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Blink's 25 Gallon All-In-One Solana Cube


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It's time to start up the new tank journal and it's late, expect rambling. Some of you may have seen this posted on plantedtank, that's fine, just pretend it's all new and exciting.

I bought a nice little 25 gallon AIO cube a while ago, branded as an Ecoxotic but made by Current USA and essentially a smaller version of their Solana. I like AIOs, they give me a sense of well being and relaxation. Anyhow, my wife decided it would make a nice reef tank until I pointed out that she had recently gotten a 60 gallon cube which still needed plenty of livestock.

VICTORY!!!

The time has come to get some water in this thing so first things first, I needed a stand. I looked high and low and there was nothing I liked, or at least nothing I liked that I was willing to pay the asking price for... what do these people think they are selling? I mean $300+ for a poorly made wobbly pressboard stand? "**** that, I'll make one" I says which causes much eye rolling and sighing from my wife, fortunately I've built dozens of subwoofer boxes and all a tank stand is, is a subwoofer box with a door and some access holes.

After a quick trip to Home Depot and bribing the lumber attendant I had some nicely pre-trimmed pieces of 5/8" MDF (which were way way off size) Good thing I asked for generous cuts icon_smile.gif Tonight had me in the garage making all kinds of saw dust and getting most of it in my ears and nose.

There are no pictures of cutting or assembly because, well, I kinda forgot and by the time I realized I'd forgotten I didn't really feel like taking any... I was on a roll!! I promise there will be lots of photos coming.

The stand is mostly assembled, some screws and lots of Gorilla Glue, I tried the new white formulation, apparently it dries twice as fast as the original brown. Seems to have worked like a charm now I need to figure out what I'm doing for shelves and a door but so far it's straight and level, probably more level than this house.

I'm considering finishing it in a nice black-brown color as we have a couple pieces of Ikea furniture in that shade and it looks good. Even if I don't get a color match this tank stand is beefy enough to bludgeon the Ikea junk into dust so it'll work, or at least that's what I tell myself. But on the flipside I'm really tempted to go back to my sub box roots and use some marine grade carpet on the stand, I'd have to waterproof it but you have to waterproof MDF no matter what you do because the junk will soak spills like a shamwow. Hmm, guess I'll have to think on that... But I'm most definitely painting the interior of the stand white, I've had enough of black interiors on tank stands. The white looks good and if you put just a tiny cabinet light in there it is so bright and easy to see what you are doing.

Any thoughts on finishing with marine grade carpet vs. paint or veneer?

I've had some time to think and I like the carpet idea, just not sure if I'm conveniently ignoring any cons to it.

Moving right along, I've got a pail of Fluorite dark, two or three ziplock bags of plants I've gotten recently and a whole helping of impatience.

The stand should be finished by tomorrow night and dry by Saturday morning come hell or high water, then I'll need to figure out what I'm doing for scaping since the wife stole all my prize pieces of driftwood for our new 12 long. I don't want to do lace rock again and I don't want an Iwagumi because my CPDs won't stand for it.

Guess I'd better wrap this one up for tonight.

Edited by blink
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After some revelations in a thread by Cullymoto I made a little side trip to the local fiberglass store and I've figured out how I'm going to seal this stand; Ecopoxy

http://www.safeepoxy.com/

It's claimed to be odorless and non-toxic so in theory I can work with it in the house, which is great since my garage is unheated and it's hovering around freezing right now. The guy at the shop said it's an incredible product which is pretty reassuring since I was looking at some $50 US composites product and this stuff was much less for a comparable amount. Reviews by boat builders say that it's an excellent alternative to epoxy or polyester resins.

I think I'll be doing prep tonight and sealing it tomorrow so wish me luck on that aspect, I'll let you guys know how ecopoxy works out for me.

On the construction side of things I spent some time sitting on my stand, literally, and it's rock solid. No flex or wobble with me and my big fat cat sitting on it and rocking around. I figure if 240 lbs won't cause a wiggle then a nice stationary aquarium should be juuuuust fine.

I just need to clearance the door slightly and get some hinges and I think it'll be ready for sealing.

And there are even some poor quality cell phone photos, first one is obviously the semi complete stand.

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Second is the tank itself, sitting on an awesome 70s coffee table I found in the basement, I thought long and hard about making the stand the same height because it makes a nice end cap for the sofa but this room currently houses my wife's 60 cube and I didn't want to crowd too much water in one room.

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Thirdly is a photo of the sump area, I'll probably be referring to this photo later.

320318592216408887_P9BtkI0h_c.jpg

Edited by blink
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Yeah, time for more rambling... there is progress though!

First coat of Ecopoxy has been laid down. I did the bottom, back and part of the inside of my stand with pretty heavy coats. Haven't used much material so far and the verdict is in on it's working performance.

This stuff is nice!!

