Kirsikka : Updated photos before and after replant and journal on post 45

[original kuhli]

After just over a year of research and work (never too hard) I've finally got the new tank up and running. I've had the euro braced tank custom built, constructed the tank and canopy from Cherry (first real carpentry project) and plumbed everything into the stand with the exception of the autofill solenoids and fertilizer injection.

A series of poor photos (dark out) are below, I'll describe each:



The tank is a pretty standard 48*18*about 22" eurobraced 80ish gallon tank. Its Starfire glass on the front and sides for a bit more clarity. You can see the two intakes towards the centre of the back and the outlets towards the top. The plumbing comes out the back of the tank as opposed the the bottom. The background is charcoal covered vinyl from a signmaking shop. The substrate is fluorite, getting anything else in Canada was even more expensive. The four chunks of rock are petrified wood from the Morrison formation in Utah, I bought them at a great rock store in Moab.

The stand is all solid 3/4" cherry with the exception of the plywood on the sides, bottom and back.





The curved section of canopy is built from three pieces of solid 5/8 or so Cherry and was kerfed on the backside then steamed to produce the bend. Kerfing is basically taking a saw blade out of the back and leaving in this case about 1/4 inch of thickness. Upon steaming the wood bends nicely, I then assembled the top and fibreglassed the underside to strengthen and seal it from the water.



Lights are Tek 4*54 watt screwed (yes holes in fixture) to the canopy. I went to great lengths to come up with a design that allowed me the ease of working on an open top tank without having all the light scattering into the room. I designed the setup to be such that the top of the tank edge is the height of my armpit and that I can reach the back corners while standing on a chair. There's no place in the tank that I can't reach.



Now the plumbing end of the business. The tank outlet gets split in two, one to the Fluval FX5, the other to a Poseidon PS4 booster pump (an afterthought after discovering how much flow the plumbing consumes). The flow path is seperated into three paths of which two are removable, all three are ball valved on each end to allow for flow control and isolation should something need maintenance or modification. The paths flow from right to left. Essentially I can run the tank with a good portion of the plumbing temporarily removed.

Flowpath 1 (at the back) has:
1. pH sensor
2. UV sterilizer

Flowpath 2 (in the middle) has:
1. CO2 injection via Milwaukee regulator and paintball cylinder
2. Water filling port
3. Heater
4. Temperature sensor

Flowpath 3 (barely visible at the top of the tank):
1. Water draining equipment including solenoid and DC booster pump.

The control is run by an Aquacontroller Jr. and a DC8.



The flow comes in the back and splits into the FX5 (orange at the rear) and the Poseidon pump on the lower right of the stand. The arrangement isn't ideal but I'd done too much plumbing (read $$$) to modify it when I decided that I needed more flow. The Poseidon PS4 won't run all the time, rather I'll use it to stir detritus from the tank. The pump is incredibly quiet and I can't recommend building a system around it enough.



This is my favourite part. Automated water draining equipment. Above the solenoid in the top left of the photo is a 12V DC pump that will drain about 15 percent of the tank in 3 minutes via a 1/2 inch line plumbed in the wall to a drain in the basement. The solenoid fires, the pump fires up on a timer and that's all there is to draining.

The Aquacontroller Jr. delays filling till the draining is complete and opens the redundant 1/2 inch Dema solenoids in the basement, the line comes up to the middle flowpath as described above. Redundant float sensors in the back corners of the tank (see red wires in photo 4) stop the flow once the tank is filled. I haven't installed it yet, but I've tested a thermostatic valve that goes down to a minimum of about 85 deg F. This removes any need for a lot of heating capacity.

Special thanks to Scolley and many other high tekkies on the site for the inspiration to try to do more with the tank. Please excuse the basic planting and stocking, now I've some time to work on those skills!

[CLEVEsports420]

I'm the first to say it, WOW! BTW are those Blum hinges? (I work for a cabinet company, Kraftmaid Cabinetry, go to lowes or home depot this weekend and order a kitchen!)

