Garage1217's 225G starphire / led / awesome build!

[Garage1217]

I use a blackjack BK3000LF station with an LD16D tip for most all of the led work I do. I have owned stations / used stations at work costing multiple times more than this unit and have NEVER found a better station. I stand by that 100%. Every DIY that I have recommend this station to has thanked me.

http://www.circuitspecialists.com/prod.itml/icOid/9749

[NP_Reef]

looks really good. ill be tagging along.

[Garage1217]

Oh man I am sooo tired. Last 2 weeks has kicked my tail. I decided to tile the house before the new tank is in as I would not be able to do it after. Also spent the day building the skeleton of the massive stand to hold this baby! I wanted a taller stand so built this one at 40" from floor to bottom of the tank. Still a metric crapton of work to do on the stand but it is rolling. Some pics of the fun...

Stand from the rear, front is just a single 2x4 in the middle. This baby is BEEFCAKE. 2x6 & 2x4 done with pocket screws & deck screws. That and about a bottle of gorilla glue haha. For the sump area I am going to have a 1" thick piece of polypropylene cut & then done in 1/4 round over on the edges. Will do the same for the top as it is cheap and looks fantastic. Still deciding on the skin & look of the stand. Tomorrow I have a lot more wood filler work & then some sanding.





Now here are some pics of the tile I have been doing. Not bad for my first time. Also a pic of my awesome new wet saw *LOL* Have to show it off, for a 7" it kicks arse!!!

Doorway medallion "no I did not make this haha"


Future bar area, just have stuff sitting over it right now.


My super ninja compound crazy wet saw

[landy]

The stand looks like overkill on ah stick, just the way I like it!
Your tile work looks great for your first job. Too bad you didn’t mention you were in the market for a tile saw; there are a lot of KILLER saws on craigslist. I picked up a real nice felker for next to nothing.

And if you don’t hate tile work yet, you could tile your stand.

Here is a picture of my new stand tiled with slate. Not finished yet.


and a shot before grout.



Great thread, keep up the good work!

landy

[LaOtIn]

so with a 40" stand youre looking at what? 70" from floor to top rim?

lol, youre gonna need a step ladder to reach stuff on the sand bed i likes dem kinda tanks !

[Garage1217]

Well I am adding another 4" to the bottom "legs to lift the stand up 4" so I can clean under it" so it will be 44" tall / 68" to the top rim of the tank! One tall system for sure.

Smart idea Landy, I was milling over doing granite or marble on the stand rather than doing it in a wood trim as everyone seems to do wood to the point I am starting to get tired of seeing wood stands with the normal woodworking store trinkets on them like stars and so forth. Hmmm Will have to sleep on it.

I know I probably could have gotten a saw cheaper used but did not want another headache. I originally bought a cheaper wet saw for around $300 and ended up kicking it about 10 feet and off the porch it ticked me off so bad *LOL* Deck kept binding, blade kept binding, kept cracking tiles, water nozzles kept clogging, then the pump died, laser died, kept blowing he gfci... Just a nightmare. Took the junk back and tried this and am in total love with it. Cuts like a dream and very fast. Deck is as precision as it gets which shocked me for the price "around $500 new"

[usefulidiot213]

Nice.. Now that you have a new tile saw. When your done with your current project your going to have to find random things to tile. Don't want that beauty just sitting around collecting dust.

[Garage1217]

It will be used more for sure. My wife wants the porch tiled, then all the window sills done in granite to match the kitchen "emerald pearl", after that, she wants the bathrooms done as well and a full tile shower *LOL* This saw is going to be worked hard in the next year.


Not much to update on the tank stand other than I painted it yesterday in an oil based enamel to help waterproof it. Going to look at more tile today to rock in the stand as I think that will be the way to go / look super cool. Just trying to keep it from looking like a giant fireplace Added in a couple more supports for the bottom panel before I painted it and make sure all seams were glued with gorilla glue. This is one SOLID stand. I bet I could actually ship it UPS and have it come out in one piece even after they stab it with forklifts, drop it off the back of the truck, let it sit in the rain & randomly kick it for no reason *LOL*

[maddog2002]

looks really good.

[Garage1217]

Picked up 4 boxes of black slate 12x12 tiles today with good texture. Also picked up some accents. Will get pics tonight when I lay out the front surface!

[RVANANO]

Nice!!


