Frag Tank Build

I recently upgraded my frag tank to a bigger one, made by one of our resident acrylic fabricators, Bud. (Floyd Turbo)
Here is a picture of my old frag tank (and fishroom) setup.

Here is the new tank sketch up.

First thing I did was paint the back and bottom with Krylon Fusion spray paint. The back is a satin finish and the back is a gloss. I ran out of paint and satin wasn't available. No big deal to me.
Then I started building a stand for it. Here is the bottom panel. 

Two frames done, top and bottom.
Crap. I used the wrong pieces of wood. I am such a dumbass. Time to take everything apart!
Ok so time to drink a beer and gather my thoughts and get this right.
OK with that done time to build the rest of it.
That beer really helped. Keep working......

More to come as I keep building.

 

The top is down and the first coat of marine primer is on. That paint stinks! I should have ventilated better....I painted it in my basement and now my entire house smells like crap.

 

Hammerhead is anal raping Kermit. My girlfriend can have a sick sense of humor!

 

Yeah it is way overbuilt but I learned it from you!  Ha ha 2x4's are so easy to come by...so there you have it. 
I don't know how many gallons it is...I think around 40. I am going to tie it into my main system. I still have to put wheels on it and paint it blue.

 

That is an AI SOl Blue and I will be adding another one.

 

Got the blue marine paint on (three coats) and added the wheels. I had some 3" foam board that is under the tank but it is too thick and I am going to get some thinner stuff.

 

I knew the footprint of my entire filtration/frag system was going to increase, but once I got down to brass tacks I wasn't happy at all with how much space the system was using. I explored a lot of different ideas......and decided in the end to build a new stand to hold my sumps. The new stand will offer a smaller footprint and also move the sumps closer to the wall. The new stand will also be taller, and my new frag tank will be able to slip underneath it all nice and tight.




Here is the current table and frag tank that I am replacing. You can see that the legs are rusting pretty bad.











Here is the start of the new stand, built entirely out of scrap. (I know I know enough with the stand pics!)




I wish I would have just bought new straight boards because about half of them were twisted slightly and the whole stand took about 40 more screws than it should of!

 

The sump stand is done! Menards didn't have marine blue paint so I went with the marine grey. As you can see, it is now covered in completely clean reactors! As things go in this hobby, one thing leads to the next and the next thing you know it is three days later. In this case, I have to remove the rubbermaid and sump (and old table) to move the new stand in place. I had to clear out my reactors to do this. So I cleaned them top to bottom, and replaced all the media. It took like three hours and three beers to get it done. I still have to actually move the sumps next and I am sure that will involve a through cleaning, including probes (and recalibrations!)

Here are all the pumps bathing in a vinegar bath.
 

 

Here is an update. I moved the frag tank in place and of course I totally measured wrong and it didn't fit. I forgot to allow for the plumbing coming off the bottom of the overflow box. So luckily I solved the issue by removing the wheels and adding cement blocks (which I need because my basement floods). A couple tweaks here and there and the tank fit perfectly!

It may not seem like much but I added two stands, compressed my reactor center on the left side, and also shunk my total footprint by about 1 foot all the way around. Again, that may not seem like a big deal but it is to me!

 

I still have a few more things to do. Fix the plumbing on the rubbermaid and drop some plumbing from the frag tank to the sump behind it. And add the lights. 




Here is my AI SOL light bar that I made.











It is a piece of angled stainless steel. I slid it into the heatsinks. It rides almost flush. I also used two collets to hide the screw bolts, and you also see two light yo-yo's...they are a reatractable light hanging device.











Here is a top view of the underside of the rail. The cables (power, controller, data) will all be compressed and shielded from view by the rail. I used the data cable as an example. It is hard to see but I also made a hole in the center of the bar for the controller cable and power brick cables. They will all be ziptied together and run straight up. It is the best solution I can think of. AI lights are kinda tricky since they have so many cables and you have to hook them all together. When they eventually come out with their wireless modules this problem will be solved but still.