175 Gallon Bowfront Build

[+boognish]

I took a break from this addiction; thought I was cured; but relapsed completely about 3 months ago and realized I don't want to be cured...

I am building a stand and canopy for my latest 'fix' in this addiction and I'm going to post my progress here in hopes it will keep me moving along and that I can use this great community's input and guidance.

I started a company and let my 75 gallon mixed reef tank go practically wild. The tank went 2 years on literally ATO only - no testing, no additives other than Kent Coral Builder in the top-off water. The combination of no water changes and a DSB resulted in a Bryopsis and bubble-algae, GSP, and Pulsing Xenia tank. I'm not sure why, but suddenly in one week, the Coralline algae covered the glass, which got me cleaning... and cleaning... and cleaning. I started weekly water changes, manually removing bubble and bryopsis algae a few times a week, and dosing Brightwells Coral Amino, Bio-Fuel, Microbacter-7, and Kent Tech-m (known bryopsis killer). I threw masses of Xenia over the fence each time I reached in the tank, pulled rocks and scraped GSP off. Suddenly all these old corals I forgot about emerged from the algae. That did it. I was officially off the wagon. I started buying corals from ARC members and they've been doing very well.

The only thing missing is room in the 75 gallon for coral growth... Enter the 175 Gallon Bowfront acquired used from an ARC member:

The only issue with the tank is the stand. The factory stand is made of particle board...yah.. real smart, huh! Well one sump incident later... here's what happens to particle board when it meets saltwater.

The top and other vertical boards are made of the same particle board. Instead of doing all the necessary work to replace the bottom just to have another spill ruin the top, I decided to build a custom stand. Here are my thoughts on building the new stand:

• My current 75 stand is the standard height, but I noticed that any time anyone looked at the tank, they needed to bend over. I want it at eye-level. When measuring and eye-balling height, I ended up at 37 inches. Since my hockey # is 38, I rounded up...
  
• The bottom of the stand will be designed like a tray to hold water. I considered plumbing it. but think the area is enough to hold *most* overflows until I can wet-dry vacuumm it out.
  
• Instead of matching the curve of the tank, I am making it 3 sided in the front with custom trim to fit the curve of the tank.
  
• The sides will also have doors or removable panels which will allow me to remove the sump, replace, it, etc. without moving the stand or removing supports.
  

Here's the progress so far:

Side-view showing opening large enough to fit a 17" deep sump in and out of:

I have cut the facing panels and doors out of for the 3 front faces, but no pics yet. The last thing I did last night was silicone and epoxy the bottom to create the waterproof tray:

I'm off to the hardwood company and woodcraft for an ogee bit to make the top trim... hopefully more pics tomorrow.

[diabeetus]

awesome! i never really understood why they made tank stands out of MDF. in fact, that would be the last thing i would use. its pretty much paper and, obviously, does not last under water. silly manufacturers!! love the stand! cant wait to see this one come together

[caferacermike]

Best part is that your tank warranty is void unless you use their shredded paper stand.

[Timfish]

Nice pics! Puzzles me too why manufacturers would use MDF.

[+Hydro]

Sweet!

Nice job, looks solid!

[offroadodge]

Lookin GREAT...cant wait to see what the thing looks like finished. Are u gonna paint the inside bottom of stand with KILLS or something on those lines?

[ReefNewb]

aaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaazing on the stand! nice work!

[Derek]

Awesome! Great setup.

[burn]

nice stand i will have to get you over to ireland to build me one lol

[+boognish]

Thanks all. Any suggestions or recommendations? Any other 'features' I should try to implement as I plan and build out the rest of the stand?

@offroad - re: Killz... Yup - The plan is to coat the entire stand in Killz primer then paint the outside black. The panels of the doors and trim will be stained hardwood - most likely a deep red oak. The inside 'tray' doesn't really need the killz or latex paint since it's epoxied pretty thickly, but I'm going to anyway for consistency.

@burn - I'd dig going to Ireland! You'd have to fly my father to Ireland, though. I couldn't have done this next part without his woodworking and engineering expertise.

I got the top trim/rail done and got the front 3 faces on and mostly sanded. I want the tank to be inset instead of looking like it was just resting on top. We used one 12" piece to cut the entire front trim. To get the curve, we created a template with a flexible lath glued to plywood base. Anyone need a 175 bowfront template? I hate to cut it up and throw it away because it took a while to figure out and make:

The cardboard cutout is the rough tank template. Moving this tank around is not easy and just makes me nervous, so I haven't put it up there to make sure all my measuring was good and it actually fits within the width of the trim. There isn't much room for error there... Anyone have industrial glass suction cups?

