Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

I'm going to stain it.

So I have the doors finished, but not attached. I also added some trim, but I'm not going to take a picture just yet becuase I'm short 1 piece. Somehow I wasn't paying attention and the one piece splintered really bad. I think i accidently let go of it while I still had the miter on and wham there it went. If I were to do the trim over I'd do it different but I'm not in the mood to change it now and the trim pieces cost money. I don't think I'm saving any money making the stand but I think I can do the canopy fairly cheap and have it match. Hopefully I can get the trim work done during the week and then do some touch ups with wood puddy and have it ready for a final sanding this weekend. I'll either start the canopy or stain the stand this coming up weekend. I have a limited time to use the table saw I got so I might do the canopy, but we will see.

This thing is coming along extremely slow. I actually took off work yesterday to get the stand stained and work on a few other things. I stained the stand and all the doors for the canopy and stand. I'll get the canopy finished later. I just want to finish the stand so I can get the thing cycling. Next I have to put the poly on. The long dry times and lack of time is what is slowing this down, plus not backing able to work on it after work. I'll try to get some pictures of the stand now that it has been stained. I guess I'll bump my deadline to the end of april for actually getting everything into the tank.

I can't wait to the finished result good luck on everything coming out smooth.

Small steps. I am finished staining the stand. I started the canopy top and the doors. I'll finish those this weekend and start the canopy. I'm not really in a hurry for that stuff because I can do it while its cycling. I just want to get some water, sand and rock in the tank. Hopefully I can get some plumbing done friday night and finished this weekend. I don't really need it done though to cycle stuff in the main part of the tank if i keep the water below the top of the overflow.

Here are a few pictures:







I'm also debating what trim I should use for the bottom of the canopy. The top will lift up and it is just a 3/4 inch piece of ply with the trim on it. It just sits on the canopy and will be attached at the back with a 3 foot hinge.

I should have picked a better board for the top front of the stand. The grain really sucks on that piece... oh well what can you do.

looking good!

Looking very nice, thanks for the pics.

So I finished the stand and canopy. I may add some handles to the doors at some point. Sorry for the bad angles. I was trying to keep the flash out of the pictures. It kept reflecting off of the canopy.

Looks great you do very good work.

Thanks.. there are a few minor blemishes that I'm going to have to live with. One you can see in the picture. The white paint on the left door on the stand. I painted the back after staining it. Everything else I painted first so I could sand down any mistakes. I didn't do that for that one. Overall I'm pleased with how it turned out. Now I just need to finish the plumbing so I can finish filling the tank. I've had that rock cycling in there for going on 2 weeks now. I don't know how much more rock I'm going to put in. I kind of want a more open tank. I just can't stack that stuff how I want it until I get more water in.

Two insignificant questions: 1) What islands are depicted on the chart print hanging on the wall above the canopy? and 2) What makes it a "tub", the dimensions or something I am missing?

Regardless, whether you saved money or not, you did a beautiful job. I look forward to pictures when you have it stocked and lit. Thanks for sharing.

lwready wrote:Two insignificant questions: 1) What islands are depicted on the chart print hanging on the wall above the canopy? and 2) What makes it a "tub", the dimensions or something I am missing?

Regardless, whether you saved money or not, you did a beautiful job. I look forward to pictures when you have it stocked and lit. Thanks for sharing.

The tank is 36x18x24

The picture above the tank is semi blocked by this tank becuase its taller than the 30 that was there. Anyway its a picture of the Hawaiian Island, or as the picture says the Sandwich Islands, the original name given to the islands by Cook when he first discovered them. I went to school in Hawaii for a semester of college and I got the picture while I was there.

So I have everything moved over from the old tank and in the new one. I still have to mount some of the coral as you will see in some of the pictures. I took out the VHO last weekend from the old tank and put them in the new one. Well somehow I must have disconnected one of the T5 wires going into the endcap and when the T5s came on sunday one of them started on fire. I ended up getting some new endcaps at progressive but one of them ended up being a VHO endcap. The tank only has 2 24inch VHOs on it at the moment.

I have some inverts coming from reefs2go and a pair of yasa hashe gobies that will hopefully pair up with my pistol shrimp. Here are some new pictures:

So I just upgraded my lights. I was using a 4x 24w T5 unit i had on my old tank along with two 2ft VHO's. I had horrible coverage across the tank. I ordered a 2x 39w tek T5 setup from reefgeek along with 4 39w bulbs and 4 new reflectors to use in place of the 24's I was running on my icecap 660. After testing everything last night I love the color and look so far, and the fact that I now have light over the entire tank.

My bulb setup looks like this:

Front:
ATI Blue Plus
KZ Figi Purple
ATI Blue Plus
GE 6500K
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Aquablue Special
Back
Grim Reefer suggested 4 ATI Blue plus but I'm glad I didn't go with that. This current setup is almost too blue for my liking. It really has helped with some colors on my lps and zoanthids so far. Can't wait to see what some of my sps do.

My next purchase will be some dosing pumps. Most likely ones from Bulk Reef Supply. I like the litermeters but just can't see spending that kind of cash on them. I'll get the BRS brand or Drews Dosing pumps that they offer.

Some updated pictures of my fish and coral. Sorry about the color and quality of some of them.