JoelATX

Hi all,

For sometime I've been planning to stain my new stand to match my kitchen cabinets, which are in the same great room. I have extra cabinet doors, and I've been trying to match the stain. But I'm not having much luck. See the picture with the 3 planks, middle is the cabinets, left stain is a total fail, right is as close as I've come.

BUT, there is still part of me that wants a dark stain. See the picture of a stand I made several years back. A dark stain would match the stairs right next to the tank.

Is matching the kitchen cabinets really a good idea?

Do tanks have better pop when they are dark?

Which looks better to you?

Stand is coming along. The plan was to adequately build and not to over build. All joints are glued and nailed. Each corner is constructed from four 1x6, main 2x4 frame is resting on a 1x6 corners.

Anyone see any red flags, I'm hoping to keep the full front and back open for easy access to the sump.

I got the drain installed (but not the plumbing) and the floor leveled.

I'm off to a rocky start... I messed around with aquascaping this evening. And it's going to be a little more of a challenge than I thought.

I'm going to have to break out the saw, chisel, and rods in order to get the rocks piled in an interesting way.

Here is my plan; Do basic Aquascaping, build few islands with some connecting ledges then start curing the rock. Is this correct?

When I moved into my house I found this big piece of coral, should I incorporate it into the tank?

There are some long dead remnants of life on the rocks, would power washing help speed the process?

Below are some more pictures of the rocks, the cardboard is the size of my tank.

The red outlines are the rock in my old tank. If you see any inspiration let me know, I'm a little overwhelmed.

I took advantage of Bulk Reef's Black Friday deals on rock.

BRS Bulk Pukani - 40LB Box

BRS Tonga Complex Multi-Branch - 14LB

Laying on my kitchen table, it looks like a lot. This plus what I have in the current tank hopefully will be a good start.

UPS didn't do to much damage, center bottom pile is all the rubble. Just a handful.

The Pukani is has lots of holes and crevices. It would have been nice to have a little more branching on the Tonga.

I have like a week till the tank gets here, maybe more. What should I do to prep the rock?

Once I get the tank I'll figure out how much space to leave myself.

I can tell I'm going to need to add a vent fan that will draw air from living room and vent at top of stairs.

I've had saltwater tanks since the late '80s. I got Homie around 1990. This is his 5th or 6th tank and second city.

I got the old tank move to it's temporary home. Took about 5 hours and included cleaning all the pumps and rigging up a holder for the lights.

Anyone know what size bulkheads will be drilled into my 90 gal tank from Planet Aquarium?

I ordered a Planet Aquarium 90 Gal rimless, with center internal overflow. That's as wide as would fit, and as deep as my wallet could go. Was excited about it arriving next week then, remembered ThanksGiving. So no working on the install next weekend.

Still wrestling with the Clear vs Black silicone, not sure which I'll like more. I ordered clear.

Flooring: I'm looking into Home Depot's TrafficMaster Allure, it's a floating vinyl plank. I'll level the floor with an ever-so-small slope to a drain that is just behind the tank. Floor will extend 1ft on the sides and front and about 3ft at the back of the tank stand.

Thanks, for the suggestions... Keep them coming.

About adding the drain, my house is pier and beam. I'm already going to be under there to beef up the support, if needed. In that area under the house you can sit with your legs crossed. And there are two sewer line to choose from.

This is totally the advice I was looking for, didn't even think about top access.

Ventilation is something I have a plan for.

Thanks

Hi All,

I would like to upgrade my tank between now and the new year. When I did my remodel I left an opening under the stairs (see pictures). Currently it has a 29gal tank with a 23 plus year old Tomato clown living in there. I like the idea of having part of the tank come out into the room, but a full 24" would start invading the space.