My Reefing Journey/Build (Plenty of Pics)

[will16]

Thanks Jimmy and H.Veras. Best of luck with your tanks.

My tank is coming down this Saturday

[OwNeD162]

Hey Will, have only just seen your gonna be pulling it down ...
It's a huge shame, but hopefully a break for a while will re-spark your interest to come back and do it all over again !
Thanks for all the great advice and amazing photos you've shared, I know they've definitely helped me with my tank ...
Can't wait to see you back on here with a new tank in the future,
Cheers,
Mitchell

[tomtoothdoc]

wow is it really coming down this sat.? it seems like it was just last month we were doing the transfer. i'll come by after work to see if you still need any help. lmk if you need anything.....like buckets, etc.

[angel125]

Sorry to hear your leaving the hobby...it was like a movie watching everything you did with that cam....

[butchik]

Sorry to learn that you're leaving the hobby. I enjoyed this thread and have learned a lot from what you've done. Thanks.

[will16]

Thanks Mitchell. It was great having you on this thread.

Tom... I think you slept through the take down

Thanks angel125 and butchik.

The tank is gone. Came down yesterday fairly quickly. It was sad but know this is the right move for me right now. The wierdest thing is the silence in the living room now. It's gonna take some getting used to. The bright side is I found out that some of my corals will be going into a new 1200 gallon display tank in the showroom of an LFS. At least I can go visit

Thanks and best wishes to everyone.

Signing off....

- Will

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by RECIFE29

sweet tank

How can you put that in past tense?

[xcelprintingcom]

Originally Posted by will16

Starting from top:
- The ledge is 1"x4" poplar board ripped to the right width on the table saw. Make sure you include how much you want it to overhang the moulding below it in calculating the width. Then the outside edges were rounded top and bottom on a router table with a 1/4" rounding bit I believe. Then you just have to make your cuts and fit all the pieces together. I found it much easier to just put the piece against where you are measuring and just trace the length on to it. Much faster then measuring and transferring.

- The next layer of modling (that piece that looks like half round) is from HD but is technically called casing. So you may have been looking in the wrong section. I know I have seen it in every HD I've been to so hopefiully yours would have it to.

- The next layer is simply that flat rectangle. That is just 1"x stock that was used to build out the column. Although missing from this picture it would be the mitered box that is built around the top rectangles (leaving room at the bottom for the next piece of molding):



- The last piece is that small molding in the bottom. Again it is from HD. Just make sure the thickness matches the piece above it. If you are using 1"x then that would mean you need 3/4".

Will,
One thing I haven't yet figured out is what is the gap for on the top and bottom between the flat pieces?

[Shawn1123]

I noticed you made your controller fit into you canopy, How did you do that? What I mean does your controller have wires long enough to make it to your sump. I have a ac3 jr, and the wires that are on my temp probe a nd others arnt long enough to make it to the sump.

[jdrabek]

Originally Posted by xcelprintingcom

Will,
One thing I haven't yet figured out is what is the gap for on the top and bottom between the flat pieces?

I made a similar stand, and the gap is just so you dont waste wood. It is not necessary to fill in the whole area. You are just going to cover it up with another piece of wood.

[xcelprintingcom]

Originally Posted by jdrabek

I made a similar stand, and the gap is just so you dont waste wood. It is not necessary to fill in the whole area. You are just going to cover it up with another piece of wood.

Yup, figured it out, got mine done, here is my thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1787176

[will16]

Originally Posted by Shawn1123

I noticed you made your controller fit into you canopy, How did you do that? What I mean does your controller have wires long enough to make it to your sump. I have a ac3 jr, and the wires that are on my temp probe a nd others arnt long enough to make it to the sump.

Wll with the reefkeeper, the wires for the temp and ph probe come out of the power module, not the controller so the wires were plenty long enough. From the controller, it's just an cat5 cable to the power module so I added an extension to reach the power module. Sorry, not familiar with the ac3 jr.

[will16]

Originally Posted by xcelprintingcom

Yup, figured it out, got mine done, here is my thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1787176

Sorry I didn't get to answer your question in time but your stand looks like it came out great!

Good luck!

[Shawn1123]

Originally Posted by will16

Wll with the reefkeeper, the wires for the temp and ph probe come out of the power module, not the controller so the wires were plenty long enough. From the controller, it's just an cat5 cable to the power module so I added an extension to reach the power module. Sorry, not familiar with the ac3 jr.

