30 Gallon Long Anemone Tank/Bully refuge

[MRRBW]

Well, after 15 years of not documenting much I find myself in the position of 2 tank builds. Long story short, a local store closed down and I got my hands on a 93 cube which I will use to upgrade from my current 60gallon DAS aquarium. The DAS had allowed me to keep things simple for a long time, but I'm done with that tank and it's draw backs. The 30gallon, which this thread is about, came to me from one of the employees who was cleaning out some of his excess stock. The bully in question is my 15 year old maroon clown fish. He's big and mean. But I have a strong attachment to him and have refused to get rid of him, even when it meant returning other amazing fish to stores because he would beat them up. So, I'm going to build up this 30 and make this his permanent home with a couple of anemones so he will be happy. From the existing DAS he and the bubble tip will make the move over, and that's about it. Everything else will be new/ from scratch. So here's the list:

30 Gallon Long glass tank: 36" x 12" x 16"
Elite Aquatics Overflow will be installed as my overflow, preserving valuable tank space
sump is to be determined, either a DIY or an eshopps for convenience sake
return will be a jebao DC 9000
Stand is DIY, in progress, trying to figure out depth of it as I'm sure 12" will not be acceptable for a sump to fit
Flow in the tank will be from existing Jebao rw's or a new mp10, undecided on this part
lighting will be an AI sol

rest is tbd - going to do this right and take my time.
first step is figuring out space underneath the tank in order to fit a decent sump in there.
Pics to come as things go forward. Input greatly welcome!

 

[MRRBW]

Will be aiming for this type of look with the cabinet. Inner frame will be a combo of 1x4's and 2x4's. Then outer frame will be pushed out to have a 2" lip around the tank and skinned with reclaimed wood. I hope it turns out as good as it looks in my head

 

[revhtree]

Following!

 

[Bunnee911]

Me too. Love the trunk.

 

[MRRBW]

Following!

Txs revhtree - still collecting pieces and getting the stand components ready. Gonna be a slow start but hopefully it'll be up and running soon

Me too. Love the trunk.

Txs. The trunk belonged to my late grandfather from the early 1900's. They don't make em like they used to that's for sure

 

[MRRBW]

things are going slow. Was going to get a stand made locally to save some time, but the prices are ridiculous. Gonna make it myself in the end, which will take longer than I would like, but c'est la vie. Bought a new mp10wqd off someone who wasn't going to use it, should be here in the next few days. Equipment is slowly rolling in.

 

[MRRBW]

So while I am not the most talented at drawing on paper, I thought I would try out Sketch up. So these are the initial renderings of the inner frame to support the tank. I will add on an outer frame to expand the stand a bit to fit a sump in there properly and all the other equipment. Same colors are all the same lengths, the rectangular frames for the top and bottom are going to be 1x4's and the uprights I was thinking of 1x2's.