Due to the lack of adequate sandbed real estate and disliking the aquascape of my 125, I was able to convice my wife to let me upgrade tanks. I bought a used 180 a few months back, but due to my hectic schedule the project was put on hold. Over the past couple weeks I've made quite a bit of progress on building the stand and have some new lighting with more coming. On my 125 gallon setup I have 250 watt 14k Phoenix DEs and 48" T5s. On the 180 I'll be upgrading to twelve 36" T5s and I'm planning to upgrade to LED with 3 of the fixtures that Luke33 is selling. Here's a few pics of the tank stand thus far:
The frame made from 2x4 and 2x6 from the plans on reefcentral:
I added some drawers on ball bearing slides so I have a place to put things down while i'm working (and a beer and my elbows once it's up and running):
Here's the skin being tacked on the front:
And then I did quite a bit of work without taking any pics so there's a big jump...
On the other end of the stand, there's a door to slide the sump in and out, and a flush mount for my RKL. For a skimmer I'm running an Octopus Extreme 250, but I just upgraded the pump from a Sicce to the bubble blaster 3000 which supposedly pulls about 50-60 SCFM. The canopy is framed out, but that's about it at this point. The full design is still up in the air depending on what I end up doing for lighting. I plan on using 1/8" braided cable with a pulley system and a ratcheting winch so that I can raise and lower the fixtures for maintenance/light acclimation.
Any comments/concerns thus far would be greatly appreciated. Now it's just a matter of finishing up the setup and moving the contents of the 125 over. I can't wait!! :dance:
The frame made from 2x4 and 2x6 from the plans on reefcentral:
I added some drawers on ball bearing slides so I have a place to put things down while i'm working (and a beer and my elbows once it's up and running):
Here's the skin being tacked on the front:
And then I did quite a bit of work without taking any pics so there's a big jump...
On the other end of the stand, there's a door to slide the sump in and out, and a flush mount for my RKL. For a skimmer I'm running an Octopus Extreme 250, but I just upgraded the pump from a Sicce to the bubble blaster 3000 which supposedly pulls about 50-60 SCFM. The canopy is framed out, but that's about it at this point. The full design is still up in the air depending on what I end up doing for lighting. I plan on using 1/8" braided cable with a pulley system and a ratcheting winch so that I can raise and lower the fixtures for maintenance/light acclimation.
Any comments/concerns thus far would be greatly appreciated. Now it's just a matter of finishing up the setup and moving the contents of the 125 over. I can't wait!! :dance: