You and me both Brandon! This has taken long enough, according to my motivation and my bride.
Olaggie01 - Glad to hear it on the frags. I went with magnets because I knew the panels weren't accurate enough to touch the entire surface and I was dealing with a metal stand, so it was simple. I ordered them from Rockler.com and they work perfectly. They just screwed into the panel. I need to put felt padding on the bottom of the panels so they slide on my floor easier. Correct, there are no doors. I just pop it off and slide it aside. I still do this about once/day so I can check the skimmer, but everything else is handled by the DJ switch. I've gone through alot of ideas about the light box mount. I got approval to mount it from the ceiling on high strength mono-filament, but I'd have to be so accurate it wouldn't be funny, so I scratched that. I think I'm going to make the "feet" out of black acrylic so it will keep the light from flooding into the diningroom. It would cover the entire front and back, but leave the sides open for ventilation. I considered making some wood feet to match, but it wouldn't solve my light problem.
Disbjohn - I'd like to try, but the lights are in the way so the shadowing would be off if I shove it aside to take the pic.
Extinguishfire - I hope that the3dwizard and I can setup a North Dallas tank tour in the near future. You're always welcome to come over anytime too. I am proud of it, as Duane Dennis should also be. All of the rock, 1/4 of the corals,1/4 the equipment, the tank, and the woodworking talent all came from him. My talent was being able to talk my wife into all of the above!
Marc - I used Minwax Helmsman Spar Varnish. I applied a minimum of 3 coats using foam brushes to every surface. I even applied an entire can to my garage floor on accident. That is some seriously sticky ****. The key is to slop it on, then run the entire length of the piece once or twice to even it out and remove any bubbles which aren't much of a problem with the sponge brush. 3 coats per side, per panel. Eventually it's thick enough you can't see the indentions for the wood grain.
AA - Almost... Having to jack with my insurance company isn't. They tried to tell me that I had to prove I put the subwoofer in a box by showing proof of purchase. I wanted to say "NO, you dumb so n' so, I just laid it on the back seat!"
Here are some pics I took tonight.
http://esfeld.no-ip.com:81/aqpics/cameratest.htm
Disclaimer: I'm still learning my camera, am not up to speed on white balance, my lights are set back too far, which gives me fits, and I didn't use a tripod.
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