[Sticky230]

omg. its michael bey "awesome." do you get glare when you watch t.v. form the monster light in there?

[jinx©]

Very nice set up.

I would have went with bottom plumbed myself, but still looks great. Was there a particular reason for going back plumbed rather than bottom?

[isu712]

Your stand is gourgeous. I really like the curved top and you make it sound so easy to build. You could have nothing in the tank and it would still look great.

[Ladykatze]

Echoing everyone elses comments - WOW! I love your tank and stand. You obviously put lots of thought, work and care into the planning and execution. I would say that it paid off. Totally wonderful!

Cheryl

[YankyTexan]

The curved cherry canopy both functionally and visually is impressive to say the least. If this is your first woodworking project then I look forward to viewing your next one.

What type of finish did you opt to seal the cherry with?

[original kuhli]

Thanks for all the kind words.

Clevesports420: dunno about the hinges, bought them from Lee Valley...they could be!

Sticky230: There's no glare on the TV at all, the angles just seem to work out.

Jinx: Initially I went with the plumbing in the back so that any nasty leaks while I'm away couldn't totally drain the tank. I hindsight I'd probably go through the bottom. In short, I was chicken.

YankyTexan: The stand was finished by:
1. Two coats of weak shellac to equalize absorption of the stain/dye into the cherry.
2. A mixed water based aniline dye built from these (http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...at=1,190,42996)
3. Minwax wipe-on poly.

After building the cabinet and canopy I started testing finishes. I quickly realized how hard cherry is to finish evenly. Its resin rich and tends to get very blotchy, one approach is to use solvent to remove the resins on the surface of the wood, the other is to use an initial coating to control/limit the absorption of the dye/stain into the wood. I opted for the second method with shellac.

[fshfanatic]

NICE JOB! You should be very proud of this tank.

[PDX-PLT]

Originally Posted by original kuhli

After just over a year of research and work ...

That's nice to hear; it makes me feel better . 'still working on mine but it's getting close, and I started after you.

Very nice job on the stand, BTW.

P.S. - This is a woodworking project, not a carpentry project. Different things entirely.

[original kuhli]

Funny piece of info, I accidentally put my fill water on the intended CO2 inlet (wtih diffusor behind the seal) and my CO2 onto a line without anything behind it. The CO2 is responsive and stable!

Basically the intended chamber for diffusion is doing its job without a diffusor on the CO2 line.

[CLEVEsports420]

Kuhli,

One thing occured to me, I'm sure you already know what I'm about to tell you, just thought I would throw it out there as a just in case. As you may know with cherry, over the years it tends to naturally darken, which is one of the many reasons people choose cherry. BUT...

Direct sunlight will speed up the darkening process. Like I said, I work for Kraftmaid Cabinetry, and one of the woods we offer, is cherry. Often when people install cherry in thier kitchens, they dont take into account the sunlight. I.E. a window in the kitchen may catch the rising or setting sun, and direct it on a specific patch of thier cabinets, which will cause only those cabinets to darken much faster than the rest of the kitchen. It is one of our biggest complaints with our cherry cabinets. Just wanted to throw that out there in case there is a window near your tank with sunlight hitting only a portion of that beautiful stand you made. I would hate to see something bad happen to that.

Hope that helps some.

[ColeMan]

First of all...i remember you commenting on a canopy thread i started a long time ago, and man I loved your canopy...it looks even better on your tank!! Really unique, intelligent design. As far as the potential darkening that will occur, like all quality wood pieces, age can only add to its beauty. I guess it would look pretty odd to have a partially darkened cabinet though! Nice work...keep the updates coming!

[original kuhli]

I experimented with accellerated aging/darkening of the stand/canopy using lye. It works beautifully although it does give a temporary slight orange tone.

My goal had been to have the stand a fair bit darker right from the get go, so I've used a water based dye to darken the stand to about what a 100 year old cherry piece of furniture would look like. The stand will probably darken a fair bit more, its darkened a lot in the last 6 months and I welcome the change!

Coleman: thanks for the compliments!

[Gad]

That is one sweet setup.