Ciphers 120 Gal tank build

Alright so this is going to be a very slow going thread.  In this thread i plan on doing four things.

Things to do:

    Paint a large saltwater mural on the wall behind where the 120 will go.

         This will have lots of pictures of fish corals and other inverts from all of you here on SWF.  If you have more pics you want on  

         the wall of a really cool fish or coral please post it here http://forums.saltwaterfish.com/forum/thread/385715/i-need-your-fish-coral-pics .

    Build a stand and canopy.  

         This will be made out of an oak tree from my parents farm that i will have sawn and dried.

    Build a DIY LED light for the tank.

         Plans include building a DIY heatsink 48 Cree 3W LEDs and 2 60-48 running in parallell and an arduino for running the lights      

         and a few other little items around the tank.

           Here are the main two links i am using information from

              for the light 

                  http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1973462&highlight=jp+diy+led

              for the arduino

                  http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1987110

    And finally build a fuge/sump with LED lighting

          I had plans of getting an acryllic tank the guy I bought this tank off of that had a blow out on one end and using it after some    

          alterations but he hasnt responded to me yet so I may use my current DT which is a 30 gallon tank.

I do plan on going in that for the most part.  Once the wall, stand, and light are built I am going to move everything over to the 120 and use the current fuge till I can get the sump finished.  So between work and money i hope to have this done before it gets cold outside(and thats a big hope:))

So here we go.

Here is a pic of the wall before i did anything to it and some of my progress thus far.

After removing the window.

And then now after 2 coats of a color called Blue Capri Grotto

I also have a pic of my first attempt of airbrushing a fish.

the top pic fish is the print out i used for a guide.

also i didn't do shading on the pic cause i didn't want to waist paint if i can keep from it.

Now for my next problem.  I am trying to find a good way to make the rock look good.  I have a white, a creamy color, and and am going to buy a stone gray ish color to make the rock formations with a couple of sponges.  

More to pics to come hopefully by the end of the week

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweatervest13 

Hell yes!!!  I am following on this one.  Are you sure you have everything planned out for a DIY.  I did not see anywhere where you are making your own screws or nails.  LOL  Just playing.   Cutting down your own tree to get the wood to make a stand is BIG TIME.  I have a hippy uncle who lived on an island of the coast of BC who built a 50' sail boat from scratch... Cutting down the trees, plaining the boards and all that.  Took him 10+ years, and that was his only job (besides growing plants;).  Like I said Hippy uncle in BC. 

 

I love the idea of a mural on the wall.  Is is going to be over the entire blue wall??  Or just behind the tank? 

 

 

Good luck!! 

LMAO i hope it doesnt take that long.  As for the wood so far ive found it would be cheaper to have it sawn and there farm has lots of oak trees on it so it will be nice for this and other woodworking projects.

 I plan on having it over the entire wall so like i said if you have lots of pics of your fish from different angles i need them lol. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by acrylic51 

Tagging along.....Curious as to why you removed the window?

This is in my office and there is another business next door so now he doesnt have to listen to us all day long lol.  Plus it makes it more HIPPA compliant. 

Alright so been working on some things this week.  I have been working on getting the rock to look "more real"  on my test paper.  I think I have it were I want it now so all i have to do is buy the gray paint and I should have another update on the wall for you all.  

Also this weekend I plan on cutting down a tree or two for the stand.  Im not sure yet what type of wood I'm going to get but I do plan on either white oak or walnut I believe.

Spent a few hours last night and this morning painting the base for the rocks.  It doesnt look like rocks yet but trust me they will once i get done with the airbrush.

Had a little break this morning and was brave enough to start with the airbrush.

the first rock here is what most of it will be shaded like once i get all done... or so i hope. also the splotches on the

sand are supposed to make it look more like sand.  you can see it better in the second pic

here is the start of the arch.

there may be more to come today too.

alright here is the full rock wall

cant wait to put something in the cave over there cause it looks odd right now how it is.

next will be some plants and some corals.

WOOT first plant to go on the wall.

heres my wife detaling the first group of zoos to go on the wall.

She is still gonna go back and put a blue center on them like red blue eye zoos.

thanks all.  Its in my Chiropractic office.    im hoping to put some sponges and may be some mushrooms on today.  i did put 2 more colony groups on but i guess i didnt put the pics on here.  ill make sure and to that here soon.

update on corals added.

here are the three colonies of zoos ive put so far.  I really like the first one the best but the other 2 look really good also.  tried to match colors i found on the web.

Here is Katie putting some final touches on the red brain coral 

after all the touch ups

So this is gonna mess up the order of things a little but we got a lot done for the tank.  The wood is all sawn for the stand .

Here are the three logs I am having sawn even tho it wont take anywhere close to that much wood.

LOOK ITS MY STAND..... isn't it so pretty *sniff* *sniff*

Here is the sawmill in action

first slice of usable wood

Here is all the wood we got from the 3 logs we had.  The stack closer to me is Red Oak and the other stack is White Oak.

The guy even sawed me a 2X8 that i am thinking about cutting in half and making the stands frame out of

putting the wood in the kiln...... guess the camera lens was dirty......

the rows closest to this side are mine.