Hi!
I have been working on a new tank for a couple months now and it's almost done!
The goal was to end up with (only) two tanks. This has been a long time coming and was quite a challenge to find the time to make what I had envisioned.
The general idea was to get rid of the kitchen table and build a breakfast bar-type table around a fish tank to become the new kitchen table.
I used a basic "rocketengineer" structure for the stand. The idea was to have it be as open as possible. I also wanted the stand to be wider than the tank dimensions, so you must plan accordingly with stringers and structural plywood for the tank to rest on. This way I would have plenty of room for filtration and equipment. I then used Oak veneers to make the general design elements of the stand, and a Walnut butcher block top.
One design element I was intent on was to hide the bottom trim of the tank, so that it is recessed into the counter top. I liked this idea so that the visual was only seeing a glass box with no trim edges anywhere.
Cutting and working with the walnut was an enormous pain, as the wood is very dense (and thick), and it comes in a single huge 8'x2' block. First, I had to rip cut it length-wise and then cut into smaller pieces. Then I miter cut and krag jointed it and used a high performance wood filler to join the pieces. Then it's pretty much just tons of sanding and prep work and onto the staining and painting. The walnut top is done in a Danish Oil finish.
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out (very nearly done, just have to add the finishing touches).
I am consolidating what's left of my existing 37g kitchen tank along with what remains in my frag tanks into this 60g.
The main pieces will be a large Tyree toadstool and a clown pair, a few acros that have been growing out from tiny sticks for about two years now, an assortment of zoas, a Tyree Aquscene chalice, and my original Eunicea gorgonia (20 years old this year). Since I will be using water and rocks from existing tanks there will be no plan to "cycle" this. I should be up and running within the next week.
I am including some pics of the corals that will be moving over, along with my progress thus far. I'll post back in a few weeks when everything is settled in and looking good.
As for the gear, I had a general plan and have been accumulating stuff for many months. Most of this was bought used on the various boards, and I am very pleased with the quality of the gear I was able to accumulate at a cost MUCH lower than new.
Build:
-Deep Blue 60g Rimless tank
-Skimz SK181 Cone skimmer
-ATI 24" sunpower light (2x LED and 6x T5)
-MP40QD for flow
-Sicce syncra silent 3.0 return
-Precision Marine r24 sump
That's it for now! I'll post some more pics soon. Thanks for letting me show off my latest project!
-Ed
I have been working on a new tank for a couple months now and it's almost done!
The goal was to end up with (only) two tanks. This has been a long time coming and was quite a challenge to find the time to make what I had envisioned.
The general idea was to get rid of the kitchen table and build a breakfast bar-type table around a fish tank to become the new kitchen table.
I used a basic "rocketengineer" structure for the stand. The idea was to have it be as open as possible. I also wanted the stand to be wider than the tank dimensions, so you must plan accordingly with stringers and structural plywood for the tank to rest on. This way I would have plenty of room for filtration and equipment. I then used Oak veneers to make the general design elements of the stand, and a Walnut butcher block top.
One design element I was intent on was to hide the bottom trim of the tank, so that it is recessed into the counter top. I liked this idea so that the visual was only seeing a glass box with no trim edges anywhere.
Cutting and working with the walnut was an enormous pain, as the wood is very dense (and thick), and it comes in a single huge 8'x2' block. First, I had to rip cut it length-wise and then cut into smaller pieces. Then I miter cut and krag jointed it and used a high performance wood filler to join the pieces. Then it's pretty much just tons of sanding and prep work and onto the staining and painting. The walnut top is done in a Danish Oil finish.
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out (very nearly done, just have to add the finishing touches).
I am consolidating what's left of my existing 37g kitchen tank along with what remains in my frag tanks into this 60g.
The main pieces will be a large Tyree toadstool and a clown pair, a few acros that have been growing out from tiny sticks for about two years now, an assortment of zoas, a Tyree Aquscene chalice, and my original Eunicea gorgonia (20 years old this year). Since I will be using water and rocks from existing tanks there will be no plan to "cycle" this. I should be up and running within the next week.
I am including some pics of the corals that will be moving over, along with my progress thus far. I'll post back in a few weeks when everything is settled in and looking good.
As for the gear, I had a general plan and have been accumulating stuff for many months. Most of this was bought used on the various boards, and I am very pleased with the quality of the gear I was able to accumulate at a cost MUCH lower than new.
Build:
-Deep Blue 60g Rimless tank
-Skimz SK181 Cone skimmer
-ATI 24" sunpower light (2x LED and 6x T5)
-MP40QD for flow
-Sicce syncra silent 3.0 return
-Precision Marine r24 sump
That's it for now! I'll post some more pics soon. Thanks for letting me show off my latest project!
-Ed
