Gnarley's 120 Build Thread

[GnarleyMarley]

Those frames are great! How did you do that?

I just cut out the outside perimeter square out of a piece of 3/8" cast acrylic using the table saw. Then I moved the fence over a bit and cut out the inside square, and to get the track for the spline that holds in the mesh, I just lowered my saw blade to cut about half the thickness of the acrylic and made another pass.

guess I should mention that these are just going to sit on top of the tank, not fit directly into the openings, and I only say that because acrylic will warp if it stays in constant contact with the water, so I'm hoping that by having the acrylic a couple inches from the opening that it will keep it from warping. However if it doesn't I can always bond some tabs to the top of the tank to hold it in place I LOVE working with acrylic LOL Its so much more versatile than glass!

If you are not looking to diy and you want some tops like these you should check out @ArtFully Acrylic they have some amazing polycarbonate screen tops, and they can custom make them to fit your exact tank. I'm hoping that these work for me, but if not I'll be saving up my pennies to get a set from them. If I only had a CNC ;D

 

[GnarleyMarley]

Well... I changed my plumbing setup lol. Due to the limited space in my overflow I had to resort to a stockman standpipe, and it was louder than I wanted and could only handle about 500gph, which is way less than I wanted. So I drilled the back of the tank in behind the overflow box and added a second drain line so I could run a full syphon herbie style overflow. WOW what a difference it made! I now have my temporary return (mag 9.5) wide open and have my drain cut back about 30-40%. Now I can upgrade my return pump to power my manifold and still get a good turnover rate. Here I come dc9000!!!!

 

[s2nhle]

Wow, very slick build. Thank you for sharing.

 

[GnarleyMarley]

Got my apex back from the shop yesterday!!! I cant wait to hook up all my goodies!!!!!!

#reef2reef #worldwidecorals #mywwccontest

 

[s2nhle]

Wow, very clean and well organized

 

[GnarleyMarley]

Wow, very clean and well organized

Thanks man, it's easy to make it look clean when nothing is plugged in lol

 

[s2nhle]

LOL. At least I saw there is light and water and everything is worked as it suppose to.

 

[GnarleyMarley]

Yea, so far so good. I plan on moving all the livestock in about 2-3 weeks

 

[GnarleyMarley]

Well I got my canopy up..... I don't like it lol. But that's OK I have a plan to make it great again, it's going to be wonderful, your going to love it

 

[riche]

Well I got my canopy up..... I don't like it lol. But that's OK I have a plan to make it great again, it's going to be wonderful, your going to love it

I see what you did there with the comment LOL Cant wait to see what you end up doing

 

[GnarleyMarley]

Done!!!! I still have to do some work on the guts, but pretty much done

I'll get some pics under the stand tomorrow


Oh yea.... #reef2reef, #worldwidecorals,#mywwccontest

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Beautiful setup!!

 

[riche]

Are the doors pre built or did you make them?

 

[GnarleyMarley]

Prebuilt. I grabbed them at a habitat restore, and just refinished them.

 

[riche]

So in materials for the stand and canopy and book shelves what do you have into it cost wise?

 

[GnarleyMarley]

In the stand, about 300-400. Not too bad considering the size

 

[riche]

In the stand, about 300-400. Not too bad considering the size

Does that inc the accent lights and butcher block?

And speaking of accent lighting, what did you use? My wife loves your stand and hopes I can make one like it for the 180

 

[sheldonjjessup]

DONE!!!!!!!!

B4

After

Wow! Great job!

 

[GnarleyMarley]

Does that inc the accent lights and butcher block?

And speaking of accent lighting, what did you use? My wife loves your stand and hopes I can make one like it for the 180

The accent lights are just Led peel and stick strip lights from amazon. I got 36.5' for like $25.

As for the table top it is just made of 2x6 cedar boards, I think I used 5-6 @ ~$8 a board. Then used a kreg jig to attach them together. Then wood putted the cracks, sanded and stained it. I also trimmed it with 1x2s to give it a finished look. So all in all the tabletop was about 80-100.

 

[jparkerdc4]

Can you show a picture of the Herbie drain you drilled in the back to supplement your other drain? Curious how you did that.