Alright well thank you for the help. Beautiful tank you did, sorry to hear to had to let it go.

[unbreakable]

was a great looking tank

[Mikeeeee]

Nice read!!!!!!!

[Augster]

Wow, I stumbled across this fascinating build thread, only to discover that the OP had gotten out of the hobby.

And I'm just about contemplating getting into it. But the costs seem prohibitive to me at the moment, and I certainly need the whole setup to blend in and compliment the furniture and environment instead of looking like my computer desk (a jumble of wires, plug in devices, external hard drives all with spaghetti wiring, covered in various bits of paper and nick nacks); e.g. it must be elegant and inspiring.

Epitomized by Will's endeavor.

I just don't want to invest all this time and effort to then discover that a year or two down the road the upkeep is so demanding that I lose interest (hence, my goal to make this as trouble- and maintenance-free as possible, though I realize that there must be some maintenance, I wish to avoid the constant water changes) or it requires too much hands-on that I can't enjoy a month-long vacation away now and then.

Will's seemingly abrupt exit does bring a dose of reality that makes me step back and truly contemplate if I have the long-term time and effort available to start this hobby...

[will16]

Originally Posted by Augster

Wow, I stumbled across this fascinating build thread, only to discover that the OP had gotten out of the hobby.

And I'm just about contemplating getting into it. But the costs seem prohibitive to me at the moment, and I certainly need the whole setup to blend in and compliment the furniture and environment instead of looking like my computer desk (a jumble of wires, plug in devices, external hard drives all with spaghetti wiring, covered in various bits of paper and nick nacks); e.g. it must be elegant and inspiring.

Epitomized by Will's endeavor.

I just don't want to invest all this time and effort to then discover that a year or two down the road the upkeep is so demanding that I lose interest (hence, my goal to make this as trouble- and maintenance-free as possible, though I realize that there must be some maintenance, I wish to avoid the constant water changes) or it requires too much hands-on that I can't enjoy a month-long vacation away now and then.

Will's seemingly abrupt exit does bring a dose of reality that makes me step back and truly contemplate if I have the long-term time and effort available to start this hobby...

Wow blast from the past! Sorry just saw this post. It's been a few years now since the tank came down and I'd be lying if I said I don't still think about the hobby. I do miss it and who knows, maybe one day i'll be back.

The timing was actually pretty good. A few weeks after the tank came down, we had a major power outage, which would have absolutely lead to loosing everything in the tank. Since then, we've had about 3 more large power outages ..up to a week long. Don't think i could have stomached loosing the tank 3 or 4 times. I guess if I'd have stuck with it, a back up system would have definitely been on my to do list.

Glad this thread is still helping people. Good luck!

[Augster]

Tanks and nice to know you do at least keep abreast of the thread and the hobby in general!

Your's and other's experiences have led me to definitely contemplate a backup gasoline generator eventually, tho power outages haven't been that bad out here in California for quite a number of years now.

I've already purchased a used 105g (60x23x18) glass tank and I will be building it's stand based on your design. Will post images when it progresses as I have some interesting ideas to utilize the empty space behind the tank that will implement a Bean Animal overflow system consisting of an internal coast-to-coast (almost) weir connected via several drilled holes out back for an external drain tank.

I plan on building a custom acrylic top off tank to fit in the empty space (20 gallons or more possible, depending on drain/return location and plumbing) with tinted glass or black acrylic panels extending the tank sides to hide all the plumbing, canopy-to-stand wiring and top off tank.

[emkbass]

It's such a detailed and inspiring build. Glad to see it's still up.

I link people to it in my build thread as well....since you allowed me to copy yours.

Thanks again Will!!

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f6...ly-170433.html

-Eric

[d_sinsley]

I am coming into this thread very late but I am glad i found it. This is very inspiring as I have a bed in my bedroom (imagine that) that I want to copy. Using the basic technique you laid out it should be very easy to come close to duplicating my bed. It is made of knotty pine, but has a very similar layered modling. Thanks for the build and inspiration.

[will16]

Originally Posted by d_sinsley

I am coming into this thread very late but I am glad i found it. This is very inspiring as I have a bed in my bedroom (imagine that) that I want to copy. Using the basic technique you laid out it should be very easy to come close to duplicating my bed. It is made of knotty pine, but has a very similar layered modling. Thanks for the build and inspiration.

Thank you. Best of luck with your build!