching too. Heck my 58gal has scratches on the glass

NICE legs...support legs that is. That is a great idea for stability w/out having to so some huge supports. Everything looks nice. Keep those pics coming

Lunchbucket

[REEF-DADDY]

wow your tool collection has grown in the past 6 years!!!!!1

[JB NY]

Originally posted by Lunchbucket
Ahh...that is one fear I have of an Acrylic tank is the scratching too. Heck my 58gal has scratches on the glass

NICE legs...support legs that is. That is a great idea for stability w/out having to so some huge supports. Everything looks nice. Keep those pics coming

Lunchbucket

My acrylic frag tank has lots of scratches in it and I was really careful with it. So I could imagine what my main tank would look like in 5 years

Thanks I really like how the legs turned out. I'm taking lots of pictures, so hopefully this thread will stop sucking.

[JB NY]

Originally posted by REEF-DADDY
wow your tool collection has grown in the past 6 years!!!!!1

Yeah, I've got a pretty good collection of tools now. And any of the tools I didn;t have, with all the renovations I was doing last year there was lot of excuses to buy a new tool

[JB NY]

With the support legs done I went upstairs to open up the holes that I had previously drilled into the hardwood floor to run pipes to the basement. In addition to just holes, I had put in a bulkhead for the 1 1/2" return piping. Here is a shot of the holes that I have behind the tank.



So I decided that this time I would just cut a big hole and run everything through that, rather that bother with just a few small holes. The holes ended up being a problem because as time went by I would always want to run something else through the existing holes and I ran out of room. So I figure with a large hole that problem would go away.

It turned out that getting that bulkhead fitting off was a real pain. Word of advice, don't use them on the floor , I ended up cutting mine out with a sawzall.

So after about a hour with messing with the bulkhead, I finally got it out and cut a big 4x12 hole into the floor.



Holy moly! that thing is huge, what am I going to do when I go to sell the house some day?!

Now you see it.


No you don't.


When I was having my floor re sanding and finished the guy doing it was commenting on the holes I had drilled in the floor. I told him what they were for. He said. why don't you just make a big hole the same size as the HVAC register? I thought that was a great idea. So now I have lots of room to runs pipes and wiring and you don't even notice it when the tank is gone.

[Lunchbucket]

That is a killer idea. A nice big hole but you can hide it!!

Lunchbucket

[JB NY]

Moved all the pieces upstairs to start assembling the stand. I put the base down and started positioning the legs to make sure that everything was properly cut and aligned correctly before I started attaching anything.

If you lookk at this picture, you can see a towel stuffed over the hole at the back of the stand, Every time I turned around my cat kept sticking her whole head and looking down the hole. I figured I better plug that hole up before she took a dive!


Next, checked to make sure the sides are square to the front of the base.



Next I made sure the top supports were square when put in place.


Then I tacked it down with a few brad nails to make sure it wouldn't shift when I went to screw it down. After that, I used more pocket holes to attach the legs to the base.

Every thing secure and in place.



Here are a few more pictures of the corners with the supports in.

[olemos]

Nice and strong Joe, also like how it distributes the load thru out the floor.

[terranova]

so will you be doing tank tours for us lira folks once again?

[ReefBum]

Looking sweet Joe. I wish I had your carpentry skills. I had to have a custom stand made for my new tank.

I actually did the same thing you did with the floor. I had a new floor put in and had the floor guy build the new floor around an extra vent hole for my pipes. Just cover the hole with the vent cover and you are good to go!

[Michael Mota]

Very nice so far. This thread rocks with pics!

[tony13]

Wow, you have gotten some nice tools and the skills to use them. Looks great. I wish I would have seen that floor register trick before I drilled my hardwood floors.

[MIKE NY]

looking good Joe ..great idea with the plywood.......

[fishdoc11]

Looking good Joe

[AcroSteve]

Nice work. It should have no problem standing the test of time.

[melev]

Beautiful job. We've waited a long time for some good updates, and you didn't let us down.