My Room divider stand for 120 gal tank

[Fl_Seagull]

Thought I would share my Room divider project.

This project started as a plywood and glass freshwater tank. The wife had other ideas :roll: . After the shock of her buying a used 120gal tank, stand, custom sealife PC light and a w/d filter 8O . I warmed up to the idea of a salt water tank. I would have just used the stand she bought but it was too low . After smashing through the slab and installing power, water, and a drain (But honey I have power and everything over here :x ). The stand construction began.

The basic frame work is 2 x 4 and 2 x 3. You can see the the custom sealife

The bead board side. This side will have a sofa against it.

This is the door side. Door are not made yet. Seem the wife want to see things cleaned up / setup. Oh yeah, that is my upsidedown tank in the picture. I am in the process of drilling it for four 1" bulkheads (the black things on the shelf).

This shows the top open and the cooling fans. Anyone know how long I might expect to go before the slides rust solid?

You might notice my tank plywood made for a nice top.

 

[Anonymous]

so how are oyu gonna plumb that thing?

i don't see any holes in the bottom of the tank, are you gonna put an external oerflow on the end closest to the wall?

 

[Fl_Seagull]

It is going to be a problem :? . With the PC light sitting on the tank I don't have room for standard overflows.

If you look at the picture you will see two 5" wide slots on each end of the tank platform. My Idea is to install two 4"x9" internal overflows; one on each end of the tank. I am in the process of drilling the tank to install two 1" bulkheads for each overflow. I am still thinking about either using all four for drains into a sump or using two to the sump and two for a close loop system.

Returns could then be feed up a 1 1/2" gap on the window side and the 2 1/2" gap on the other.

I am open to suggestions.

This is my first attempt at saltwater (20 years with fresh). I am still just trying to get smart. Of course, spending 10 years reading about marine tanks and fish has only resulted in more confusion :lol:.

 

[Anonymous]

i suggest just that.

but i am curious as to why you would go through so much trouble and funding to only end up with a used tank.

i am sure you are more cash into it then you had planned but a used tank is kinda scary if you don't know about it's past.

 

[Fl_Seagull]

When you are married to an accountant you don't complain when she buys you a fish tank and tell you to she wants a saltwater tank :lol: .

When I explained that I needed to by $1 a pound sand, she found someone moving down from NJ to bring me several bags of Southerndown at $.10 a pound 8O .

I am just waiting for her to be in the right mood for me to tell her what LR costs.

 

[Anonymous]

It looks like your off to a nice start. I am looking forward to seeing more pics as you move forward with this setup.

Thanks for sharing the pics.

Louey

 

[fishinsouthga]

sounds like my wife, so how goes the progress?

 

[Fl_Seagull]

I just got the plumbing done and filled the tank with fresh water. I am using a 20 gal tank as a sump with a MAG 7 pump. This is supplemented with a close loop using a Little Giant TE-4MD-HC. The lights are on timers.

My wife was excited to see thing going so good :lol: . Then I explained that I still needed to buy a skimmer, LR, salt,,,,,

As you might guess she does not remember me talking about this costing $50 a gallon . So... look for posts on the "garbage day" skimmer, on DIY rocks, on mixing salt from the ingredients found in the spice and medicine cabinets :lol: .

Perhaps I can convince her to spend the tax refund on the fish tank :wink: .

 

[Fl_Seagull]

Just thought I would update this thread a little.

Here is the latest picure:

I currently am not running the close loop. I moved the little giant TE-4 to pull from the sump. The the MAG 7 did not have the flow to handle two overflows.

Rock: 32 lb of gulf cultured LR, 66 lb of LR, 40 of base rock(20 lb of manmade).
Sand: 50 LB of Southern Down
Tank: 125 gal
Sump: 20 gal
Main pump: Little Giant TE-4MD-HC
Skimmer: Top Fathom TF-200A feed by a Little Giant 3MDQ-SC

Live Stock:
Snails: ~30 turbo, 6 Peppermint, 6 Stomatella Varia, 2 Cerith sp., 1 Nudibranchia possible from class Doridacea
Clams: 9 possible "Turkey Wing" (working on Id)
Sponges: Brown, Red, Orange (working on Id)
Starfish: 27 known Brittle Stars, 6 Micro Stars (class Astroidea)
Crabs: 8 scralet Hermit crabs, 2 blue leg hermit crabs, 2 emeral crabs and 1 Xanthidae?
Algae: Hair, Hair, and Caulerpa prolifera

 

[Baianotang]

Good job.

 

[shark0105]

Seagull

I really like the look of your tank, nice aquascaping.
What are your plans for coral and/or fish?
I would love to see some more pics as move along.
Nice Job!

 

[Fl_Seagull]

The family is looking forward to fish and I am looking toward soft corals. The kids (of course) want two Clown Fish and I would like a Mandarin. Other than I haven't thought much about what fish to get. As far a corals, I have only just started researching.

There are some SPS on the LR but my PC lights are not likely enough to keep them going.

Right now I am letting the fauna in the tank grow and looking to buy a RO/DI unit to reduce any Phospates I might be adding in my makeup water. At the rate my hair algae is growing, I might just have a hair algae tank :lol: .