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The Final Build...
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The coRal nuT
Time to work on the canopy again.....first step was to paint/stain the main trim.
Wile i did that i sprayed the inside of the canopy all black too with a very heavy coat of water based urethane on top of it to help with the humidity not getting into the wood. As you may have noticed in prier pics...all the screws were covered with liquid nail also to help with the same thing.
Now i know i can lift this whole thing but i wanted to be able to keep it up wile im working in the tank. I was thinking of a pulley system to help with that but that was getting to complex. We all know that sometimes simple is better so i skipped that whole idea except one part. The one part was the scissor part of the lift.
I grabbed more stuff at work from the scrap pile. This time it is a fiberglass circuit board type material but much stronger!!! Its called Polycluth. Trust me...it burns up solid carbide end mills quick! I made it into .75" wide strips to be about 10" long each. Tossed them on the cnc so that the holes where in the same spot on each. In the pics below you will see that i used nylon screws to hold them together but i did change them to stainless for even more strength. the screws are not going thru just the wood but a nylon bushing that i pressed into the wood so i could get long time wear from lifting. There is a pair of these scissors on each side of the center brace on the top part of the canopy. They go down to another piece of wood that i have coming from the back and rests on the center brace of the tank.
As you can see i had to put a stop block in so that there is not magga forces on the pivot points by going to far with it. The straighter the scissor is the better when its locked into place
step back and snap a pick for proof that im not holding it up.
Now in this next pic you will see the scissor on the right a little but now im showing off the LEDs that im using for this build :)
The LEDs of my choice to use on this 75 are called Madness ZERO. They have 20 blue and 20 white Cree xpe leds with 60 degree optics on them using a TOTAL of 100 watts. There is no fans on these at all. Zero noise! But they are heavy cuz of the big heat sink. They get only warm to the touch. Reason for that is because the driver ...which are dimmable!!...is located not on the led unit it self, but before them.
I havent taken par readings yet but ill tell you one thing...i bet they are close to 250watt halide readings...these suckers are bright in 18" of water only 4" above.
more pics of the ZEROs
Wile i did that i sprayed the inside of the canopy all black too with a very heavy coat of water based urethane on top of it to help with the humidity not getting into the wood. As you may have noticed in prier pics...all the screws were covered with liquid nail also to help with the same thing.
Now i know i can lift this whole thing but i wanted to be able to keep it up wile im working in the tank. I was thinking of a pulley system to help with that but that was getting to complex. We all know that sometimes simple is better so i skipped that whole idea except one part. The one part was the scissor part of the lift.
I grabbed more stuff at work from the scrap pile. This time it is a fiberglass circuit board type material but much stronger!!! Its called Polycluth. Trust me...it burns up solid carbide end mills quick! I made it into .75" wide strips to be about 10" long each. Tossed them on the cnc so that the holes where in the same spot on each. In the pics below you will see that i used nylon screws to hold them together but i did change them to stainless for even more strength. the screws are not going thru just the wood but a nylon bushing that i pressed into the wood so i could get long time wear from lifting. There is a pair of these scissors on each side of the center brace on the top part of the canopy. They go down to another piece of wood that i have coming from the back and rests on the center brace of the tank.
As you can see i had to put a stop block in so that there is not magga forces on the pivot points by going to far with it. The straighter the scissor is the better when its locked into place
step back and snap a pick for proof that im not holding it up.
Now in this next pic you will see the scissor on the right a little but now im showing off the LEDs that im using for this build :)
The LEDs of my choice to use on this 75 are called Madness ZERO. They have 20 blue and 20 white Cree xpe leds with 60 degree optics on them using a TOTAL of 100 watts. There is no fans on these at all. Zero noise! But they are heavy cuz of the big heat sink. They get only warm to the touch. Reason for that is because the driver ...which are dimmable!!...is located not on the led unit it self, but before them.
