My New 90 Gallon Tank Setup - Comments Please

[darkdep]

I'm happy to finally show this off.  Although not actually filled with water yet, it's just waiting for me to get some longer tubing for the filters and will be filled this week.

The stand is custom made (by me), everything was done myself, no pre-purchases components (except raw wood).  Wood used was a combination of Baltic Birch and Maple plywood, with accents in Oak, Whitewood and Pine.  Pulls and Hinges are from Lee Valley.

The tank is 48" x 18" x 24".

The canopy contains two access doors, and has 2 blue cold-cathode 12" lamps for use as moonlights, and 6 48" T8 32watt fluorescents, each on it's own power cord and switch.  The intention here is that all lights will go on independant timers so as to automate a sunrise/sunset/moonrise setup.

The background is real slate, siliconed in place over several days.  Major thanks to kennyman for this stuff!  The small gaps were left in place intentionally as they create micro-caves in the back for any potential fry.  The Back of the tank will receive a standard black "background" so that the caves appear dark.

Substrate is a mix of Geosystems black sand and black mini-gravel.  Although I don't have enough yet.

This tank will hold an assortment of selected Africans, and will be my show tank until I can somehow justify another 5 months of work to something bigger.

I have the entire construction documented in photos, if anyone has furthur interest in how any of it was built.

Looking to get some comments, good or bad, on the setup so far and if anyone has any suggestions at this point.

[NjOyRiD]

I like it a lot...I always wanted moonlights, but i have no clue how to put that in an aquarium

REally nice tank!

[Julie]

Looks great, especially the slate!!! It's awesome, can't wait to see the fish in there.   Your bottom cabinet is nicely finished; but I would do a little more finishing to the top portion.

Julie

[pegasus]

Beautiful, way to much work for me. Congratulation and I can't wait to see it completed.  

[charlie]

Congrats, fantastic job , maybe you should try to seal the top door on the canopy to stop the light from showing.
Regards

[darkdep]

I'm not 100% happy with the canopy; the items you're all probably noticing (light coming through, slight misalignment on right door, etc) is definetly due to mistakes and "things I'll do differently next time".  I do like that you're pointing that stuff out though; this is woodworking education for me.

I am done with it tho, it's all sealed and construction is completed.  I need to start paying attention to it's inhabitants now (which should be in place within a week).

[aidensmomma2000]

Very nice- I love the slate!

[gvv]

Slate back is very nice, but I have some concerns. Just be carefull when catching fish and doing maintenace job.

Looks great, but need some fish
Congrats!

[Toss]

WOW, well done. I got to show these pics to my wife and see if I can convince her to get another one  :wink:

How do you build the doors for the bottom cabinet? Do they sell premade kitchen cabinet doors at Home Depot?

Enrico

[darkdep]

The doors I am quite proud of.  You do have a few options for buying pre-made doors at HD, absolutely.  These however were hand-made.  I used a router with a couple of different bits to produce the inner and outer edges, along with the tongue-and-groove joint that holds it together.

Here's a pic from early in the process where you can see the detail on the door better, along with the joint.

[darkdep]

gvv: Trust me, that slate is going NOWHERE.  Check this pic of the back:

[zapisto]

hey darkdep
well done.
very nice

i wish i can use my finger like you but well we cannot have all the super qualification

[darkdep]

i wish i can use my finger like you but well we cannot have all the super qualification

:shock:

Must...resist...

[AQUAFREAK]

Very nice job, would you think of painting the back of the tank black to stop the light from escaping through that area.  What a good job.  I mean the cabinet and all looks like something you would pay 300 dollars for, matching canopy and all another $300

I'll bet you could not buy that type of high light set up and canopy for the price you did it for.  Plus the pride you get from doing yourself.

Congrats

[az]

very nice!

[darkdep]

Aqua:  I'm thinking of putting on some black sheet from the LFS to stop the light and make the cracks look like little micro-caves.  

Right now the thing is almost too heavy to move...the tank is about 160lbs dry, stand is quite heavy (I haven't shown the inside yet, but it's constructed of double-2x4's and is very sturdy), plus the slate is probably almost 100lbs, and there's 75lbs of substrate in there already (and isn't enough!)...Gotta figure out how to get back there.

I'm very happy to have a unique item, and the cost of parts isn't much compared to a store-bought stand.  If I had more free time in my life it would have taken about 2-3 weeks total, but kids/job eat up a lot

The Canopy I'm absolutely sure I have produced something that would cost many many MANY hundreds of dollars over the component cost.  I am so excited to see how the plants will do in it...the 6 light output is actually much higher than I was expecting.

And, the pride, as you mentioned, is priceless.  I'm actually in the early stages of transferring careers over to cabinetmaking, and I'd love to have custom aquarium stands/canopies as part of my shop work in the future.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words, and suggestions!

[kennyman]

I got a sneak preview of that cabinet a while back and I got to say It is a thing of great beauty! Its nice to see everything coming together. The fish you have for this thing are so awesome as well. It's going to be a real masterpiece!

[pegasus]

gvv: Trust me, that slate is going NOWHERE. Check this pic of the back:

You did scrub the slate of all dirt and rock powder, I'm sure.
What's also nice of your background, is that you will not be worryied of stacking rocks on the back glass panel and scratching it.    

[rockgarden]

Too bad you're wasting all that nice work on African cichlids <GRIN>

[rockgarden]

Instead of paint or plastic you might be able to glue cork on the outside of the back panel.  That will block the light and also provide a bit of texture.

Ron