hybridfish
Member
Hello all,
When I first started this hobby back in June, I wanted to start w/ an existing aquarium (my 29g) to get a feel for the salty side of fish keeping. Little did I know how addictive this hobby would become. I've met great people and have learned a great deal from everyone. I'm proud to say, this hobby has forced me to do the most reading I've done in a long time. Anyways, I finally feel comfortable with upgrading my system. I kinda went ahead of myself before I deciding to do one of these diaries so this is what I have so far.
This is the tank I will be taking down as soon as I setup the other tank. I will be using this to cure rock at a later date.
This is my DIY heavy duty stand and a used 40g that I got from a fellow reefer on this site . It's a little taller than usual stands to get the tank a little more to eye level. It's just high enough for me to touch the bottom of the tank without bending over . I also made the stand a little wider for either further storage or to sit a closed loop pump back there. I miss measured the hole placement for the 1" overflow bulkhead when I drew up the design. I had to cut and sand a little off one of the legs but it should be ok.
One thing that really gets to me about my original set-up is how inconvienient it is to service or move anything around inside the tank. I would have to remove the PC lights and then pull off the hood. If I don't want to do that, I'd have to pull up a chair in order to reach anything. My new DIY hood solves all these problems with a cutout in the front and a MH retrofit that will fit behind the front cover. It's not totally done yet but here's some picture to give you an idea of what it's going to look like.
When I first started this hobby back in June, I wanted to start w/ an existing aquarium (my 29g) to get a feel for the salty side of fish keeping. Little did I know how addictive this hobby would become. I've met great people and have learned a great deal from everyone. I'm proud to say, this hobby has forced me to do the most reading I've done in a long time. Anyways, I finally feel comfortable with upgrading my system. I kinda went ahead of myself before I deciding to do one of these diaries so this is what I have so far.
This is the tank I will be taking down as soon as I setup the other tank. I will be using this to cure rock at a later date.
This is my DIY heavy duty stand and a used 40g that I got from a fellow reefer on this site . It's a little taller than usual stands to get the tank a little more to eye level. It's just high enough for me to touch the bottom of the tank without bending over . I also made the stand a little wider for either further storage or to sit a closed loop pump back there. I miss measured the hole placement for the 1" overflow bulkhead when I drew up the design. I had to cut and sand a little off one of the legs but it should be ok.
One thing that really gets to me about my original set-up is how inconvienient it is to service or move anything around inside the tank. I would have to remove the PC lights and then pull off the hood. If I don't want to do that, I'd have to pull up a chair in order to reach anything. My new DIY hood solves all these problems with a cutout in the front and a MH retrofit that will fit behind the front cover. It's not totally done yet but here's some picture to give you an idea of what it's going to look like.