Final stand plans

[StirCrazy]

Ok final plans

after a couple days of thought and a few ideas I came up with this for a stand..

with the wood on it, it will be something like this

I am going to use it to devide my front room off from the front entry, so the short side will be against the wall and the main tank will be viewable from 3 sides.

the frame of the stand will be made from 1.5"x1.5"x1/4" steel angle and I will be skinning it with wood.

does anyone have any ideas or tips that would help me while I am building this?

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Nice plans so far!

I would move the 'fuge 10 gal to the other end of the tank to make room for you MH!

You also might look into 1 1/2" box steel for the main support layers under the main tank and possibly the bottom.

Are you haveing the tank custom built? If you are, get teh ank a little longer, and have the ins and outs drilled on one end, which you could then hide behind the wood.

Makes me jealous I don't own my apartment...

Just my 2cents.
B

 

[fragman]

I agree with Bingo, except I would move it for the Heat Factor!!!!! and Becuase your gonna need room for the lights. if you put you fuge right on to of them you wouldn't have any crotters becuase they would all get boiled. HTH,

 

[StirCrazy]

Ok the design got modifyed a little and I welded up the stand while I was on holadays. today, after 6 hours of cutting and screwing I have the wood frame atached to The stand.

thats all for a couple days I think.. well maby not

Steve

[ January 20, 2002: Message edited by: StirCrazy ]</p>

 

[Anonymous]

Looks good so far!
What size of tank did you end up with? I reallly like the placement right inside the front door. (that's where my 100 gal is- first thing you see when you walk in the door.)

I can see a few minor problems: from the pics we can't see the third level, where the fuge and the lights will go. It looks like you have covered the second layer with ply, so you might want to think about it...

and how many layers of ply is the tank sitting on? if the steel frame does not reach in to the dimenson of the tank, you will need some reinforcement of the ply.


HTH
B

[ January 22, 2002: Message edited by: Bingo ]</p>

 

[StirCrazy]

ahh sorry I forgot to mention that I had to modify the plans a little .. there isn't a 3rd level as it would have been to high. when I set up the refuge it will sit ontop of the second level and feed down into the main tank..

I ended going with the 90gal 3'x2'x2' with two 1.5" bulkheads drilled in the end.

asfor the lights, they will mount in the top of the second level on a sliding platform so that all I have to do is unhook the quick disconect and pull the platform out of the way

Steve

 

[StirCrazy]

ok I am putting doors on it now and here is how it looks so far.

Steve

 

[StirCrazy]

ok will finaly I got the stand all done. well on the outside anyways. I did another change today I made it so oneof the sumps is visable like a second display tank.. well you'll see what I mean.

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

SWEET!

B

 

[MikePetisco]

hey any updates in this stand?
me and my brother designed a simalr stand.
we cant get it to work the way we want it to.
we r trying to avaoid using steel like u did.

 

[StirCrazy]

what kinda update you looking for.. the stand is done and I am working on plumming now. this will take a bit as I have to get the two bottom tanks drilled.

Steve

 

[NoFear29]

Steve,

Couple of questions from an amatuer here. How did you attach the wood to the angle iron? Also, did you make the doors? How did you make them? BTW.. Looks great!

NF29

 

[StirCrazy]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by NoFear29:
<strong>Steve,

Couple of questions from an amatuer here. How did you attach the wood to the angle iron? </strong><hr></blockquote>
hehe your no more a amature than I, this was the first project of this size I have ever tackled

I drilled holes in the angle iron and then screwed the wood from the back to the steel

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Also, did you make the doors? How did you make them? BTW.. Looks great!
[/QB]<hr></blockquote>

no I was going to make them but it would have been very expensive as I don't have the equipment to make them. I found a local kitchen cabnet place that had surplus doors that they sold me for 5.00 each.. they would have cost me about 50.00 each to have them made.

Steve

 

[MikePetisco]

any pics would be cool

thanx

 

[StirCrazy]

mikepetisco
Let me know what you want pics of and I will take them with my digital camera.

Steve

 

[StirCrazy]

Ok I decided to actualy do something today so I built my overflow pipes.

Steve

 

[StirCrazy]

well I finaly got everything ready so I can start putting togeather my lights.
I bought a box and drilled holes in it as mounting points and such.

this is the inside (there is a termanal strip there as I was testing the fit

and now the ballasts are in

and

and
just befor I closed it up

and the finnished product.

all that I have left is to put the quick conects on the end install a small fan and vent in the box, and then wire up my light frame in the tank.

Steve

 

[StirCrazy]

then I built the reflector assembly and hung it.

assembled

and mounted

now all that is left is to hang the bulbs and connect the two halves together.

well after a mishap which resulted in a broken PC, I final got it all hooked up and running (aside from one PC that is) well here is a pic with the actinic on and the flash on my digital caner on (the bottom of my tank is pink under normal lights)

and here is one with no flash and you can see how much the room gets lit up by this.

the reflectors make a huge difference over my trials with the bulbs just resting on the top of the tank.

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Nice pics! keep them coming as you progress along.
B