-It does NOT emit any detectable odor

-It mixes easily although it doesn't change color when it's fully mixed (might be able to use a colored hardener to solve this problem)

-It spreads really well. Some resins are goopy and really viscous which makes them hard to work with (especially when fiberglassing) but Ecopoxy is thin and spreads very nicely.

-It even self levels to some extent, not something I'm used to seeing in polyester resin and something I've never seen in traditional epoxy resin.

Since I'm not quite finished I have no idea on the finished result but it's sitting in the hobby room curing (yes!!!! I can work resin in the house! Holy cra... er, mackerel!)

This is such a big deal for me because I've had projects sitting all summer waiting for me to find time to work on them and either the weather was poor or I was busy but this opens doors... I can't emphasize enough how happy I am about this!

I even managed to take a couple photos!

-The back, I may end up making the upper hole oblong but it only needs to fit a couple electrical cords so I'm not too worried about the size right now.

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-Front view, what you can't see but annoys me is that there is a slight mismatch between the top piece on the front and the front edge of the top surface of the stand... I may end up making a trim piece that will surround the tank but we will see.

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-Mmm, glossy glossy resin, it's only been a couple hours and it's already tacky!

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-Testing my fluorite, I wasn't sure I had enough but there is a good 2.5" throughout, score!

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-I really want to put some swords in this corner but I wonder if it will be too dark and/or low flow? There is a flexible double headed spout that comes out of that hole just to the left of the corner.

Any opinions?

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Edited by blink
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I test fit my bogwood or driftwood or whatever the hell people are calling it these days and both pieces seem too big, which I kinda figured when I bought them but I thought I'd test fit n see what people say.

First piece, it fits inside but it seems too big... I think there's potential when I set up a bigger tank but not sure for now. I tried digging the substrate away and getting it lower, but its still too tall

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And here is the second piece, it obviously needs some trimming to fit and I hate to chop up such a pretty stump so I'm really leaning towards getting something else, anyone have a nice stumpy piece they want to sell?

320318592216406971_WLZ9yTdF_c.jpg

Edited by blink
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Finally caught up, now things will get updated here in real time, or at least the same day things happen.

Today was resining day 2, the entire stand is covered and it seems to have soaked in as much as it's going to soak and cured as much as it's going to cure so tomorrow I expect I'll be sanding and hopefully painting. My wife has officially put the kibosh on carpeting it, she feels it would look cheesy and I was never really 100% set on the idea so I think I'm going to try and get a dark brown to match the stand our reef tank is on, it's a nice rich color and I prefer it to basic black.

Tomorrow will also be door installation day, I have to use the router and cut a small rebate in the back surface of the door so the hinge will sit flush then install it all and see how I did on making straight cuts :)

I've got a shelf that is nearly ready to install but I keep remembering that this is an all in one, there really isn't going to be much in the stand aside from a few bottles of fertilizer, a net or two, the power strip and the CO2 cylinder. Do I really need a shelf for so few pieces of gear probably not, but perhaps I should install it just in case?

Edited by blink
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One piece at the fall show and one piece at the bonneyville show. Great prices for really nice chunks of wood, I'm just not sure how I'm going to boil them lol

That being said, I think I'll be saving them for my next tank, they're too nice to hack up.

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I got the stand placed and the tank flooded and I was right, the stand is more level than the house lol.

It's not so bad that the fish will have to swim up hill so I'm not going to worry about it.

First impressions, it's quiet, the pump runs hot and the sump really cuts into aquascaping space but I feel its a pretty big improvement from my marineland 27 gallon cube.

Still waiting on photos, I figured I'd collect up a few and update all at once.

Edited by blink
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The tank is filled and planting has begun, I've got a bunch of green stuff from the old tank that needs to be sorted pretty damn carefully for black bush algae but I've got a few new plants too.

So far I've got:

Hemianthus Micranthemoides

Crypt Wendtii

Java Fern

Anubias Barteri 'nana'

Some sword, I'll ID it eventually

Saggiteria Subulata

I'm not 100% happy with the scape, My wife helped me to put something together with my existing driftwood and while I think it looks ok it's just not jumping out at me either, I don't know if I need another piece of wood or just have to shuffle around what I've got but I'm sure it'll come along.

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I'm planning on using a pendant LED, we already have a MH in the living room making it look like an alien abduction center lol, but for now I'm using Philips daylight spiral compact fluorescent bulbs. They have nice color and grow things ok.

I know I can spot dose but I have to be careful as my shrimp live in the bba affected moss. I thought bba liked low flow areas though.

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ONWARD!!

Tank is mostly planted, I still need something for the foreground terrace (it'll make sense when I post a pic), I might have enough Sagittaria subulata to make a nice display but I'm not sure yet. I've taken a bunch of pics and I'm just waiting to upload them till I have enough to make me feel guilty that I haven't uploaded them already.

There are also fish in the tank, everyone seems happy and active but I always worry a little. Fingers are crossed that no one stresses out or leaps :)

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