My 300g 'build'

[sbarber]

Hi all, I've lurked for a while but I figured its time to introduce myself and my project. Like most of us, I've been a fish nerd most of my life. Turns out Marlin and I went to high school together and both grew up into full-on fish people. I did mostly cichlids (west african) attended ACA conventions, meetings etc. Always wanted to make the SW jump. Moved to SD just over a year ago and recently bought a house.

I have a super supportive spouse (also like most of us) that was onboard with putting a tank in the new house. As soon as we closed on the house my wife and I picked the perfect spot. The dinning room, it had a long wall that backed up the garage. I taped off an area on the floor so the concrete slab was left exposed after the flooring went down. Electricians came put in new circuit on its own breaker, quad outlets on the inner wall and another quad on the outside garage wall.

[sbarber]

So I had the dimensions picked out.. then came Chris (lotsafishies) and he worked with me to order a 300g (96x24x30) Leemar with low-iron glass on three sides. He planned the center drain and sent me the schematic. Very nice guy and was a pleasure to work with.

[sbarber]

While the tank was being built, we needed to get to work on the stand. But now its approaching Thanksgiving and we had a deadline.
Dave (davocean) answered the call and totally stepped up the challenge. The stand was one project, another was french doors for an office that needed to be a bedroom before guests came for the holiday. I had a vision of what I wanted for the stand but it was vague. I showed him some pictures, he got some ideas and ran with it. His creative juices were flowing... and the results were awesome. Here is the work in progress...

[row12]

Very nice! I used to have the same exact dimension tank. One piece of advice is the height of the tank. Is it 24" or 30" tall? The reason why I ask is because if I were to redo my old 300 gallon I would have went 96Lx30Wx24H. The 30" height is a pain to reach anything in the bottom of the tank. Plus with the overflow box design that you have, you might want more depth to make up for the lost space that the overflow will take up. Other than that the tank looks perfect! Diamond edge?

[sbarber]

Dave got it done.. on time. Tank was delivered with him there to help make any tweaks. This is why I have the title 'build' in quotes. I had a lot of help from people much better at this stuff then me. Including Chris who delivered the tank and helped the guys from Gorilla Movers who came after hours to get the tank in.

[sbarber]

Here's Chris on the far left lifting more then his share. (I was taking pictures)

[sbarber]

I know what you mean, it is 30inches tall. I could only come off the wall so far because of the dinning room table and the chairs that would back up to the tank. That extra 6 inches would have made a big impact in the room. Also higher means sitting in the dining room chair makes you eye level with the middle of the tank... a nice way to enjoy a meal.

[sbarber]

The outside wall is the garage, Dave cut a nice panel underneath and everything runs out there. Chris put the pluming together and the sump hooked up. I'll update later with the rest of the plumbing.

[davocean]

Nice to see this coming to fruition, I think I'm almost as excited to see this as you are!

[sbarber]

Here is the 'finished' stand. Notice the chair rail, Dave had put that in to tie the stand into the room. I told him I wanted the stand to look like it belonged to the house and not just piece of furniture to put a tank on. He totally went above and beyond with that finishing touch.

More thanks goes to my Dad. He was visiting for Thanksgiving and I showed him the AI Vega lights and EXT mounting brackets and he worked out a nice mounting system and managed to hid the wires. The guy has no experience with any tank lighting just happens to be really creative and very handy.
Sorry about the bad photos... I get some close up pics of the brackets up this week.

[sbarber]

Couldn't have been done without you Dave.
Thanks

Nice to see this coming to fruition, I think I'm almost as excited to see this as you are!

[sbarber]

So this is kinda where we're I'm at, Marco Rock is marinating. I'll get some garage pics up tonight. Fuge is being plumbed, Reef Octopus 5000 is running like a champ. So far so good.

[LotsaFishies]

Awesome Scott! Thank you for the opportunity to work with you! You and your dad did a super clean job with the lights - well done!

Now time to get that bad boy stocked!

[davocean]

Awesome!
Your Dad did a great job on those lights, I know that was a tricky one, especially w/ tank in place already.
Marco rocks look great!
What a nice start!

[JohnnyAirtime]

Very nice!
Looks like a very clean install, and love the placement.

I'm going to assume, that you can access under the tank from the dining room?
From the side? (not that you need to, but... in case of a leak or ....?)

Is the "access hole" going to route all plumbing and some electrical?

Are you going to only stock it with fish, or some coral too?

I love "through wall" plumbing and such, it really makes the tank super quiet.