Nealio's 85G Build

I have multiple established freshwater and brackish tanks and I figured it was time to get into saltwater, and I'm doing it on a budget. Basically, I'm going to try and spend as little as necessary to get this tank up and running, but to be smart about it and not end up killing everything in the tank.

So far, here's what I've picked up.

First I scored an 85 gallon AGA tank from the mid-90's. It's a funky size, but I like it, and it's in great shape. It's roughly 6' long, 22" high, and 13" deep. It came with a stand, but no canopy. (Ignore my roommate on the left.) It also came with 2 H.O.T. Magnum Bio-Pro's. All for a whopping total of $50.



It is temporarily living as a Tropical Community tank until I can piece together the saltwater equipment.



I have also picked up a number of other items, such as:

• 2 Maxi-Jet 600s for $8
• 1 Maxi-Jet 1200 for $12
• 2 528GPH Pond Pumps from Harbor Freight. May be a gamble, but they seem to be built well, including a ceramic shaft. What few reviews i've found from other reefers are that they work well. If they fail to meet expectations, they will be used as utility pumps. $20 for both.
• Jebo 180 Skimmer. I know, I know, but for the price, I couldn't help myself. I figured that there are enough mods out there to make the thing at least somewhat useful. $25
• A 200watt heater. Heat usually isn't an issue in Tampa, but I plan on picking up a second one eventually.
• 12 Current USA Slimpaq 24" fixtures. Picked them up at a sale on Marine Depot for $5 a piece, but they all came with actinic bulbs. So I ordered 6 6500k replacements, and for a whopping $80, I have a working light fixture, AND a years supply of spare bulbs. Not to mention my GF bought me the fixtures for christmas, I just bought the bulbs.
• 6 or so 10 gallon aquariums to possibly be used as sumps and/or refugiums. Not quite sure what I want to do with them yet.
• A 24w UV sterilizer from PetSmart. It was a gift from my GF for Christmas and though it has received mixed reviews, I am going to give it a shot.

For a total of about $250 personally invested into this project so far.

The only other thing I have interested in picking up in the near future is some sort of RO/DI system, and building a coiled denitrator. Also, if those pumps work well enough, I am also interested in building a calpho style "halo" return manifold.

 

Let's shed some light on this tank.

So the only major downfall associated with this tank is the fact that it didn't come with any sort of canopy, hood, or lights. This problem is then exaggerated by the fact that it's a very odd shape tank, so that means either paying some cabinet maker to build a canopy, buying a 72" light fixture, or to DIY.

Considering my lack of budget, I choose the last option. The hood will have 2 6" doors on top, 1 on the front for accessing the tank, and 1 on the rear to access equipment, with a 4" stationary piece inbetween. The back of the hood will remain open to allow for ventilation. There will be 4 rows of T5's, 2 actinics and 2 full spectrums.

The outside will be finished with ebony stain, and several coats of satin poly. The inside will recieve a liberal coat of gloss white, possibly preempted by some Zinnser 1-2-3 sealer if the quart I have is still good.

Today I was able to get everything planned out, purchased, cut, and started work on assembly. I got as far as getting the right side piece attached to the front, screwed, glued and clamped before realizing I didn't have a large enough workspace to do both sides and once.

Here is my roommate helping my make the miter cuts on the large front piece.



Here is the basic layout of the hood without one of the end pieces , the 2 1x6s will hinge from the 1x4". Did i mention it was currently laying upside down?



Finally, I got the 2 middle rows that will be attached to the 1x4 assembled and tested. The other 2 rows of lights will be attached to the 2 doors.

 

hey next time you get an insane online deal let me know!!! haha

 

Certainly! ;D

Anywho, on to day 2. Talk about 2 steps forward, and 3 steps back. I was really hoping to finish assembly today, and possibly start paint, but I kept having a reoccuring problem with the other miter joint. I only have enough braces and clamps to hold 1 corner to get at a time while the glue sets so all I had to do today was finish the other side that I didn't get completed yesterday. For some reason the joint just wouldn't lay flat. It kept on sliding back and forth or opening up and falling apart. I litterally spend about 4 hours on this stupid thing.

Here is how I originally tried to do it. there is a small piece of 1x2 on the inside that the vise grip is holding in place. I'm not sure what i did wrong on the measuring and screwing, but it ended up shifting the joint out of position.



Eventually I was able to sand out some minor imperfections as well as perfect my alignment technique to get it where I wanted it.

 

The other fun I had involved a visit from the UPS man. I finally got the 6500k bulbs for my light fixtures so that I have both white and actnic.



Note the missing fixture in the rear. I miss ordered the first time, so I ordered another with some other miscelaneous items I needed and should be here tomorrow to complete the set.



I was quite impressed how well it illuminated my garage.

 

Looking good..... Your off to a great start....

 

Thanks! I have more pictures to upload tonight. I've finally made some good progress. 90% of assembly has been completed. The inside has been sealed and painted gloss white. All I need to do is stain and poly the outside and attach the doors once that is all dried.

 

Holy crap it's been too long. I apologise to all 2 or 3 of you following this thread, but I got really busy trying to finish the hood and get all of my other belongings back up and ready for school that I forgot about this thread for a while. So without any further ado, here are some more pictures.

Finishing the other mitered corner, which for some reason was immeasurably more difficult than the other side.



Primary structure assembled, and starting to mask before sealing and painting the interior with white paint.



After painting.





Applying the Ebony stain.



Attaching the doors.



Spraying the entire thing with Satin finish Poly. (Ignore my car in the background.)



My nifty trick handles. The handles sit almost completely flush when the canopy is closed, but will easily slide out when you wish to open the lid.





I also received my Jebo Skimmer from another forum member. I have the rest of the parts, but didn't feel like piling them up for the picture.



Lastly, my camera started dying right after that last picture of the skimmer, so I quickly popped off a shot of the tank with the hood on it.



I know that is somewhat disappointing but it's sitting on the charger now, and I will definitely be taking some better pictures of it sometime soon.

 

Looks like you're off to a good start. I anticipate the progress. Good Luck

 

A couple more pictures that I felt were worth mentioning.

I got the old man to help me out with mounting the hinges. The picture shows him using a coping saw to score the edges of the area he plans to chisel. I let him handle this because I'm absolutely brutal with a chisel and would've somehow managed to split the entire fixture in 2. Also, note the piece of angle iron attached to the front piece of the canopy. It serves 2 purposes, 1 to support the canopy on top of the tank, as well as pull a massive bow out of said piece of wood that I somehow didn't notice when buying it.





How the mounted lights look from underneath.



Another random picture I managed to get right before my camera died, doesn't show much but felt like sharing it.