So much fun when the packages start coming eh? When I sold my Datsun 510, I ordered all kinds of toys for the house, the tank and my BMW. It was like Xmas for a whole month!!!

[Garage1217]

Update, and yes I will get pics soon. Just did not have time last night.

Got all of the slate stone for the front cut and mocked up last night. I did not want to use cement board + thinset for the stone as I did not want the stand going into the 500lb range *LOL* So I tried liquid nails for marble / stone and OMG is it strong. I glued one cut stone down with it and today, I was able to pick up the stand holding onto just the 1 stone *LOL* I actually thought the stone was going to crack I was pulling on it so hard. So that is a WIN as I was skeptical it would stick to the oil based enamel paint.

I also decided to go with glass doors. I think a dark smoked glass will go nice with the black slate stone and give it a modern look. Ordered in these hinges last night.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?p...ampaign=Google

[inktomi]

Sounds like this is going to turn out to be a really nice stand. Good to know that liquid nails is actually that strong - I wouldn't have thought it was.

[Garage1217]

I used a variety made specifically for stone located here... I was shocked as well. This stuff is wicked and I did not even use that much on the back of the stone.
http://www.liquidnails.com/products/...p?productId=38

[landy]

When it comes time to grout. Go to lowes and get spectralock epoxy grout. It is more costly, but will be well worth the cost. There is nothing better, and no need to worry about sealing it EVER. Also, a VERY important tip for working this slate: Seal the tile BEFORE you grout. If you don’t you WILL hate yourself, I promise. Also, when grouting with the spectralock, do NOT let it setup at ALL on the slate. Grout a few lines, and then go over and remove all the grout that got on the tile itself. Or even better, make it a two man job, one grouts, one cleans up right behind.
Good luck!
And great idea with the glass. I was thinking textured acrylic for my inserts, but may have to look into glass. Maybe just paint the back side with black spray paint. That might be the ticket.

Landy

[Garage1217]

Thanks for the input! I am no tile expert so anything helps!

I was thinking about skipping grout lines all together and going for a seamless look, well as seamless as I can get. To accomplish this, I would use a super thin bead of black silicone to seal each tile together to form a water tight seal. Once that dries, then I would use a matte finish sealer on the slate. What do you think? Crap idea or workable..? Just not sure if I want to see grout lines on this stand, even if I used black grout. I am not worried much about water getting on the slate anyways as I am having a large 1" thick piece of polypropylene cut which will stick out 6" from the front of the tank and 2" on each side so will be sort of like a drip edge *LOL* I used the same plastic sheet when I setup my old frag system. I used the 6" edge as a work surface and loved it. Want the same thing for the tank.

Pic of the old frag system with poly bottom when I first set it up...


Black spraypaint on the back of regular tempered glass would work well also. I think for mine however, I will just go with the black looking / dark smoke glass and call it a day.

[landy]

You could go grout less; I’ve seen slate done that way, but not typically in areas prone to getting wet. One thing you might want to check is how square you slate is. Slates not known for its squareness. The stuff I did my stand with was out anywhere for 1/16 to damn near a quarter inch. So to truly do a grout less install, that would involve squaring up each piece. As for the silicone idea, not so sure how that would turn out. I can only think of one time I have seen stone grouted with sealant, and to be honest, it looked unprofessional. But then again, it might turn out great.
Let me ask you this, how even is the thickness of your slate? Slate is also not usually even, and this will really hurt your seamless look.

Landy

[Garage1217]

*LOL* That is funny you mentioned them being out of square, I just talked to my bud at work about this. I thought my saw was off as my pieces were up to 1/8" off. I slapped a piece of porcelain on the table and it was dead square, check again with my square and dead on. I had to square up each piece so each one fits together dead on. Thought I was going crazy.

Each seam would be butted together with less than 1/32" between them. Basically touching / you would not be able to see the silicone, well in theory anyways. Will try it and see what it looks like.

Also correct, the slate is all different thicknesses from close to 1/4" to almost 1/2". About as non precision as it gets. I was going to use the liquid nails sort of like thinset & just raise the pieces up that need it most, but nothing drastic. You will still see the cuts, but not from a distance. I already lifted an edge to match the next on my test piece "raised it a little over an 8th" and it still held rock solid. And to help match things up even more, I spent awhile last night rotating stones, moving them to other locations and so forth to try to get them as close to even as possible.

