sheac12's finally building his 180

[sheac12]

Back in '08 I purchased discretekarma's 180, which was actually jamesbuf's old 180 AGA, when discretekarma was forced to sell it. Getting it out of Scott's backyard was a task and a half. I wish I had photos of the backyard and the lovely fun my friend and I had getting that 500lb moster out of there.

 

The tank sat for over 10 months collecting dust while my wife and attempted to purchase our first home. The one thing I required in the house was a place for the fish tank. Some place where I could hide all the plumbing and stop "cluttering" up the living room for a week, like my wife always claimed, which might have been true, when I did water changes.

 

I decided that with this new tank(I previosuly had a 90G AGA), I wanted it to be a beautiful piece of furniture in my new home's living room. I went web surfing and spent a crap load of time on reef central looking at other people's stands. I found one I actually liked which was reefcentral's harleyj's stand. See his photo gallary on reefcentral for photos (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/album.php?albumid=775). I spoke with harleyj and with his brother and was able to estimate his design parameters. I took the estimated dimensions and design elements I liked, and with the help of sketch up, cutlist and my friend who is an experienced wood worker I was able to come up with a design and lumber needs.

[sheac12]

Based on my own requirements I wanted a tank that was about three feet off the floor, even though I am only 5' 3" on a good day. I wanted a tank that was elevated enough so that people wouldn't need to bend over. Yes, this requires me to get a step stool to clean the thing and as my wife loves to point out, "well you might as well just get some scuba gear and jump in there, it would be easier," oh she knows me too well !

 

The base stand was designed using only 2x4 and was to be skinned in cherry.

 

The hood, which is still not complete, is designed to open up in the front to allow for easy access to the bottom of the tank and removal of the lighting for bulb changes. .

 

In each of the google sketch up drawings I have not included the trim or taken into account the hinged feature of the hood. I only used the sketch up drawings to visualize the design and create a cutlist of required materials.

[sheac12]

For the frame of the base stand I used a combination of 3/4" ply and 2x4. This base frame took forever to complete, between the crap 2x4's at lowes, having to go back multiple times and dig through their "premeire 2x4" due to the need to have an extremely level and square design for the frame. I should have just purchased nicer 2x4's to begin with. I went through the majority of the first 2x4's getting my top and bottom rectangles square and level. These are skinned with 3/4" plywood and are connected to one and other using the vertical supports.

 

 

My design called for at least 2 2x4's in the corners. I ended up using 3 2x4 per corner, where each overlaps each other. The "center" runs from the inside of the top of the frame into the inside of the bottom of the frame. Each vertical 2x4 is then connected to the "center" adjoining 2x4 with at least 8 2.5" screws. I wanted to make sure that the vertical supports wouldn't bow or separate under the weight of the tank.

 

The resulting frame is extremely strong and completely level and weights about 150lbs. I wanted to protect the floor of the stand, where I will be keeping my sump and other equipment from rotting. I decided to use plastic dip to achieve this. I had used it previously on my 90 for the bottom of my lighting hood that was always in contact with salt spray and found it held up very nicely.

 

Once the basic frame was complete, I needed to prepare my new house(less then 3 months since we move in) and i decided to tear up part of the carpet in our lower level. I wanted to place the tank somewhere I could run hard line water lines for waste, water replacement and top off without having it look unsightly. I was able to achieve this by tucking the tank into the near end of the lower level when you first walk down stairs from the door.

The lower level is pored concrete so leaks and water problems were less likely to cause me problems. I began by pulling up the carpet and cleaning the area of all dust and debris. What I found was a very smooth concrete finish that was ready of tiling.

I must admit that this took me over 2 months to do. Mostly because I was doing other things around the house and lets face it who really like to tile?

The end product turned out very nicely. I when I was working on this project I wanted a way to have a seamless transition between the floor tiles and the carpet. I really hate those metallic transitions you find usually between these two materials. I went surfing and was able to find a couple of DIY articles on using Z-Bars to accomplish the finished look I was going for. The tiles where laied using the center of the room as a starting place and run under the base boards on the edges. Any gap between the tile and the base board is sealed using a water resistant caulk. The end result was so nice that my wife has decided we are going to, read I am going to, finish off the 1/2 bath in the lower level.

 

NOTE : Yes the grout is pinkish in color, it was NOT that way when i stired it up nor was that the look I was going for!

[Novi]

Trying to see this tank Jeff built!!!

[TwinkE]

The tank looks great, he should be posting an update soon. I'll have the rest of the stand out of my garage soon. It's almost finished minus the doors and moulding to put on. Of course I thought it was almost done half a year ago

[Coral Hind]

Can you share the link or PM it to me on the Z-bars. I turned out really nice!

[sheac12]

Can you share the link or PM it to me on the Z-bars. I turned out really nice!

 

 

Thanks, the process isn't too hard, but you need something to stretch the carpet and FYI, take your time with it. I did the z-bar installation and carpet securing before I set the title. I did this so I could come up with straight reference line, chalk line, to work the edge against without having to worry about tile. I used a rubber mallet to secure (pound) the carpet under the zbar.

 

As for a reference I found and used this:

http://www.thetiledoctor.com/howto/Tile-Interior-Floors

 

If you have any question drop me a line.

 

Big updates coming, very picture intensive!