The doors are not going to be on hinges, rather just hook in at bottom and magnet at the top. I thought of what a pain in the ... it would be to work in - going back and forth with doors swinging around.

Starting to think about lighting and plumbing. Lighting first, I guess. I am going for 3x400w MH, 8x48" T5, 1 VHO in the curve (good idea Jeremy...) and another VHO in the back if there's room, and 3 or 4 LED moon lights.

• Can fans effectively clear that heat from a wooden canopy?
  
• Any info or inks to info on the space I need to allow above, below, and around the 400w MHs?
  

Canopy considerations...

• Should have 3 faces like the stand
  
• entire front should open - this part would hold the VHO
  
• a way to either lift the light rack or enough room to slide it back for tank access... or both...
  
• a way to remove the light rack without removing the entire hood
  

I have built furniture and half-pipes, but not to hold lights with such specific requirements, so any recommendations on how to reach those goals is greatly appreciated.

[mooric]

Awesome job so far!

[innate1]

looking good

[offroadodge]

Chris make the canopy tall enough for the ability to move the 400Ws up so theres atleast 12"-18" from bottom of reflector to the top of the tank. That will give u enough room to acclimate any new corals. And 3-400W thats gonna be alot but is do-able. I hope u have a chiller ordered, atleast a 1/4h or bigger, a 1/3h is what id get, wish now that i would have went with a 1/3h. Also your gonna wanna vent the cnopy outside the living area BELIEVE me!!!

[+boognish]

Chiller = done. I have a 1/3 HP CurrentUSA chilling my 75 right now.

Venting the canopy outside is a good idea. My 75 is against the garage wall and I am already running all water out there to the chiller and calcium reactor - ATO comes in the same hole. I plan to make bigger holes for this plumbing job (the wife is very excited!), so making more holes up top with drier vents is completely do-able and now part of the plan.

A consideration is the ability to raise and lower the halides for water temp and acclimation. As we discussed, I am leaning towards hanging the halides from the ceiling down into the canopy through holes just big enough for the wires. This may free up space inside the canopy, so it's more of a shell instead of having all the mounting hardware, etc. and leaving more room for some supplemental t5s and VHOs.

[+boognish]

Linoleum is the devil. Between scraping that and tearing up carpet and baseboards in preparation for staining the concrete, I had some time to work on the stand last week and this weekend. Still collecting lighting equip, so I haven't started the canopy yet. Here's some progress shots.

Oil based Kilz primer. Brushed one heavy coat inside, then sprayed a couple coats all over

Painted black with doors on.

I used extra plywood to make the door panels. They are temporary until I find some oak burl or something with an interesting grain.

The doors aren't hinged. They are supported by brackets across the bottom and held on by magnets midway up. I can easily remove the stained panels to do a third coat of black and replace with better wood later.

I will also be replacing the end door panels with some sort of metal or plastic grate to allow airflow. I want to plumb in a frag tank underneath since there's room with most of the equipment in the garage. I'm reading up on (and taking advice on...) the best way to plumb that in with the sump and display.

I will get a shot with the tank on it once I get the space cleared in the garage. Who wants to do some lifting?

[innate1]

just yell at me I'm up the road.

[caferacermike]

You still don't have the tnak on it yet?

[offroadodge]

coming together nicely...im gonna have to stop by and take a look.

[+Hydro]

Starting to think about lighting and plumbing. Lighting first, I guess. I am going for 3x400w MH, 8x48" T5, 1 VHO in the curve (good idea Jeremy...) and another VHO in the back if there's room, and 3 or 4 LED moon lights.

• Can fans effectively clear that heat from a wooden canopy?
• Any info or inks to info on the space I need to allow above, below, and around the 400w MHs?

Canopy considerations...

• Should have 3 faces like the stand
• entire front should open - this part would hold the VHO
• a way to either lift the light rack or enough room to slide it back for tank access... or both...
• a way to remove the light rack without removing the entire hood

I have built furniture and half-pipes, but not to hold lights with such specific requirements, so any recommendations on how to reach those goals is greatly appreciated.