Other notes on slate...
- The bottoms of some were not even flat, they were bowed, with some bowing more than 1/4" *LOL* Did not know rock could bow, must have been a machine error.
- You have to sort out your boxes of slate. Some tiles were very flat with no surface features. Then some had minor surface features while others were crazy looking. I did the front in the most textured, wild looking stones. Will do the sides in the mild texture and other more hidden areas in the flat non textured pieces.

This adventure with slate has been interesting for sure. Definitely not an easy stone to work with if you are trying to be even slightly precision with it. But at the same time, that is the beauty of it. It is not all uniform and gives a very natural stone look which is what I was going for. I could have done granite and just had it look flawless but I think the rugged look is what I was after.

[landy]

Sounds like you have it figure out.

now, lets jsut see the pictures of proof

landy

Originally Posted by Garage1217

*LOL* That is funny you mentioned them being out of square, I just talked to my bud at work about this. I thought my saw was off as my pieces were up to 1/8" off. I slapped a piece of porcelain on the table and it was dead square, check again with my square and dead on. I had to square up each piece so each one fits together dead on. Thought I was going crazy.

Each seam would be butted together with less than 1/32" between them. Basically touching / you would not be able to see the silicone, well in theory anyways. Will try it and see what it looks like.

Also correct, the slate is all different thicknesses from close to 1/4" to almost 1/2". About as non precision as it gets. I was going to use the liquid nails sort of like thinset & just raise the pieces up that need it most, but nothing drastic. You will still see the cuts, but not from a distance. I already lifted an edge to match the next on my test piece "raised it a little over an 8th" and it still held rock solid. And to help match things up even more, I spent awhile last night rotating stones, moving them to other locations and so forth to try to get them as close to even as possible.

Other notes on slate...
- The bottoms of some were not even flat, they were bowed, with some bowing more than 1/4" *LOL* Did not know rock could bow, must have been a machine error.
- You have to sort out your boxes of slate. Some tiles were very flat with no surface features. Then some had minor surface features while others were crazy looking. I did the front in the most textured, wild looking stones. Will do the sides in the mild texture and other more hidden areas in the flat non textured pieces.

This adventure with slate has been interesting for sure. Definitely not an easy stone to work with if you are trying to be even slightly precision with it. But at the same time, that is the beauty of it. It is not all uniform and gives a very natural stone look which is what I was going for. I could have done granite and just had it look flawless but I think the rugged look is what I was after.

[Garage1217]

Well I hope I do anyways *LOL* Just learned to do tile last month hahaha. Will see what happens and will for sure be posting photos.

[chimmike]

leveling the slate kinda defeats the purpose of the natural stone......but hey, if you can get every piece level even after the thinset dries, that's some serious craftsmanship!

[Garage1217]

None of the stones will be perfectly level of course, it is slate which would make it almost impossible to level. I am simply going to attempt to match the height each stone to the adjacent stone.

[Garage1217]

Finally, took some updated shots! Here are pics of the stand with just the front stone in place, the adhesive drying. The screws under certain stones are to make them level with the next stone. Lines turned out perfect and my micro seams came together nice / super tight. You can see the line, but cannot see any silicone. Just a clean line. Now on the sides where the stones will meet the front stones, there will be spaces, that is not avoidable, in those cases I will use black grout for a filler. Not worried about it as the sides will not be seen that often

The white spots and light spots on the stone are just from the wet saw cuts, did not wash them off enough so they have a gray powdery film on some of them. Once the adhesive is dry, will wipe them all off.

Still lots of work to to do rock wise, not only on the sides but also on the inside lips of the doors. Will try to update stand photos when I start work on the sides tomorrow night or the next night.

Also WOOHOO! Tank is being delivered tomorrow evening! Has been a long wait!!!!





Lines are very clean

[Garage1217]

The beast has arrived 225G Lee-Mar! 72x30x24 Starphire on 3 sides including the eurobrace *LOL*. Black silicone, epoxied back and bottom... the works. One stunning tank and build quality is TOP NOTCH!!!



And of course, the customary sticking of the kid in the tank for scale haha This is my youngest, Danica! She is a little over 2 years old. She did not want out of the tank once I put her in *LOL*

[inktomi]

Looks like a great tank. I have a similar one, I'm sure you'll be very pleased with it!