The155BowFrontBuild

TheRealChrisBrown

TheRealChrisBrown

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
ex-officio
#141
#141
My clowns laid a new clutch of eggs in the 155, hopefully a good signs that things are returning to normalcy! For some reason I decided to take the pic right after feeding time, don't really know why I couldn't do it before or after...but it seemed important at that very moment.

View attachment 14438
 
TheRealChrisBrown

TheRealChrisBrown

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
ex-officio
#145
#145
So I recently had an anonymous reefer (who shall remain nameless, at least on my part) over to my house who said my canopy/lighting situation was looking a little science projecty. The more I looked at it the more I knew he was right! With the random 3" screws poking out, the light suspension system was sagging and probably over weighted to begin with. And I thought, this won't do....time to project! So here are a few of the before's, behold their awesomeness:
View attachment 14839

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Part of the issue lies in that half of the tank has a ceiling directly above it, the other half has a ceiling 2 story's above it. So I can't simply just hang a canopy. I had some bits and pieces of 80/20 extruded aluminium on the original mish-mash, and I liked working with it. So I bought some more of that and made 2 rectangular frames for the existing 80/20 to rest on. Once I drilled and bolted all of that together, it was really solid. Then I made 2 side panels and 1 front panel out of tongue and groove Ghostwood from HD that the rest of my stand has. I made the new panels removable in case of heat buildup/maintenance in the tank. I used picture frame/heavy mirror mounting hardware for this. One piece screwed into the 80/20 and the other into the panels and then they interlock to make a secure, but removable panel. So far I like it, easy enough to get in there to clean and feed without removing the panels. Here is the new setup:
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Still has some aspects of science lab going on. I'd be lying if I said there wasn't at least 1 spot using zip ties as structural support (temporary), and I still need to seal it all still. But all in all I'm happy with how it turned out.

Now I need to finish off the two side doors. They may end up being less "Door" and more of a removable panel. I did one door on the exposed side, but I'm not happy with out it turned out.
 
Dr.DiSilicate

Dr.DiSilicate

Administrator
Staff member
M.A.S.C Club Member
M.A.S.C. B.O.D.
MASC Vice-President
#149
#149
Looks great! Ummm sorry... it that was me?? Sounds like something I might say when feeling particularly snarky.


Sent from my iPhone using MASC - Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado
 
TheRealChrisBrown

TheRealChrisBrown

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
ex-officio
#154
#154
neil82 said:
I'm curious about this too. What would this entail?
Click to expand...
So on the right side of the tank the ceiling is over it like this:





The left side is under the 2 story part, and it looks like this:





I feel like it could be done like any other suspension system, but with a crap ton of cable on one side.


Sent from my iPhone using MASC - Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado
 
Andrew_bram

Andrew_bram

Tiger Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
#155
#155
TheRealChrisBrown said:
So on the right side of the tank the ceiling is over it like this:





The left side is under the 2 story part, and it looks like this:





I feel like it could be done like any other suspension system, but with a crap ton of cable on one side.


Sent from my iPhone using MASC - Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado
Click to expand...
I have ladder if you need them

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 
TheRealChrisBrown

TheRealChrisBrown

Reef Shark
M.A.S.C Club Member
ex-officio
#156
#156
Andrew_bram said:
I have ladder if you need them
Click to expand...
I'm not going to suspend it for the time being. Mostly because if I did I'd like to have some way to raise and lower it, and with the two crazy differences in height it quickly goes above my pay grade. So far I've been happy with the removable panels, and I think it looks a lot better than it did. And the wife stopped complaining that her retinas were bleeding from light spillage into the living room!
 
neil82

neil82

Sting ray
M.A.S.C Club Member
#157
#157
I can see why you wouldn't want to suspend it. That would be quite a bit of cable on that one end as you mentioned. Thanks for the photos to give a visual of what you're working with.
 
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