my 55g update

[Tjones]

so after 14 hours in the wood shop yesterday i left with almost complete stand and hood that you would prolly be forced to pay 1100$ for from your LFS.... but any way i just need to put on 4 more pieces of molding and then paint it up nice and it will be ready to go!!

today was a happy day because i got a new fluval 305 for 87$ on ebay and thats after shipping! almost 50% off what petco wanted! its all comming into place MUAHAHA

i think i might fill up my 20g today and start getting it to cycle so i have bacteria ready to go for my new tank!
not so sure on that though since i am going to have to soak my background in it for who knows how long to get the ph level stable :P

[Rue]

Congrats!:thumb:

But hey! WHERE are our pictures??? :hmm3grin2orange:

[Lady Hobbs]

Wow. You are humming along with that tank at great strides. And one heck of a deal on that filter! Nice going.

[gm72]

Nice job, looking forward to seeing some pictures!

[Tjones]

Pictures as the project stands!

Everything (Except B/G) as it stands in the garage now -

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j309/galalade/stand.jpg

Here is a zoom on the top of the cabinet with my very first crown job i have ever done (i have been doing top of the line home cabinets for almost 3 years but i stain and finish them not build them >.<) it proved to be rather easy as i only had to re-cut one piece because it was 1/4 short of the back of the stand. anyway its almost perfect now! you can also see my flutes we put on there for some style!

Here is the picture -

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j309/galalade/topzoom.jpg

Last but not least here is my foam/concrete background for the tank!

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j309/galalade/BG.jpg

I think it looks a little brown in this picture mainly because the 2nd layer of mortar i used i colored brown so if it showed through it would be semi dark... but it is really a nice soft black! and my girl friend loves to watch me do stuff like that! so that good since i saw her for like 15 minutes at midnight Saturday after getting out of bed and going strait to the shop so i could work on this stuff!

Best part of it all.... i can actually say i am learning SO SO SO MUCH in lots of area's my brother refused to help me build my stand and hood he would only show me how to use a few of the large saws and tools in the shop that cost twice or more than i make in a year :S

Work for stand / hood left
X Cut holes for doors on hood (in my brilliance the hood is only open to the back, then today i realized HOW WILL I FEED THE FISH im a genius i know!)

- Add a vertical board inside of the hood so i can hang HOB filters and mount canister filter intake/output items (can't use tank due to the foam b/g)

- Build the doors for said stand/hood

- Add Crown around top of hood
- Add Crown around bottom of hood to hide plastic tank frame brace thinger
- Add Base molding on top of rim of the hood like base of stand for flutes to butt up on
- Mount Flutes on hood
- Make a U of molding to set around plastic frame crap on bottom of tank
- Bondo and sand all the nail holes and seams on everything on the hood (Stand is already done with that)
- Transport everything to Finishing and Manufacturing building on other side of town and get this thing painted and sealed (This is were im fast and efficient and don't take 14 hours to build simple things)
- Mount doors
- Clean tank
- Glue in BG and patch seam
- Clean tank again
- fill tank and do daily water changes until PH level goes down to tap level so i know the concrete isn't dangerous anymore


AFTER ALL THAT CRAP we get to put in all the substrates and other decor items and start the cycling and such......

ETA on cycle begining 2-3 Weeks

( I'm hopping to have everything up and done by Thanksgiving since we are having tons of people over and i can enjoy the work with them! )

anyway thats the play by play!

oh and lady remember how you said maybe make it shorter than 36 inches i was planning well..... i made it rather high.... to giver you an idea the door space in the base is 36 inches >.< stool for cleaning incoming lol

[spudbuds]

That is a VERY nice stand! Well done! I'd say you could start building those and selling for a profit if it was something you were interested in.

[Incredulous_Ed]

wow man, that makes my homemade stand look like a piece of junk. :)

[jeffs99dime]

very nice. the moldings look great! keep it up

[Rue]

VERY nice! I'm impressed! What colour are you staining it?

[Tjones]

VERY nice! I'm impressed! What colour are you staining it?

it will be painted black because i decided to save money and not use hardwook on all of it but corners will have little bit of brown

here is a picture of a night stand i made that is the color setup im using but the stand will have less wearing on the edges because of the wood i used

3420

totally worth giving up the extra burn through

so far the cost on my stand/hood = about 40$
using lots of scraps and stuff that is being thrown away
if i did it with stain grade wood i would have been in it 300$ or more so im happy i can save some money! :D