Almost done!

@tesfeld wrote:
Extinguishfire - I hope that the3dwizard and I can setup a North Dallas tank tour in the near future. said:
Hey, just what I was thinking! Would definitely be cool. It would force me to clean the glass though :lol:
Click to expand...
 
Here are some pics I took tonight. http://esfeld.no-ip.com:81/aqpics/cameratest.htm said:
Very nice photos Tony,
What lens were you using there?

On you canopy, are you planing on making some kind of legs for the light box or covering the open area at all?

Oh your website looks great I think I may have to invest in some photo viewing software. ... and your wedding photos are great also and don't forget your anniversary next month.
:wink:
Click to expand...
 
Thanks David! I've figured out that part of my problem in taking good pictures is the placement of my lights. With two MH down the middle and 440VHO down the sides of them, all of my white light comes from behind my corals. This shadowing makes them look different. I'm planning on replacing my outer VHO bulbs with actinic white to see if that helps.

I was using a Nikon 24-120 Vibration Reduction with a Canon 500D and a variety of extension tubes.

I'm going to make the stand for the light box out of black acrylic so it will keep the light from flooding into the room. It's not ideal, but will do exactly what I need.

We're going back to Belize for our anniversary. I can't wait to go diving again! These pictures were pre-DSLR and the x-ray machines hosed some of them up.

http://esfeld.no-ip.com:81/honeymoon.htm
 
Tony,
Very nice photos there. Do you have an underwater case for your D70?
When you are out on vacation what do you use to store your pictures on?
A lap top or alot of memory cards? What type of memory cards does your camera take?

The black acrylic would make a nice addition to the canopy.
Very good work!

Dave
 
Tony, that is a neat way to view images. What is it called? Did it come with your hosting service?
 
Marc,
I have my home pc hosting my site. Apache web server is free and one also comes with winxp pro. The gallery software is called Magic Gallery. If you click on the bottom of my galleries it will take you to the software home page. I like it because I can pick numerous backgrounds, add notes to pictures, mildly edit, and it will resize the images for me and create the thumbnails. It's super simple.

Nautilus,
Man, I wish I had a housing! They cost almost a grand. I'd even love to rent one for our Belize trip, but don't know if such thing exists. When we went to Europe recently (pics to come) I took my laptop with me to offload my two 512MB cards to. It uses compact flash. This year since we're going after my birthday, I hope to have a 60g Ipod photo to put them on instead.
Thanks for the input on the acrylic. I've been unsure how to finish the box, but that might be my way out. The only other option I considered was putting the silver egg crate over the bottom of the box to force the light down. I won't know till I try and then I'd still need feet for it or to mount from the ceiling.

My sand is finally aged enough that I can turn on my 2nd Tunze without a storm!
 
Upgrade time! I had wanted these since day 1, but had to space out the expenditures. Two new "Melev" custom sumps will be going under the tank tonight to eliminate most of my headaches. I haven't had enough room in my sump, the fuge is hard to access, and i have nowhere to grow out frags. The fuge currently sits on top of a wood base so that I can use gravity to drain and to get above the two steel cross braces in the middle of my stand bottom.

In order to put two sumps under the tank, I had to come up with a solution for my topoff water bucket and where to put my Ca reactor. Brandon "allmarine" suggested building the topoff storage into the 2nd sump. Great idea. I'll have to build an acrylic stand for my Ca reactor to put it inside the same compartment as the return pump. First sump has skimmer/drain section and a return section. The 2nd has a fuge, propagation, and topoff storage.

Here is the current bargain basement setup and the two sumps that will be going in.
 
Since my prop section will have about 12-14" of water in it, I was thinking of doing a two tiered prop section. Maybe put some large grain sand in the bottom and put egg crate across the top 1/3 for sps. I could then keep low light softies in the bottom and sps in the top. I don't plan on doing many softies other than xenia. I'll have a 250W MH over the fuge/prop section.

Any suggestions on how to build it so I can easily access the lower level?

One thing I just thought of is attach two sets of acrylic rails to the sides at different heights for the egg crate to sit/run on. That way one would slide under the other as long as the frags haven't grown up too high. Kindof like the sliding doors on a closet with 3-4" of gap between them. hmm.

Matt, you'll notice I didn't include any recent pics of the tank. The glass is baaad and xenia is owning me at the moment. :eek: Thanks though!
 
Those sumps look so much better on your hardwood floor. Did you drill the holes yet? If you would prefer to route them, you can drill some plywood with a hole saw, then use 3M double sided tape, and stick it inside the sump to the acrylic. Clamp it too, to keep it from slipping. Now you can use the router with the laminate trimming bit to trace the hole in the wood and the blade will eat away the acrylic in the process.

This would be similar to how the flanges were cut, but you'd be doing it in the sump instead of on a work bench.

I can't wait to see it installed. I may take a few of those pictures from this thread and put them on my site to give people alternate ideas.

For the prop section, you can stair step your racks. I noticed at Fish Paradise, they make acrylic troughs and fill them up with CC gravel. Softies can grow on that and they are easy to frag, so the buyer can put glue on the CC and attach it to the rock in their tank.
 
Holes are drilled. I just need to clean them up with my dremel so the uniseal fits nicely. I hope I don't end up wishing I'd done the wall between the topoff and the prop section in black because of algae growing in it. If it does, I'll cut some and slip it inside one section or the other.

I'll get you some better pics Marc. It was dark when I got home.
 
Those pictures look great to me.

Yeah, a black panel might have been a good idea for the top off water. Keeping that water pure within the sump will be tricky at best. RO/DI water is a magnet for impurities, so even with a cover on that spot you may have to clean it out and wipe it down occasionally, now that I think about it.
 
Looks Great...
So what gallon is it and did you order it or?? the main tank is the one i was wondering about...
 
aah, come on, you gotta give us some new pictures - please!!!

also, when you upgrade to the 500 gallon tank, i would like to go ahead and get dibs on buying your tank :D
 
If you ask my bride, I'll be buried with this tank lol.

I'll take some pics this weekend when I've got the sumps completely installed and that plague called xenia out of my tank.

I've had one helluva time getting them installed. Next time I will seriously reconsider how I plumb the two together.
 
what an amazing job you have done!! I can't believe how great the woodwork looks. I need to hire you to make my canopy :)
-Chuck
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top