I havent taken par readings yet but ill tell you one thing...i bet they are close to 250watt halide readings...these suckers are bright in 18" of water only 4" above.
more pics of the ZEROs
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The coRal nuT
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The coRal nuT
ill have a little more coming up in a few days...just waiting for a few things to come in :)
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The coRal nuT
JUST HAD TO Share this one fast!!!! I also had to do a vid of it just so you all really know that it works perfect!!
This is one of the trickist things I did to my new reef!! Since my sump is on the other side of the wall...so is the plug for the return pump. Now when I want to feed my coral I dont have to walk around and unplug my return pump!!
[video=youtube_share;HEs-hvyQPUs]http://youtu.be/HEs-hvyQPUs[/video]
This is one of the trickist things I did to my new reef!! Since my sump is on the other side of the wall...so is the plug for the return pump. Now when I want to feed my coral I dont have to walk around and unplug my return pump!!
[video=youtube_share;HEs-hvyQPUs]http://youtu.be/HEs-hvyQPUs[/video]
Last edited:
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The coRal nuT
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The coRal nuT
Canopy again...
Well i did finish the tile work on the canopy....
But i was VERY unhappy with my self....the grout i used was not the same color...i thought i used charcoal colored on the stand...well after i set the canopy up on the tank...there was a big difference!!
Yep i made a mistake and didnt keep the old bag so i would know for when i did the canopy. See for your self the color difference with a flash on them.
stand
canopy
OK the flash made them look little to much alike...trust me ...one was blacker than the other and you could tell very easy in person.
Well any who...i needed them to match of coarse. Now here is my solution....Paint the grout. With how i did it it worked very easy since i had large grout lines.
First off i snagged a $1 bottle of black acrylic paint
Mixed it in a bowl with water to make it more of a tint instead of a paint. This makes it so i can add more layers to one or the other to make them match better.
Yes that is a tooth brush i used to mix it.....BRAND NEW one bought just for this...(pack of 4 at dollar tree...he he he) That tooth brush was also used to paint the watered down color on the grout. I was able to drag the tooth brush down the lanes of grout very easy. Took much less time than with a paint brush and much easier to keep steady.
A pick just after my first line...
It was turning out very nice!! Looked much better and really defined the slate better too...some times the slate was getting lost in the color of the stand....NOT ANY MORE :)
canopy after
stand after
Now the whole darn thing...now looks even better!!
Well i did finish the tile work on the canopy....
But i was VERY unhappy with my self....the grout i used was not the same color...i thought i used charcoal colored on the stand...well after i set the canopy up on the tank...there was a big difference!!
Yep i made a mistake and didnt keep the old bag so i would know for when i did the canopy. See for your self the color difference with a flash on them.
stand
canopy
OK the flash made them look little to much alike...trust me ...one was blacker than the other and you could tell very easy in person.
Well any who...i needed them to match of coarse. Now here is my solution....Paint the grout. With how i did it it worked very easy since i had large grout lines.
First off i snagged a $1 bottle of black acrylic paint
Mixed it in a bowl with water to make it more of a tint instead of a paint. This makes it so i can add more layers to one or the other to make them match better.
Yes that is a tooth brush i used to mix it.....BRAND NEW one bought just for this...(pack of 4 at dollar tree...he he he) That tooth brush was also used to paint the watered down color on the grout. I was able to drag the tooth brush down the lanes of grout very easy. Took much less time than with a paint brush and much easier to keep steady.
A pick just after my first line...
It was turning out very nice!! Looked much better and really defined the slate better too...some times the slate was getting lost in the color of the stand....NOT ANY MORE :)
canopy after
stand after
Now the whole darn thing...now looks even better!!
OP
OP
customcolor
The coRal nuT
some times better things come put of a f up :P
revhtree
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Bro that looks really good!
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The coRal nuT
if you think that looks good...wait to you see what im hoping for the door....still working on the details on that now but you will trip :tongue:
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The coRal nuT
Thank you... I always do try to think outside the box
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eddiecorrea
Active Member
I like it. Very nice build.
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