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Roni's 270 gallon upgrade


roni

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Sick/miserable and working ;( On a tank front, it shipped today from Miracles :) Hopefully be here next week. Bob is finishing up the stand and I'm hoping for a up and running tank in 2 weeks. It will be nice to shut down a couple tanks once the big system gets up. On a negative note, found flatworms in my live rock holding tank so will have to treat with flatworm exit before picking out the rock that's going into the display.

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man if yuo get up and running before i do im gonna scream....Hope your feeling better

you must be getting excited with the tank arrival so close.

 

Im outta town next weekend but the one after that i may be able to get out there for some help/kids play time.

 

this thread needs more pics, like you biting your nails waiting by the door for the tank.

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Good to hear that it will be up soon! Looking forward to seeing it put together.

 

Me too!

 

man if yuo get up and running before i do im gonna scream....Hope your feeling better

you must be getting excited with the tank arrival so close.

 

Im outta town next weekend but the one after that i may be able to get out there for some help/kids play time.

 

this thread needs more pics, like you biting your nails waiting by the door for the tank.

 

Starting to feel a little better. Flying sick with a sick kid is no fun. We definitely need to connect soon. I'm actually at a conference that weekend but we'll figure out a time.

 

 

Roni, do you have a date set for moving the tank? Let me know so I can block some time to help.

 

And by "help" I mean "watch" :)

 

Lol. The plan is for it to arrive on Thursday and I'll be spending a bunch of time uncrating it. Given that the crate with the tank weighs 1000 lbs, I think we'd probably need a minimum of 10 strong guys so I'm planning on letting Fishworld move the tank into position and plumb it. The plan is to have them install it on that saturday and then I'll hopefully be able to work on some of the peripherals (apex, getting the skimmer and lighting up) that night before heading to work in the am.

 

Feel free to come over to watch/direct :)

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It's time to post some more pictures of progress on the stand! Picking up where we left off:

 

Finished dimensioning the walnut and beginning to assemble the face frame. I use pocket hole screws for ease of assembly and for the added strength.

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Face frame is assembled and attached with finish nails and glue, then clamped to dry.

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Add the top and bottom trim.

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And it's finally beginning to look like furniture!

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Stain the walnut to darken it up a bit and to bring out the grain pattern, followed by a hand-rubbed oil-based finish.

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Cut out the opening for the plumbing and the tank is ready to be loaded up for delivery.

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The doors will be made of soft curly maple, slightly toned with dye to make the grain pop. Unfortunately the store is out of the dye I need and won't have it until next week, so installation of the doors will probably happen sometime during Thanksgiving week. In the meantime, I reverted to old-school ways and hand planed the maple edges to provide a good edge for the door panel glue-ups. It's a lot more work than using power tools, but well worth the extra effort.

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And today was the big day for Roni!

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Roni refused to climb into the tank for the traditional mermaid shot. Maybe once it is in the house and on the stand? :tongue:

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It is a truly beautiful stand and tank. Bob isn't a carpenter; he's an artist. Same with the Miracles guys. The background they put on makes it look like a solid piece of blue glass on the back. I'm really looking forward to getting this up and running. BTW, it's a tad heavy.

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Absolutely awesome.

 

And, Bob, truly, beautiful work! It is very warm and subtle, yet stunning. I cannot wait to see it with the contrasting maple doors!

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Thanks everyone. Going to work on getting this tank up tonight and tomorrow morning in between work. Will have to get my daughter bundled up and get the requisite mermaid shot before the tank gets filled with water.

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Thanks! Hopefully something soon. So my plan to get this up and running this last weekend hit a bump in the road. I'm hoping to get this moved into the house and on the stand 11/27 for anyone that is free and able to do some lifting.

 

Couple other things I should probably figure out before hand.

 

Anyone know how to make an opening in a wood floor that's the size of a vent cover? My plan was to put the pipes down through the opening and if we moved, put a fake vent in place when we left.

 

Also, after thinking about how much everything weighs, I'm thinking I should reinforce the floor more despite my contractor okaying it.

 

The tank sits over the wall in the fishroom. I was thinking 1-2 more supports should be fine. I remember seeing this steel adjustable supports but can't remember the name. Anyone have any ideas?

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Anyone know how to make an opening in a wood floor that's the size of a vent cover? My plan was to put the pipes down through the opening and if we moved, put a fake vent in place when we left.

 

Drill a 3/8" or 1/2" hole in the wood, then cut out the square with a saber saw. You could also lower a circular saw while spinning, but if the blade skips it'll scar the hardwood. I wouldn't do it that way. Floor vents usually go in front of windows, but if it's not functional it doesn't matter if you put furniture over it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Final coats of finish are going on the doors now and we plan on installing them in the stand this Sunday. Here are pictures of a couple of the doors to show how the curly maple looks.

 

Sticking with Roni's desire to maintain a visually simple design for the stand, the doors are a modified flat panel style with a recessed square edge on the floating panel to provide a little accent. I sealed the wood with dewaxed and diluted shellac with a few drops of dye to help pop the grain, then sanded the finish off, leaving the color only in the exposed wood grain. This was followed by a few coats of oil-based sealer to bring out the chatoyancy in the wood grain and will be finished off with an oil-based poly finish. It's a lot of work, but the results are spectacular and this will be good practice for the kitchen cabinets I plan to begin building this winter.

 

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Still pictures really don't show the beauty of curly maple very well. Maybe I'll take a video when the doors are totally finished...

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I am anxiously awaiting the finished product!

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I am anxiously awaiting the finished product!

 

You'll see them Sunday :) I spent last night alternately plumbing and then checking in on the in-laws. This weekend is cramping my reefing style. Now our house has holes in the floor in 2 rooms and a hole in the ceiling of the fishroom (thanks Bob) and about 30% of the plumbing done. Will have to try to sneak off to Lowes at some point and hopefully finish this up late tonight after everyone goes to bed ;)

 

No tank would be complete without a mermaid shot so here it is:

 

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Wanted to say thanks to everyone that came out yesterday to help with the tank move.

 

Thanks Jon, Kathryn (Jon's daughter), Bob, Maria (Bob's wife), Banky, and Chad for coming down to help. Along with the help of a few Richmondreefers members, we were able to get the tank into the house and on the stand. Got a little more plumbing done with Chad's help.

 

We used 7 of the Harbor Freight suction cups and it went relatively smoothly. Having 8 strong guys and myself also helped.

 

Of the 7, 1 immediately lost suction and another got bumped during the move and lost suction. However, we had enough hands that the others were fine. It really helped with lowering and lifting the tank without anyone's fingers getting smashed.

 

The stand turned out amazingly well due to Bob's craftsmanship and careful attention to detail. Got my new RO unit hooked up late last night and started filling the tank. Hopefully will have the plumbing done tonight and get salt mixing in there.

 

Hopefully will have everything from the 70 over to the new tank by Friday. Spent a good part of last night trying to sort out the hastily pulled powercords in the 70 and getting it up and running again (we slid that tank over to put the new tank).

 

Thanks again everyone that came out (and many others who offered to help). It's great being part of club that jumps in to help so quickly and eagerly.

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