Thirty Gallon Build!!!

[Buffy]

I finished building it I'll be posting a pic or two and maybe a vid of it when I come home on Monday. Schools out!!

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!! I checked out Vid 1 earlier for a couple minutes. Running out of time here LOL. I will finish watching them later. I love your rockwork and corals. Tank is looking Awesome.....oh I said that already still..........AWESOME lol

 

[needmorecowbell]

Thanks buffy I could go on and on about the tank in the vids, gotta cut myself off a little faster lol!

 

[needmorecowbell]

Came back today, the ato worked perfect, but there were problems with the tank. I had a lot of algae on the walls, which is really uncommon. Two of my corals have bleach marks, the bonsai and monti. The monti has a small patch of diatoms covering a piece of if, but I'm not worried because it has happened before and grew even faster after it had happened. The bonsai fell over at some point. The bottom of one branch does not look happy at all, I'm worried because it isn't a very hardy coral and I've heard the skeleton is porous, so supergluing the bleached part would be risky, as it could travel up the skeleton. I'm hoping it will heal up, it's such a pretty coral.

The other corals look fantastic. I am loving my Hollywood stunner, it's well, stunning. The purple tip has actually grown, which is very exciting, and the stylo birdnest is really encrusting the rock now. I'm thinking of fragging my seriatopora into a bunch of pieces and selling it to save a little bit more for a car, I already have some nice pieces (I might have already said this, or just serious déjàvu)

To anyone who might want to upgrade their tank a little bit, but nothing major.... GET AN AUTO TOPOFF!!! It's very nice

 

[needmorecowbell]

I saw this video a while ago, and was like, "wow, that's when you know your corals are happy"..... Guess what.. That just happened to my tabling Acro. It made me pretty happy, not gonna lie lol.

The purple tip tort is now my favorite coral. It's polyps are super awesome and it has actually colored up in my tank compared to the halides it was under when I bought it.

 

[jjamontan]

When you look at any of his videos, and see that your corals look like his you will know that you are a doing everything right

 

[needmorecowbell]

Thanks

I can only hope my sps will color up like his. I'm happy the soli is doing this well though. The bonsai is a different story though.. Its bleached because when I was away for a weekend, it was bumped and fell on the sandbed. The one part is bleached completely but the other parts are coloring up nicely. It's a really pretty coral.

I recently bid for a red planet Acro, it's about 4" and 15$ was my offer. I really hope I get it, it will be my last coral for a long time.

I'm done with the skeleton of my canopy, looks pretty crappy lol. I'm going to skin it and hopefully it will look better then. I might have to toss it

 

[CorallineAlgae]

I'm done with the skeleton of my canopy, looks pretty crappy lol. I'm going to skin it and hopefully it will look better then. I might have to toss it

Don't sweat it. There's a learning curve with woodworking. If it doesn't come out the way you like it's not a bad idea to use it anyway for a good while. That way, as you use it, you'll get lots of ideas about how the next one can be improved. Did you put a hinge on it so you can flip part of it open?

 

[needmorecowbell]

Thanks, I'll probably use it for a while until I can make another, it is fun to do at least lol. I think the wood that I bought was bowed. Once I put the plywood on I don't think it will matter, you wont be seeing the inside. I'm going to add hinges once the top is put on and painted. That way it will be easy to attach.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Yeah, I know how you feel. One of the boards I used to build my stand was twisted and it caused the front to line up a little wrong. Still, it worked out. I didn't have a lot of wood to work with. It just makes it more personal when a DIY project has a few quirks. ~_^

 

[needmorecowbell]

Lol ya I guess your right. I'll probably finish it today or tomorrow and make it fancy in the next few weeks.

 

[needmorecowbell]

And the actual canopy is done. I got so excited I put it on already.. It looks nice but I wish I would have made it shorter. The trim is showing which is kind of ugly, but somehow I'll fix it, just don't know how yet. I'll start painting tomorrow most likely. I'll take some pics in the morning.. Well hopefully.

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Hahah adam you are such a builder its crazy. I would never dream of doing all that stuff, haha good job

 

[needmorecowbell]

Lol thanks. Its really fun to do this stuff, Ive put myself into the tank, why not make the outside my own too, ya know? It costed me a total of 20$ too! I had a lot of the stuff laying around, I got some really nice plywood for free. If I make another canopy, I'll be using the same plywood and redoing the frame, that's where I went wrong.

Does anyone know how I could make the trim on my tank black? It looks weird now that the rest is black.

 

[Ibrahim]

Lol thanks. Its really fun to do this stuff, Ive put myself into the tank, why not make the outside my own too, ya know? It costed me a total of 20$ too! I had a lot of the stuff laying around, I got some really nice plywood for free. If I make another canopy, I'll be using the same plywood and redoing the frame, that's where I went wrong.

Does anyone know how I could make the trim on my tank black? It looks weird now that the rest is black.

I got glossy black spray paint and sprayed it into a cup then used a paintbrush. Spray paint is cheaper than a bucket of paint. Use painters tape so you don't get anything on the tank.

 

[needmorecowbell]

The paint isn't a problem, I have the same type and enough for whatever I want. How could I get the top trim?

 

[Ibrahim]

The paint isn't a problem, I have the same type and enough for whatever I want. How could I get the top trim?

Do it the same way.

 

[needmorecowbell]

Just did, first coat on. Looks great.

I primed my canopy and put two coats of black on already. Itll be done soon! I think one more coat and I'll start taking pics, maybe a new video update just because it was hard to do lol.

The light is my new project. I've been looking all over for some 2 pin LEDs so I can swap some of the royal blue and cool white for cyan, uv, red-orange, regular blue, and warm white. I think that will be enough to get a full spectrum

 

[CorallineAlgae]

It's hard to say without knowing the design. Still, you probably have three to five inner strips of wood (cleats) that rest on the sides and front of the tank rim. Removing them and reattaching them higher inside the hood will make the whole hood rest lower and cover up the tank rim. Impossible to say for sure without seeing how you built it.

 

[needmorecowbell]

Done!! The trim turned out really nice, I'm not worried about lowering the wood anymore, it's fine as is for me. I think I did okay for my first wood project.

Im going to add 2 cabinet/doors to the front at some point so it doesn't look so meh.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Man, what a beast! You won't have any trouble getting stuff in and out of your tank with that hood! Nice job. You know, it looks like you have doors already on the cabinet. Are they just panels that need hinges or something like that?