Eric & Becca's 180 build

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The back up plan is now in motion. I drove south today and looked thru a couple hundred blanks, only to find no 4 blank sets. I got as close as I could to the color and tight figure of the other panels. They are clamped. It will hit the press tomorrow, and I'll add some color. Keep your fingers crossed. lol
 
I fixed it. I love it when you dont have to revert to plan -C-. I will be able to oil it tomorrow. It should ready for finish (with the rest of them) by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.
 
Very cool Dave. Thank you so much. We are back in town as of last night and all unpacked. We can't wait to see how these come out. I'm going to be doing some work to the sump today and try to get the layout down. Hopefully I can get some baffles cut and glued into place.

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Ok you have been back long enough to have SOMETHING done that is picture worthy!!!! Even if it is a shot of your organized work space. I know that would take a few days. A few days worth of hard work IS picture worthy in my book. lol

Becca do I have to come over there and assemble that sump so you can have a cycle going before you leave again?? LOL
 
Ok Dave, this is for you....and of course the rest of you

The door panels are so amazing looking that we choose to work on that to get them done and in the house where they belong. First we, and by we I mean Eric, had to clear a space to work. As you can see from the pic space is at a premium.

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Now Eric can work on putting two coats of polyurethane to the back of the door panels.

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Once that is dry we will set the panels that Dave made for us into the frames and finish the front of the doors and the stand and hood with the satin lobo that Frankie has generously provided, thanks Frankie and Dave.

As far as the sump goes, it sounds like the perfect RF workshop project...however the raffle stipulation REALLY doesn't work for us. Yes our goal, and by our I mean mine, is to have this baby cycling while we are camping.
 
I know a guy that could put together a nice secure storage shed to make room for Eric to create some very nice home accents in your spacious two car garage.
""TODD"" dont you have a few hours on the books???? LMAO!!!!
I will be over the first part of next week for some trade. Eric if you havent got to your sump by then have a plan in mind, we can knock it out in a few hours.

Looking good you two!!! Keep the ball rolling.
 
Eric & Becca,
Thought I would give you a pat on the back for your material and finish selections on your stand, WOW. I know nobody else has seen it yet, but I have.lol

It was nice to see you sweeping up the work space. It will be much easier to get out there and work on your build.

Thanks for letting me transfer the macro algae from your fuge to mine. I seems that it is already growing!!
I also want to thank you for the 2 Cardinal Fish that you have raised form your breeding pair.
Here is a pic of them. They are about 1/2''
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Thanks, Peppie
 
So this Saturday Eric and I devoted our day to cleaning up the garage. Now we have all kinds of work space...bring on the sump...

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It isn't totally done, still have the work bench to tackle...but you get the picture. So first we had to get these doors done. Applied two coats of satin Lobo to the front of the panels and two coats of polyurethane to the backs.
When the panels where dry we used nylon turn buttons to hold the panels in the frames.

And here is the money shot.......drum roll please

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boo yaa

close up of the details in the doors....Good work Eric and Dave for picking through a pile of wood to find these most perfect veneers

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And one of the doors as it looks in the house.

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Now need to put a coat of the Lobo to the stand so all pieces have the same finish. Then on to the sump and the Hood.. I personally would like the hood to come first, but you don't need a hood to cycle.
And after all isn't that the goal Eric....

and the peanut gallery is chanting "sump,sump,sump"
 
Eric & Becca,
Thought I would give you a pat on the back for your material and finish selections on your stand, WOW. I know nobody else has seen it yet, but I have.lol

It was nice to see you sweeping up the work space. It will be much easier to get out there and work on your build.

Thanks for letting me transfer the macro algae from your fuge to mine. I seems that it is already growing!!
I also want to thank you for the 2 Cardinal Fish that you have raised form your breeding pair.
Here is a pic of them. They are about 1/2''


Thanks, Peppie

Saw your tank this afternoon and WOW...:jaw:looks amazing. You have mad DIY skills. Now I hope you give some serious thought to the idea I gave you about the stand.... Seriously though we want to thank you for all the work you have put into this build.
We really appreciate all your time and efforts. We hope the little cardinals make it. They seemed to be happy and adjusted to their new digs.

Sooooo Todd, ball is in your court.
 
Now thats what I was talking about when suggesting you use contrasting woods in your doors panels! Looks friggin' amazing you guys and gal.

On a side note who broke into your garage and stole all your crap, could you please send them my way next. And ya-ya-ya I'm getting back to the windows now that the sun is finally back, who woulda thunk that we'd have days of rain in the middle of July arghh

Todd
 
Now thats what I was talking about when suggesting you use contrasting woods in your doors panels! Looks friggin' amazing you guys and gal.

On a side note who broke into your garage and stole all your crap, could you please send them my way next. And ya-ya-ya I'm getting back to the windows now that the sun is finally back, who woulda thunk that we'd have days of rain in the middle of July arghh

Todd

Thanks Todd. We are very pleased with the way they came out after all this time.

It was Becca's Complete Cleaning Service that wiped out all the crap. She is amazing when it comes to looking you in the eyes and saying "really... you really need this? Do you even know what this is or where it came from?" The really dumb look on my face is usually followed by a thud of whatever it was landing in the driveway.:yield:
 
wow your garage is SO CLEAN NOW! I don't have to worry about tripping :D good job, love the doors.
 
OK here are some shots of the sump prior to gluing the baffles and such in. We are looking for feedback before we glue them in tonight if possible.

Full sump shot - sump dimensions are 60" x 18" x 20" and water flows from right to left. The first section is 18" long for the skimmer and the two 1" drains from the DT. We will be running the SWC Mini S Cone with about a 11" x 11" footprint and we want room for possible future upgrades and we don't want it so tight you can't work in there. More room is better right or should we make the skimmer area smaller for more fuge room? Then there is a single 12" tall baffle (there will be a stand under the skimmer to set it the correct water depth). We don't think a bubble trap is necessary since there is basically 42" of fuge/return area for any bubbles to dissipate. Then we built a box around the 2" drain bulkhead on the left end to keep all the nasties out of the return line. The return pump will be an external Reeflo Dart.

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Here is a couple of shots of the return box. Are there enough 1/2" diameter holes for a Reeflo Dart return pump? There are 85 of them. They really didn't come out very nice in drilling them. The acrylic kept chipping with the 1/2" drill bit. But it's only a sump right??? We also held any holes at least 3" up from the bottom in case we decide to run a sand bed in the fuge.

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Neither the baffle nor the box are glued in yet so if anyone has any input on what sould be changed it's still easy to do. That's why we are posting this asking for input. Don't be shy and don't hold back. We can take it.
 
If the entire end is going to have loose floating chaeto, IMO, it will go through the 1/2" holes and into the suction of the return pump.
I would plan another baffle or two to prevent it.
 
Thanks Marty. I don't think we plan on having free floating macros but maybe so. I have thought about putting some of that gutter guard black plastic mesh inside the return box as extra insurance. Think this would be enough?
 
I have found that every once in a while ( for whatever reasons) chaeto will break off from the main clump and sometimes clog or restrict the flow of a lower powered return pump. I don't think your return pump would be affected at all, but any free floating material will be drawn to that end of the sump. IMO
On all my sumps, I've made a extra set of baffles to keep the refugium separated from the return area.
 
Hey Eric, being very similar to my design you can place some type of bio-ball into that return chamber. There is plenty enough flow to keep them from clogging up with detritis and being somewhat in the dark will allow sponges and tunicates to grow (what I have planned as my Cryptic Zone). You may need to cut an access panel on top like mine to be able to periodically clean out or remove macro. Couple pics of mine below .

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Cheers, Todd
 

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