Angry John's 125 Project

[ANGRY JOHN]

Well since i will not have the 90 gallon for an unknown period of time and i have been working a lot on the 125 i thought it should have its own thread. i should have taken more before pics of what i have changed but will have to describe some of what has happened and will get better at trying to photo document the project as it progresses. So it begins. The first pic is in the previous owners garage and that makes it look a heck of a lot better than the close-ups that will follow. i removed all the lumber sitting in the tank on the end and added the new cross supports and glued them inplace so they would not fall in with my lamps as well as adding the back brace board because i could not believe there wasn't one. the hooks are zinc covered ones right now and am currently looking for stainless hardware that will replace them for the long run.

[teach]

I'm looking forward to following your thread.
I'm glad you could make the meeting today. It was nice meeting you.

[ANGRY JOHN]

Another thing that was realy bothering me was how poorly the hood fit the tank. "note the new wood behind the older stained one" i think it was originaly built for a glass tank and the owner put it on the acrylic because that was what he had. i dont blame him for the shoddy job, but i employed the help of my father in law and we managed to find some molding material that fit the bill perfectly and it was even rounded a little which helps with taking it off and putting it on. The hood is almost ready to go as i still need to cut some holes in the end of the hood for the fans. I plan to use 4" fans and will be looking at higher flow ones, even though there a little louder because i will go a long way not to have to use a chiller.

[ANGRY JOHN]

todays project was to test out the polish i bought and see if i could make the bad scraches go away. most people i think would look at the tank and say no way, but this being my 2oth tank or so i wanted to see how much i could fix and still come up with a good product. this part will end up taking a long time so i might work on some other parts when i get fustrated just to make some mentionable progress. The first pic is the product i am trying out. dont know if anyone used anything diffrent but buy the time i am done i will either sware buy it or at it, for sure. the second pic is the before and the third after just using the no 3 for a test on a sample area. the fourth is a both the sample are in the box in blue. it appears in the pic that they are all gone but its just a little better and still needs a lot of work, just nice to actualy be able to see my hand.

[john_auberry]

im along for the ride

[Loverotties]

Never did it,but wonder if you use a buffing machine?

[marineduud]

I've used an Orbital palm sander with a wool buffing pad on it and works great, and it's less stress on the hands.

[ANGRY JOHN]

well i jumped to working on the stand and it makes no sence to me that one would have a tank of anykind let alone a salt water aquarium and not seal up the stand. i had to start by removing the salt build-up from the wood and have begun to seal up all the cracks screw holes and unmated joints. all the products i have been using are water proof except some of the wood filler and i plan to put several coats of waterproof spar urithane on top. pic one and two are the salt damage and pic three and for are the atempts to begin sealing up the stand. the aft section on the top of the stand had salt impregnated in the wood so i had to take off some of the laminate and will be filling with epoxy wood filler. thinking of using a piece of plastic flooring on top to seal of the top but sill have not decided.

[Casey]

Looks good John but I still want to know are you still angry?

[ANGRY JOHN]

today was kinda a fun but fustrating project day. it had been recomended to me to start using an epoxy resin filler on the tank because it would be waterproof. this all seams so simple at first but never ends up that way. i had never used it before but how ya going to learn anything sticking with what ya already know right!!!!!!! so i read the directions and start mixing up the resin, not so hard, and start to work it into place, and thats where things start to get intresting. ever wander what it would be like to try and spread play-dough with a putty knife in a thin layer. Not so fun let me tell you. when fresh it works a little better and i mixed up a biger batch than i was ready to handle the first time an found working with smaller batches and making more when needed is a good idea. the directions said the product was workable for an hour but was only good for about 15 min. live and learn.

[ANGRY JOHN]

well this is what i will try and use to work on the acrylic scratch problem. i will work the stand untill i have it waterproofed and then reseal the hood. looking for go no go on this idea before i put it to practice. the cloth is made for polishing and is the only way i could attach it because it will not fit in the holders in the sander. let me know what ya think??????

[ANGRY JOHN]

i recieved my ampmaster 3200/2700 today and man this thing looks like it will move a ton of water. i plan to use the 2" in and out to maximise circulation. i will most likely not need it to be maxed out most of the time because with it being on a closed loop and having a gen-x mk 4 for sump return it might be a little to much if thats possible. i figure if i have more than i need i can just throttle back the pump to let things settle down a bit but adding more pumps and powerheads to get enough flow seems like a pain and a waste of money. i still need to continue working on the stand and polishing the tank so i will not be cutting holes anywhere yet but if anyone has any good ideas for plumbing please let me know. i will be looking for some help geting it all put together in a few months, because there is nothing like a second set of eyes to keep from flooding out my house and making a mess the wife will not be happy about.

[marineduud]

Originally Posted by ANGRY JOHN

well this is what i will try and use to work on the acrylic scratch problem. i will work the stand untill i have it waterproofed and then reseal the hood. looking for go no go on this idea before i put it to practice. the cloth is made for polishing and is the only way i could attach it because it will not fit in the holders in the sander. let me know what ya think??????

Have you tried the sander yet ?

[ANGRY JOHN]

well after a long brake wich included a deployment i have returned to work on the tank again. i skipped the polishing job untill later because i was getting fustrated with it and there were other things going on that i was dieing to get to. the closed loop is comming along as i have drilled the suction and the discharges into the tank and constructed the manifold. i am still waiting on the bulkead fittings to come in so i can fit them, just have some old junkers in there right now to get the spacing and the feal for what is going on. i have the feeling that there will be a lot of circulation and do not know how my idea of having a dsb will work out. might just end up with a sand storm!!!! the sump was designed for a ref. but i think that it would not have enough space if i had a power outage so i knocked out one of the walls. happy to be back to working on the tank and seems as though it is taking for ever to finish.. john

[racerw]

Can't wait to get more update shots, sounds like it is coming along