Doug's 105 rimless build and diary

[alyxandria]

I walked the beach up and down for a week during Christmas and all you would see everyday when the tide changed was dried out and/or bleached corals. It was kinda sad to see.

 

[Sillyfishies]

Coral mania? How so? They really don't take much out of the water there besides ricordea and gorgonians. Now if you were to say California, then I'd agree with you. That's where 99% of the coral from Fiji and Aussie comes in.

*edit* Ahh...I forgot about the zoa lovers out there.....

Yup. Zoas are what I was mainly talking about. All the coral I've bought online came from Florida.

 

[Macscale]

Really? We don't have much actually, it's really just wholesale from other parts of the world.

 

[mr_X]

Ok...so a few pics to keep things interesting. This resin is pretty awesome. The first coat didn't turn out too good because I don't think I mixed it enough, but I appied 2 coats, and the second went quite well. I even had some extra so I coated my coffee table with it


In this pic the tank has been lifted up and placed on a temporary stand so I can get under it and caulk everything without having to turn it over.

And here's what the angle iron bottom brace looks like (ugly buy functional...it will be hidden by trim)

I was pretty amazed at how rough the hidden edges of glass were on this tank. This is the bottom of the tank-

Applying the first coat of epoxy....and making good use of the "Pasta Boat" as seen on tv!

All covered....

It took many days to dry in the garage, even though I had 3000 watts of heat in there running around the clock

Inside for the second coat, and this stuff set overnight-

And as you can see I had some extra, so I did the coffee table too...It came out great!

I'm loving it......

 

[Gregcoyote]

Great build thread.


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[Macscale]

That's awesome... For once a build thread that lives up to its name literally. A build.

 

[mr_X]

The bottom is on.....I just increased the tank weight by about a hundred pounds....now I need a few strong gentlemen to help me flip this baby over so I can get some water in it!

 

[Gregcoyote]

Pray for a dry test.


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[Mattyfelts]

beautiful build Doug! coffee table looks awesome too!

On an off note, walking to class today in Canada it was -20 * C, and im the furthest south in canada so thats negative amounts of fun

 

[mr_X]

Yuck! ...and I thought this weather was bad.

 

[Mattyfelts]

Yuck! ...and I thought this weather was bad.

its even worse cause if i bring a coffee to warm me up, my hand goes numb and the coffee goes cold

 

[Brookster123]

Table looks awesome!!

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[mr_X]

....and here it sits until my compadres come and help me flip it over and place it on the ground to be leak tested...

 

[Gregcoyote]

Nice tank!


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[ricksreefs]

Man found this thread somehow by typing gecko and my top two commenters are on it how funny looking sick I really like the custom over flow. I have looked into rimless 90 red ready and the prices are astronomical.


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[ricksreefs]

Ps glad you didn't get out of the hobby! That was a shame breaking the bottom pane...


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[mr_X]

Thanks peeps. Ok good news.....A few friends came over yesterday and helped me flip the tank. It's now full of water (with a heater and powerhead) in my garage! I'm going to leave it full in there for a week just to be sure. I've also decided to rearrange the fish room and put it in the wall, like the old 8' 300 was. There would just be too much space taken up if I were to place it where the 105 is, and the humidity issue was also a deciding factor.
Filling up.....

All the way full (do you believe they charge for this water, and most of the people that live here actually drink it?)-

I covered it to keep some heat in. The garage is not heated and there's only a 150 watt heater in there. It's supposed to go down to the single digits next week...

So far so good. No puddle on the floor. It made it through the first night

 

[Flaxon-Waxon]

Sheesh... exciting stuff, eh? Good luck, hope it comes to life shortly...

 

[ricksreefs]

Are pics loading for everyone ? That last three are broken links for me


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[manbeast]

It's a shame you'll be covering that beautiful wood grain bottom with sand


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