Rudys 187G Peninsula Build

[beachbum1008]

Id like to introduce myself and let you see my new build. Im Rudy and am new to the reef scene. Im pretty excited to finally get the setup ive always wanted. Ill be posting every step of my build and I welcome all advice from everyone. I started by sitting here reading your guys posts for a few months and finally decidid to sign up. the tank I have was bought from Mantis . who I have to say is a pretty nice guy.thanks in advance for all your input...

[beachbum1008]

Heres a pic of the tank when I first got it.
http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q487/beachbum1008/2012-06-22_17-45-32_189.jpg

[h20poloman]

welcome and congrats on the new set up Rudy. Definitely take you time, read up and try to learn from the rest of our mistakes. Feel free to ask questions and come on out to some of the events to meet your fellow reef geeks. Lots of experience here on the forums and there are always people willing to help out. Looking forward to seeing the set up.

[beachbum1008]

It had a deep sand bed in it prior to me owning it so i had to start by sanding and buffing and sanding all of the scratches out
http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q487/beachbum1008/2012-06-24_18-14-32_575.jpg

[jt_milstead]

Man that's a lot of work.Michael(Mantis) is good people!! Keep posting. I cant wait to see more...

[Brian_reefragr]

:welcome: to the boards Rudy!

[poakley723]

Welcome to SDREEFS. There are a lot of good builds on here with tons of ideas. Good luck with the hours of sanding fun you have ahead of you.

Awesome shape tank.

[beachbum1008]

Thanks for all the support guys. I hope to meet some of you in the near future. Ill be posting a new pic of my polishing progress this weekend.

[fresh2120]

Let me know how it goes I have a 150 that looks the same and I need to polish it out before I set it up.

[beachbum1008]

Well I finished the sanding and polishing. It took me roughly 2 weeks because of how deep the scratches were. I forgot to mention before, my tank size is 5' long x30' tall x24"w
Heres a pic of the same spot after polishing let me know what you guys think. I literally layed inside of it for hours sanding, talk about hot

http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q487/beachbum1008/2012-06-24_18-14-54_573.jpg

[beachbum1008]

Now that its fully polished I decided to move it into its new spot between my kitchen and livingroom. its without the stand for now because im starting construction of it this week.

http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q487/beachbum1008/2012-07-13_21-33-43_511.jpg

[beachbum1008]

Heres a Pic I took in my garage while I was messing around with my new lights that I recently picked up
Kessil A350. I bought two for now but think I need one more. they are pretty awesome with adjustable controls of the white and blue. I was told these should have no problem penetrating my deep tank

http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q487/beachbum1008/2012-07-11_20-21-49_727.jpg

[fresh2120]

Dang that looks good I need to get you to buff out my tank... Did u do it by hand or did u use a buffer?

Good stuff keep the pics coming

[beachbum1008]

Thanks alot Fresh.
Most of the tank I wet sanded with 1000 grit then 2500 grit then I used a buffer (harbor freight special) and used novus #3 then i polished it with novus #2. There were a couple of spots where there was some crazing going on so I had to start with 400 then work my way up to 2500 grit to get it all out. It was alot of work but im really happy with it so far.

Dang that looks good I need to get you to buff out my tank... Did u do it by hand or did u use a buffer?

Good stuff keep the pics coming

[ManTis]

WOW!!! Good job to getting those scratches out. I cant believe the tank can look that good! Keep up the good work and keep this updated.