JJ's basement 220

jahnje · Dec 18, 2019

I've been building this setup since November 2017. With lots of starts and stops. Since I'm moving this build thread from another forum it might be a little weird at first until I catch up with the current status. Currently I have 6 active fresh water tanks in the house. The 220 Marine Land was bought for this project, and is currently housing a few Koi who at some point will be destined for a pond. The current plan is to do a mixed reef, and the livestock is undecided. So I don't lose track of it, here's an original location shot, and a current shot. And I'll post the build changes from one to the other.

The will have a 44 gallon sump underneath it, and two smaller tanks off to the right. A 20 and a 29. The bottom will be open.

jahnje · Dec 19, 2019

I stole the plans for the stand from Chris8232. The bottom is 3-1/2" off the ground as opposed to 2". 3-1/2 is just big enough for my hand to fit under sideways with a closed fist.

I had it custom welded around Jan 4th of last year.

I painted the whole thing in during a January warm spell with undercoat and truck bed coating, two coats. The truck bed coating was used on the area where the tank comes in contact with the stand while undercoat was used everywhere else. The idea being that the truck bed coat has some rubber in it that when built up a little bit would reduce any point pressure on the bottom of the tank. The undercoating is used to protect steel from salt on roads. So it should be pretty effective here.

jahnje · Dec 31, 2019

So got my giant 6x2 foot wire rack in for the suspended cover for this. Used a couple 6' lengths of galvanized cable to suspend it from the ceiling, and the cut wire hangers to attach the lights to the rack itself. I think it gives it a fairly nice industrial look all for about 50 dollars. And gives me more flexibility than the super expensive systems. Used some standard shelving supports to attach the cable to the ceiling. This won't hold a lot of weight, but it'll hold a power strip, and all of the lights, and a towle w/o issue. I'll probably sink a few more screws into the ceiling before all is said and done just to be safe. Still cycling BTW.