Hi All! New to the forum here but I would like to share my progress so far and going forward of setting up my 80g I got second hand off marketplace, this isn't my first tank but it is a full reset from a bad dino crash last year.
I will start with the stand since I didn't have one I went to lowes and got some materials and got started. basic 2x4 stand and skinned in premium pine, followed by leftover paint I had laying around.
This was pretty basic I left room for doors to be flushed in so they wouldn't stick out past the outsides.
A coat of paint on the stand and dry fitment of the doors, these are basically just door casing and a waterproof drop ceiling tile glued together.
I put a piece of advantech on the floor and built a panel on the inset to mount my equipment that I wanted visual.
here is a dry fit of the doors after a coat of paint and the equipment door. I built this with intention of going upstairs in my mancave but somehow convinced my wife we needed a tank in the living room, I had a 60g also so we did some back and forth and tried both in the area I had designated and decided this was a better fit .
Although the 60g is a much prettier tank, this seems to fit the space much better. Now we need a light, I installed a old razor light I had laying around to get an idea.
Ok this light isn't going to work it is blinding from every sitting area so I decided we needed a canopy, So I did what any other person would do and lurk reef2reef for ideas and came up with a floating canopy on door hinges.
Time for plumbing, and trying to figure out equipment.
I had an axis 40 pump that has never let me down, I used this in the 60g without an issue but I didn't want to have to run it at 100 percent here so I bought an axis 90 for this tank. Also scored a used apex system and some modules from a friend after a little trading.
Unfortunately after getting the apex the ato that i got wouldnt fit in my sump so I switched it out for a larger sump a buddy had laying around. I had already plumbed the first one so I used what i had and salvaged the plumbing the best I could. This sump is extremely overkill but I should have room to add a refugium later if I want.
Now for the scape, I really want this to be kind of minimal, I plan to run some bio media in the sump for replacement of liverock.
Had this seeding in a tote for a while, now we can add some water and sand.........Continued.
I will start with the stand since I didn't have one I went to lowes and got some materials and got started. basic 2x4 stand and skinned in premium pine, followed by leftover paint I had laying around.
This was pretty basic I left room for doors to be flushed in so they wouldn't stick out past the outsides.
A coat of paint on the stand and dry fitment of the doors, these are basically just door casing and a waterproof drop ceiling tile glued together.
I put a piece of advantech on the floor and built a panel on the inset to mount my equipment that I wanted visual.
here is a dry fit of the doors after a coat of paint and the equipment door. I built this with intention of going upstairs in my mancave but somehow convinced my wife we needed a tank in the living room, I had a 60g also so we did some back and forth and tried both in the area I had designated and decided this was a better fit .
Although the 60g is a much prettier tank, this seems to fit the space much better. Now we need a light, I installed a old razor light I had laying around to get an idea.
Ok this light isn't going to work it is blinding from every sitting area so I decided we needed a canopy, So I did what any other person would do and lurk reef2reef for ideas and came up with a floating canopy on door hinges.
Time for plumbing, and trying to figure out equipment.
I had an axis 40 pump that has never let me down, I used this in the 60g without an issue but I didn't want to have to run it at 100 percent here so I bought an axis 90 for this tank. Also scored a used apex system and some modules from a friend after a little trading.
Unfortunately after getting the apex the ato that i got wouldnt fit in my sump so I switched it out for a larger sump a buddy had laying around. I had already plumbed the first one so I used what i had and salvaged the plumbing the best I could. This sump is extremely overkill but I should have room to add a refugium later if I want.
Now for the scape, I really want this to be kind of minimal, I plan to run some bio media in the sump for replacement of liverock.
Had this seeding in a tote for a while, now we can add some water and sand.........Continued.
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