The Portuguese Reef - 150 Gallon Reef Savvy Build

[spspirate]

Love to see you breath life back into this beast of a tank! Tagging along. When I first sold the tank I went through 3 jugs of vinegar to clean up all the coralline..Lol Did you ever get the stand?

 

[MRodrigues1991]

Love to see you breath life back into this beast of a tank! Tagging along. When I first sold the tank I went through 3 jugs of vinegar to clean up all the coralline..Lol Did you ever get the stand?

I did, it was in pretty bad shape, beaten up and repainted quite a few times. I stripped it down and an reskinning it currently. Still in the process but will post some progress pics soon. The router advice you gave me worked perfectly. So glad I didn’t use a jig saw to cut openings....

This pic of the stand will probably bring back some memories! @spspirate

 

[Fin]

It is nice to see that this tank / stand has found it's way into someone's hands that will take care of it. Hard to believe the stand was already beat up. It was such a great build to start off with and actually sold me on Reef Savvy tanks. Even got the idea for the feed store rubber mat under my tank from Andy's build, among other things. Looking good. I am envious that you got such a nice Reef Savvy tank without the wait time though.

 

[MRodrigues1991]

It is nice to see that this tank / stand has found it's way into someone's hands that will take care of it. Hard to believe the stand was already beat up. It was such a great build to start off with and actually sold me on Reef Savvy tanks. Even got the idea for the feed store rubber mat under my tank from Andy's build, among other things. Looking good. I am envious that you got such a nice Reef Savvy tank without the wait time though.

Hopefully the stand comes out as nice as it used to be! Will be reskinning as I said above, then think I am going to paint it all a paint we used in our kitchen called “Pixel White” kind of an off white to a slight grey.

I still have the original mat from Andy! Will be using that as well.

As far as the wait time on a new Reef Savvy tank, the deal was worth it for that alone.

 

[MRodrigues1991]

So thinking of different options to mount all my equipment and controllers.

Thinking of extending the stand about 4 inches and having everything located at the end of the stand. Behind ether a wood door/panel or smoked glass.

Below is a picture with a 2x4 to try and gauge how deep I want it. Unfortunately I got a bid ahead of my self and already skinned the front and back. But may need to remove that if I extend the stand a few inches so the skin is one clean panel and not just extended with another piece. Struggling a bit to figure out how to manage the inside of the panel in the stand and organize wires. Need to brainstorm a bit more to figure something out .

 

[vipete1985]

So thinking of different options to mount all my equipment and controllers.

Thinking of extending the stand about 4 inches and having everything located at the end of the stand. Behind ether a wood door/panel or smoked glass.

Below is a picture with a 2x4 to try and gauge how deep I want it. Unfortunately I got a bid ahead of my self and already skinned the front and back. But may need to remove that if I extend the stand a few inches so the skin is one clean panel and not just extended with another piece. Struggling a bit to figure out how to manage the inside of the panel in the stand and organize wires. Need to brainstorm a bit more to figure something out .

Great build....that stand is solid,must weigh a nice amount...Just take into consideration on the extension for your controllers and such that when you mount the apex power bar and then plug all the heavy gauge cords into the power bar that they stick out a decent amount...I made that mistake because some plugs are thicker than others and not all have a flat plug so when I went to put a plexiglass cover on it I had to extend it out further to almost about 5 inches deep depending on how u plan to slide the door on

 

[MRodrigues1991]

Great build....that stand is solid,must weigh a nice amount...Just take into consideration on the extension for your controllers and such that when you mount the apex power bar and then plug all the heavy gauge cords into the power bar that they stick out a decent amount...I made that mistake because some plugs are thicker than others and not all have a flat plug so when I went to put a plexiglass cover on it I had to extend it out further to almost about 5 inches deep depending on how u plan to slide the door on

Good point! thanks as I wouldn't have thought of that. Will see what I come up with.

 

[MRodrigues1991]

@spspirate Whatever happend to that Aquabox sump you had built??

 

[spspirate]

Oh man great question! I’d love to find that sump. To be honest I have know idea but I can find out.

 

[don_chuwish]

Beautiful tank and sump, can't wait to see it come together.

 

[MRodrigues1991]

So did some work on the stand tonight. Extended out to house all the controllers and equipment. Thanks for the advice @vipete1985 as I was going to use 2x4s but instead I used 2x6 for some extra clearance. Going to frame the inside of the 2x6 to give a 3-4 inch perimeter that I will skin and then use as mounting points for either one big door or two smaller ones. Then I will skin the entire stand, router the openings for doors on both sides of the stand, mount the top piece of wood for the tank to sit on then paint. Still a bit of work to do hopefully will get a lot done next weekend!

 

[don_chuwish]

Looking good! Fun ain't it?

 

[MRodrigues1991]

Quick update, got the entire stand skinned and the equipment display section completed.

Need to order custom doors now, just have to figure out from where. So if anyone has any recommendations I’m open ears, also considering building them my self but have to compare the cost, quality and time I will have to spend.

The Elite Aquatics sump is on its way, I also ordered a matching ATO as well. Still on the fence if I want to dose or use a calcium reactor. I have the GHL doser but still need to figure out what I want to do for containers if I go that route.

On to mounting the hardware/electronics. I worked with @morpheas on getting somethings 3d printed. Got a mount for my kindle fire, reeflink, ecotech drivers and Apex screen. Awesome person to work with and highly recommend reaching out!

On to some pics...

 

[Clayton Jessup]

That stand looks massive but I love it [emoji4]

 

[revhtree]

Looking good!

 

[MRodrigues1991]

So sump came in, couldn’t be more pleased with the craftsmanship. Was worried a bit about the skimmer fitting, was tight but a perfect fit. Unfortunately the 150w Eheims I was going to use some fit in the width of the sump. For a 150 gallon tank and a few more gallons with the sump , could I get away with two 100 watt heaters? If not, I’m kinda bummed that I can’t use the heater mounts in the sump.

 

[Clayton Jessup]

Please post more pictures of the sump ! I am dying to see it !!!

 

[MRodrigues1991]

Won’t be home for another week or so with the holidays but will post when I get home. A lot of pics on page 1!

 

[Clayton Jessup]

Won’t be home for another week or so with the holidays but will post when I get home. A lot of pics on page 1!

Sounds good MRorigues1991!! Can’t wait to see them !

 

[scotturban54]

Only one picture of sump?!