The flying Dutchman - My Ocean in a box!

[xaflatoonx]

1. I love that picture
2. That’s exactly what I am trying to get in terms of paint.

I will bug you with questions once I get there. Thanks so much again

 

[ekoed]

No problem, happy to help.

 

[antrageous]

For the overflow, I had to go internal box due to the space available in the room. Yeah, I wanted the clean look and extra space in the tank with an external but couldn't sacrifice the depth space. Looking forward in seeing all this come together.

 

[xaflatoonx]

Sweet - glad you got your setup as you wanted.

Hoping to receive the 8020 bars today to hang up the ATI powermodule to the stand.

Sump/ATO/Fuge are in leak test mode. I will post pictures once i have them in the stand as well.

 

[Reef370]

That light is going to be sweet! [emoji106]

 

[xaflatoonx]

really really hope so.

 

[Crystal Reef Aquatics]

You're on the right track! Looking forward to seeing the sump installed.

 

[xaflatoonx]

Allright friends.

Good productive weekend.

Completed the following.

- painted the back wall maroonish red.
- vinyl’ed the sides of the ATO and the refugium and placed in spot. I still haven’t posted any focused pics of those because I am waiting on the sump still. Had a little glitch that crystal reef guys are going above and beyond to fix and support on. Absolutely no regrets or disappointments with them.
- installed cabinet heat sink fans - infinity ac
- installed apex bars and iPad for monitoring.
- added the light bars from 80/20


Please see pictures to support above work. I plan to do some write ups on the processes I have gone through so far. I understand the thread so far has all about the progress and not really helpful to learn from.

So hopefully I can add value in a few as soon as I get some time.

 

[Reef370]

Looking good dude, coming along nicely. Can’t wait for the next update!

 

[xaflatoonx]

Thanks Bud.....

next up - is granite... need to start getting some guys to come out and give me a quote.

 

[Reef370]

That’s gonna be flipping awesome. Can’t wait to see it.

 

[HollaAtChaReefBoy]

WHOA! Your tank is legit! Looks great man. Love all custom work so far. Keep it up bro, your tank is going to be epic!

 

[xaflatoonx]

Thanks Thanh - so glad to have you here - especially since you inspired me to do the colors on my sump/ATO/fuge.

the fact that you are houstonian is all the more better.

 

[Greenreef75]

Very thought out process so far. I like the stand setup.

 

[Don Lidtke]

Wow ... just WOW! That stand is extremely impressive! My Creative Writing prof would be on my case with all of the "!" I am using in this sentence that is until he sees this build! Following along to be sure...

 

[xaflatoonx]

haha - thanks Don - looking forward to getting it up and running around the same time as yours.
yours is definitely more thought out and planned - i am just gonna try and take ideas from your build since you are a few days ahead of me.

 

[LeeHerz]

Phenomenal build, quality, and attention to detail here too man. I’ll be keeping an eye on this tank for aure

 

[xaflatoonx]

Thank you for your kind words sir

 

[xaflatoonx]

First of all - apologies to the friends following this thread for bring missing these past few weeks.
A little busy with work and then waiting on the tank still got me a little behind on the updates to you guys.

Progress is still in play.

lets start with the stand.

1. Cabinet lights installed.
2. Stand top installed - this was supposed to be Granite - but it was coming out to be too much. So i installed wood flooring and then painted it with a coat of poly for preservation.
3. Removed drawer on the Fuge cabinet in order to get the height corrected.
4. Hung the ATI fixture

For Cabinet lights - i used 5 LED bars - that are interconnected. I plugged the power supply into a TP link adapter that will communicate with Alexa.
for now though - here is a picture of the lights on.

I removed the drawer i had built in the fuge cabinet - far right - in order to have the fuge sit at a height that i can access the cheato more easily.

This is also introducing the Crystal Reef aquatics equipment that i am super duper proud of. More pics to follow.

Now - for the stand top - as I mentioned I added the wood flooring on top. I also used some unfinished bull-nose stair top as the front edge of the stand top.

I painted the top pitch black with a MATTE poly cover. The paint was oil based - so it had a lot of shine to it. I dont like shiny furniture -
To get the paint attached real good on the floor i used a strong primer as well.

Hung the ATI fixture as well as you can see in the last picture.

For all my friends who are looking to hang their ATI lights or using the ATI hanging kit with 80/20 - its a piece of cake. I looked for instructions but couldnt find any. You dont need to use any eye bolts or anything.
This may be too simple and that is probably why no one has mentioned it specifically.

But you drill a hole through your 80/20 - from where you need to hang the light.
you pass the wire given by ATI trough the settling nut they provide. Put a washer through as support and pass the wire through the hole. THen hang the light at the bottom.

this picture should explain it.

 

[Reef370]

Looking awesome sir, stand looks like it turned out perfect. Digging it all lit up..