[sheac12]

(Be advised this is a photo heavy thread)

 

Here are a few more images of the base. In these you can see the triple 2"x4" I used in the corners. (Yes that is me mixing the rubber grip material with a diluting agent.

 

 

 

With the tile done and the base frame ready it was time to purchase the cherry. I have read on different forums and here on WAMAS that most people skin their frames with particle board/plywood and then use a veneer of their choice on the outside. Personally, I didn't care for this option, so I am building my skin and doors out of actual cherry planks and cherry plywood. Well actually, it was my friend, who is an experience wood craftsman that convinced me to use solid wood. Of course to get back at him, I have gotten him hooked on saltwater and he will be starting his 30Gal nano as soon as we finish the hood. He has already agreed he will be upgrading to a 90gal corner tank and has join WAMAS (twinke).

 

I wish I still had the photos of the stack of cherry I purchase from a store in Annapolis, but I don't. Getting down there and back with well over 700lbs of cherry and mahogany (not for me) was an experience. I had to rent a UHAL trunk to carry everything. There was no way I was going to stuff all the cherry stock, most pieces 12ft long and 10" wide, the mahogany and cherry plywood sheets, into my Honda Accord coupe!

 

I can tell you it wasn't cheap, even though I purchase raw non-planed wood stock to save money. The most expensive pieces per ft were the trim and the cherry plywood used for panels in the sides and the doors.

 

UPDATE( I was able find some pictures of the cherry!)

 

 

 

This was the "major" purchase of cherry. I ended up having to return park of it due to person whom I purchased it from did a crap job milling the wood and later claimed it was due to his blades being dull. I was able to exchange the milled stuff for raw cherry planks.

[sheac12]

The exterior skin is built using a combination of different board widths. My design is based on Harley-J

[BowieReefer84]

I don't know what your day job is, but you should build furniture as nice as that looks. Great job! Keep updating as it progresses.

[TwinkE]

We're both much better with computers. On the plus side, the top is done enough to get it out of my garage. Maybe Colin will get around to finishing posting the progress soon.

[sheac12]

Well it has been a long time since I updated this thread –whoops!

 

 

 

I will add I had to take a two-month break from the tank dueto surgery. I had to have my gallbladder, appendix and a cyst removed from myintestines. I was out of work for six weeks and nothing good happened to thetank. Thanks to twinke for helping me while I was out recovering, without him I would have had to shut down the tank. Now back to the build process!

 

 

 

The completed hood is 24" tall, which means it is as tall as the tank itself. Looking back I should have had Jeff build me a deeper tank!

 

 

 

It is assembled in the same basic method as the base stand.There is a substructure, which is constructed with 3/8" by 1.5" popular thathas been sealed with multiple coats of shellac and held together with pocketjoints.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted the hood to mirror the look of the base stand. Dueto the overall height difference I needed to change the vertical dimensions ofthe cross pieces (the long horizontal pieces of wood that span the top andbottom of the front). I ended up cuttingthese down in thickness from 5.25" to 3.5". What I realize now, but didn't thenwas I needed to also order a thinner chair molding so that the exposed woodabove and below the molding would be symmetrical with the bottom.

 

 

 

Photo of the face of the hood stained.

 

 

 

 

 

No build process is complete without at least one revisionto the plans. My next one, after a mistake in build the base stand, was Iwanted the front of the hood to open up. I wanted the ability to open the hoodup and easily change the T5 blubs. This required a rework of the sub frame forthe hood to accommodate the hinges and a series of sliding rails on which thelights would sit and allow for complete removal from the stand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To accommodate the front structure, i.e. weight, of the hoodwhere the front skin attaches to the hinge, the hood needed heavy-duty support.This means the hood is tied into the top of the sub frame using five trianglesfor reinforcement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What we realized after building in these changes was thefront skin of the hood would not be structurally attached to the sides. Thisalso meant that the fluted columns on the side would be attached only to thefront skin. The fluted columns would have to pass over the side panels eachtime the hood was opened and closed.

 

 

 

To stop the sub frame of the hood from rotting and fromscratching or sliding, where it meets with the tank, the frame is covered inplastic dip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With all the sub parts in a kind of order, the next step wastaking everything over to my house from twinke's (Kevin) garage. We started byassembling the base stand in place. I added a sheet of exterior gradeinsulation between the tank and the sub frame stand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After affixing the front, sides, and the corners all of theexposed edges where covered with cherry veneer for a more finished look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the veneer was in place and stained it was time toplace the tank and test fit the unassembled hood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No tank build is complete without at least one photo of the owner inside the tank. That Buddy with my helper looking at the the camera going, I don't know why he is in there or who he is....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well that is all the update I have time for tonight.

Edited December 25, 2010 by sheac12

[sheac12]

After dry fitting the hood, we took it down to finishskinning it.

 

 

 

With my last tank, my wife

[BowieReefer84]

Am I missing something, or is that 180 rimless?!? Nice stand and rockwork. Looks good.

[Chad]

You do beautiful woodwork, very nicely done. Looks good as it is coming together!

 

 

[kingfish]

Nice work.. My staining experience has my stand looking like crap but I did very well on my structural build. Man...it really looks nice if I had time and money I would reskin my stand. Hopefully I will do a better job on the canopy.

[Coral Hind]

Very nice job!

[TwinkE]

The tank doesn't have a rim around the edge but does have a brace on the top.

[collegeman]

that looks great, i hope to one day start my own large tank build.