The stand looks amazing, and your euphyllia were like none I've seen! Awesome setup, Chris! Also, you're probably the only person I know with more snails than me.

YEAH! Had a tank viewing after our local meeting at my house and showed off my stand and got complements!!! Thanks guys! So stand is almost done. Wood work is 95% complete. I've decided to cut a hole again in this *temporary* stand for the chiller exhaust especially since I've made this one effectively sealed to the wall. So I'll add some screen and rounded over trim to finish the square hole. I hope to paste the nail holes, finish sanding and removing all left over glue to begin preconditioning and staining this weekend. My stain -*test*-('") results have shown two coats for the pine and fir and only on on the Lauan plys. The doors turned out pretty cool but since I went with doug fir vs. oak (cost) the wood wasn't quite wide enough for my doormaking router bits. So I decided to router them out myself and just inset the door panels with glue. After all the stain and urethane is done, dry, and mostly degassed, I get to hang the doors, put in the linoleum bathtub, and prep for some additional mountings: ACII, food and additive shelves, towel hooks, etc...

Picture update time!!! Stand Stud and Post notched detail Trim detail Doors... not too bad ;)

Stand looks great! I wish I had the patience to do that. With 4x4's that thing will hold your car on top of it hahaha

Rob, Thanks, Yup it's pretty stout. I've climbed up and tried the "twist" dance to see if it would wobble. Stood its ground! I'm pretty confident it will hold whatever I can put on it. Dan, Thanks for the compliments! I've started staining and really like how it's coming out. However even the sligh-*test*-('")s remaining glue stands out like a naked butt, lesson learned: if you're staining - don't glue.

all but one side is stained and the doors are stained... family is in town this week and weekend. so little to no progress right now. I did get the glass tops only to find my tired state of measuring I wrote down the wrong number 23 when it should have been 22. So I have exactly 1" to cut off and sand back down the sharp edge on six pieces. Last time I bought glass lids for my tank they were about 1/4" too long. I tried to do the score and snap method but it didn't work on such a short piece so instead I ended up using the other side of the glass scoring tool and simply chipped away the excessive 1/4". Hopefully, this 1" length will work with the score and snap method. I also picked up a 12 outlet 4' long strip from Harbor Frieght that I'm thinking will go on the back side of the stand on the outside below the top. I can plug in any xfrms and X10 modules in there without crowding out any other spaces.

YEA that stand has come along way since I saw it looking VERY good. when are you planning on lifting the tank onto it?

Well, Family just left and I finished staining the last panel. However the trim around the cutout for the chiller exhaust was apparently made of foam and only had a thin layer of plastic made to appear like wood that didn't take any bit of stain. At least I was aware of this potential issue before so I didn't actually glue on in just yet and happy I didn't . So as soon as that panel dries I'll apply a layer of eruathane coating. I'm thinking 3 layers on the sides, 4 on the doors, and 5 on top and top edge trim. I hope to have that done by the end of next weekend as I'll have time off for T-day and my daughter is out of school Wednesday and Friday as well. After a week or so of it venting off the *toxic* VOC's my wife and I are worried about, I'll be finishing the inside touches to get it going. So I'm thinking I'll be ready to swap it out after the first week to mid December. :D Just in time to find a new home for all the frags I'll be bringing home from Dec 6. I plan to keep my 29 gal up for a temporary QT tank as well as sell off some of the corals I don't want in my new tank. Soon I'll have for sale the 4' long 50 gal with oak trim, a tall oak stand, and an DIY oak canopy with 4x65W PC lighting on two power switches and a set of fans that power up with the front set of lights. I can also throw in the S.O.S. overflow but you'll have to have your own sump as I'm going to use this one until I build my own later. If you've been by to see my main tank - this is it.

Stained top Stained Doors Stained Trim detail

Looking really good, Chris. Bovia brand aquarium stands, coming 2009!

Ha ha!!! Thanks!

OK stand is complete!!! YAY... last lesson learned: when making doors for your stand and you measure your openings compared to the remaining side area, include at least 3/4" for each hinge side. This is something where for me, 20/20 hindsight works best. I had to ram the hinges under the edge trim and still the doors slightly nock together when closed. No biggie... the stand still looks pretty good and is really functional. I'm actually working on my own private list of lessons learned here for when I make further wood projects. Funny thing while taking a break to figure out what to do with the doors, I decided it was time to put in the 4' long power strip on the underside of the top plywood. So I climbed in and on my back put up one side. While pivoting around, bringing over my drill and driver and looking for screws, all while holding up the unattached end, I realize it is going to be a pain to put this end's screws so close to the wall. Nontheless, I finished it. Then I figured it was time to put the cutout of linoleum on the bottom. So I flipped the stand on its top and laughed as I saw the pwr strip sitting there now very easily accessable and clearly gravity would now hold it in place without the screws. Ha Ha. I nailed down the lineolum to the bottom frame about every 2-3 Inches with the last 3-5mm angled over to provide additional contact area. I also eurathaned the bottom 2x4's and posts so I will move the stand onto carpet and let the carpet push up the linoleum naturally (I also left enough slack for this to happen). I then plan to silicone the edges to make an attempt at a bathtub effect around the inside edges of the stand should (read: when) water end up here to activate the leak alarm. I also added some of the 3M plastic hooks to the doors and an inside post to hang towels. I've moved on to preping the remaining plumbing issues to finality with the exception of actual installation once the stand/tank are in place. So I'm threading teflon tape on all threads, using large channel-lock plyers to crank the fittings down. And I'm in search of some 3/4" and 1" Flexible PVC as I think that will be the ticket to getting this thing to work right with the least amount of fittings and overall cost. Also, when I ordered the glass for the lids they came out as I requested but in reality an inch too long. So I got out my scoring tool and attempted to snap off the six 1" pieces. Only one came out perfect. Three others needed additional work, and two were a total loss. Also the glass lid hinge material seems to be the correct size for 1/8" thick glass but simply doesn't hold the glass in its grip. I wonder if exposure to light/heat will cause these to shrink and actually hold the glass? So I'm on my way to making my goal of tank swap a reality!!! :D

Photo Time. Front Right side w/ Chiller exhaust port visible Right side doors open and floor visible Top (with plumbing stuff) Return and supply plumbing connections Planning on swap tanks Fri/Sat 12/12-12/13.

Went out to OSH on Sunday to get some Egg crate and suction hooks and made a frag tray to hold some of the frags pending the new tank!!! :D Got much of the plumbing taped and torqued and venting now in the garage. Got the tubing a straight as I can get it by simple means. I plan to soak the flex PVC in the tub with hot water before I need to install it so I can get some flexibility out of it. Making RO/DI water to begin mixing salt for the 125g+ needed for this swap. And I'm making my final process list to swap these tanks out. Getting excited to make this happen.... FINALLY!