That's a lot of light! When I had it on my tank I used 3x400's and (1) row of ho actinic bulbs that were nearly worthless when the 400's were on. That tanks was VERY bright, I think that the 8 t5's would be overkill unless most of them would be used for actinc lighting. Also I think that its going to be very hard to fit all of that lighting in to a canopy together. If I remember correctly the side of that tank are 18" and the center is 24". That pretty much leaves you room for 3 quality reflectors. I used smaller reflectors on my tanks to start out with so that I could run 4 rows of actincs. There was so much wasted light that I had to take everything out and replace the reflectors with high quality reflectors instead which made a HUGE difference, I'm still trying to acclimate my corals to it. Even taking it slow I have lost 5 corals from the stress of the new light...so my point is doin't make my mistake and go for the cheap wing type reflector just so that you can make everything else fit. I actually don't have room now for any t5's and am running my tank just off of the halides. If I eventually want supplemental lighting I will go with LED's. My reflectors are about the smallest air cooled reflectors you can buy that are any good, the measurements are 15" wide, 24" long, and 8" tall. If you are going to air cool your lighting you can bring air from the garage, cool the lights, and blow it back in the garage. You can have your fan in the garage too so that you don't have to listen to it. This will work great about 8 months out of the year.

Yes I would say the canopy should have 3 faces like the stand. You got your work cut out making that canopy and lighting work, I went through the same thing. Every screw and bolt is custom.

Your wood work looks great.

[Jessie]

Great work!

[Crab Rangoon]

I look forward to an update featuring water

It really looks great Chris, I had no idea you were building your own stand - props, dude.

[+boognish]

And i look forward to the day I can provide you with that update... My 75 is in its temporary spot, the floors are acid stained, the crown moulding is up, and the walls are painted. My sacrifice to the wife to earn my new tank is finay done and I am recovering from the remodeling and almost ready to get back to the tank. In the mean-time, I am setting up the RODI/ATO/saltwater mixing setup in the garage. I am also going to start the aquascaping. I acquired some e Marco rocks and plan to build some pedestals and arch-ways to avoid a rock pile while having the surface area and levels I want.

If anyone is interested in the acid stained concrete, pm me for details. It is pretty cool and a great plus in this hobby to not have to worry as much about the collateral damage from spills, leaks, etc.

[+Hydro]

Any updates? I figured you have water in that thing by now

[Michael Rodriguez]

Nice pics! Puzzles me too why manufacturers would use MDF.

They use it because it is very stable, usually won't warp or expand/contract to much, and it's cheap.

Personally, I hate the stuff for any application involving water. Plywood is much better but the veneers on low quality boards will end up parting from the base also.

Chris make the canopy tall enough for the ability to move the 400Ws up so theres atleast 12"-18" from bottom of reflector to the top of the tank. That will give u enough room to acclimate any new corals. And 3-400W thats gonna be alot but is do-able. I hope u have a chiller ordered, atleast a 1/4h or bigger, a 1/3h is what id get, wish now that i would have went with a 1/3h. Also your gonna wanna vent the cnopy outside the living area BELIEVE me!!!

I thought it was 12"-18" from the bulb to the water line.?.?

[+boognish]

Any updates? I figured you have water in that thing by now

Combination of the holidays and a crazy New Years deadline for a work project has slowed me down again... The good news is, the tank is in the house and on the stand. This is the first time I put it up there and it fit perfectly into the curved molding I made with absolutely no wiggle-room... whew! Measure twice, cut once.

I have ordered a couple buckets of salt and started setting up the water ATO and mixing station in the garage, but I ran into some water issues and need to have someone check it out. In the past, when I ran the hot water for a shower, occasionally a spurt of gray water would fly out... It only happened when I ran the hot and I assumed it was something collecting in my water heater so I flushed the water heater. It still happened occasionally. When I hooked up my RO/DI system, I discovered the source of the 'gray' water... There is what appears to be something like bearing grease coating the line going INTO the water heater which is where I tapped in for my RO/DI. I do not want to use the water for fear that it will not all get filtered out and kill everything in the tank.

My questions are:

1. Has anyone seen anything like this before?
   
2. Can anyone recommend someone to check it out? I was thinking city water, but would prefer someone who likes their job and cares...
   
3. Would an RO/DI system effectively filter out what appears to be petroleum based?
   

If it would filter it out, I'm sure I'd be burning through filters and membranes and having to constantly monitor TDS, so I'd prefer to resolve the situation instead of working around it.