Well, I am finally going to be documenting a build. I have been reefing for several years now. My fist tank (which I still have and love), which was my wife’s idea to purchase, is a 20 gallon JBJ cube. I put this tank up and custom built a stand for, and did multiple things without documenting a flipping thing hardly.
Once I started noticing on here how fun following a build can be, I wanted to do it, and I wanted to do it right. I figured I would wait for my first upgrade in order to do my proper build thread. Well boys and girls, today is finally that day!
I ordered an Innovative Marine 40L lagoon AIO and White aluminum stand. They threw in a 15 gallon ATO container ($200 some value) for free. I highly recommend leaving things in your cart for a long time….wink wink. It was estimated to be delivered on Monday next week. However, it arrived in a warehouse in Columbus (Ohio that is… O-H!) this morning and they were fine with me going to pick it up, instead of having to wait until Monday for them to deliver it. Which would have made for a long and anxious weekend lol! So, I squeezed it inside the back of my Tiguan and brought her home.
After getting everything inside, I sat there and thought to myself how great a job IM did at building such a cool box around the aquarium to protect it. I felt like Ralphie’s dad in A Christmas Story when he got his major award delivered. Only thing that was missing was “Ragile’” written on it in “Italian”!
One thing I should mention, since I received the tank earlier than expected, and since I a definitely on a budget, there is plenty of equipment that has not been purchased yet (lights, power heads, heater, etc.) and have not made my aquascape yet. I have the rocks for the scape and will be building that tomorrow. I just wanted to get the tank going on cycling, so lots of things will be added and updated as I go.
I got the white aluminum stand put together in about an hour. I was very pleased with the quality, sturdiness, and overall cosmetics of it. As much as I enjoyed building my other stand (I am a carpenter by trade) this was a big time saver and I am glad I pulled the trigger on it.
Before diving into the tank itself, I made a trip to my LFS, which was having the first day of huge sale they do every year in August to celebrate their anniversary. Could not have been better timing!! Since I do not have an RODI system yet, I grabbed my 5 gallon buckets and got all the water I needed. I also picked up 40 lbs of Carib Sea live sand.
After placing the stand where its permanent home would be and placing the aquarium on the stand, it was time to bust out the levels. Not at all surprised that the stand would need some shimming because the floor wasn’t perfectly level. I’ll likely get creative with some shoe molding or something to cover the gaps that are now at the bottom of the stand from shimming it. The tank is perfectly level in all directions now though.
Now, It was time to put sand, an old temporary power head, water, and a couple rocks from my established tank, into my tank to get a cycle going!! This was going to be it for me for the night, and will be jumping back into everything first thing tomorrow to get more things done.
One little additional thing I decided to do, was take the factory LED light from my wife’s freshwater tank, that we weren’t using because we upgraded the light and lid, and set it up as a “backlight”. I’ve seen this done on a few other tanks online, and thought I would give it a try. I think it’s a fun little feature. Plus the light has a remote and has several options for colors.
Until tomorrow everyone! I’m exhausted lol!
Once I started noticing on here how fun following a build can be, I wanted to do it, and I wanted to do it right. I figured I would wait for my first upgrade in order to do my proper build thread. Well boys and girls, today is finally that day!
I ordered an Innovative Marine 40L lagoon AIO and White aluminum stand. They threw in a 15 gallon ATO container ($200 some value) for free. I highly recommend leaving things in your cart for a long time….wink wink. It was estimated to be delivered on Monday next week. However, it arrived in a warehouse in Columbus (Ohio that is… O-H!) this morning and they were fine with me going to pick it up, instead of having to wait until Monday for them to deliver it. Which would have made for a long and anxious weekend lol! So, I squeezed it inside the back of my Tiguan and brought her home.
After getting everything inside, I sat there and thought to myself how great a job IM did at building such a cool box around the aquarium to protect it. I felt like Ralphie’s dad in A Christmas Story when he got his major award delivered. Only thing that was missing was “Ragile’” written on it in “Italian”!
One thing I should mention, since I received the tank earlier than expected, and since I a definitely on a budget, there is plenty of equipment that has not been purchased yet (lights, power heads, heater, etc.) and have not made my aquascape yet. I have the rocks for the scape and will be building that tomorrow. I just wanted to get the tank going on cycling, so lots of things will be added and updated as I go.
I got the white aluminum stand put together in about an hour. I was very pleased with the quality, sturdiness, and overall cosmetics of it. As much as I enjoyed building my other stand (I am a carpenter by trade) this was a big time saver and I am glad I pulled the trigger on it.
Before diving into the tank itself, I made a trip to my LFS, which was having the first day of huge sale they do every year in August to celebrate their anniversary. Could not have been better timing!! Since I do not have an RODI system yet, I grabbed my 5 gallon buckets and got all the water I needed. I also picked up 40 lbs of Carib Sea live sand.
After placing the stand where its permanent home would be and placing the aquarium on the stand, it was time to bust out the levels. Not at all surprised that the stand would need some shimming because the floor wasn’t perfectly level. I’ll likely get creative with some shoe molding or something to cover the gaps that are now at the bottom of the stand from shimming it. The tank is perfectly level in all directions now though.
Now, It was time to put sand, an old temporary power head, water, and a couple rocks from my established tank, into my tank to get a cycle going!! This was going to be it for me for the night, and will be jumping back into everything first thing tomorrow to get more things done.
One little additional thing I decided to do, was take the factory LED light from my wife’s freshwater tank, that we weren’t using because we upgraded the light and lid, and set it up as a “backlight”. I’ve seen this done on a few other tanks online, and thought I would give it a try. I think it’s a fun little feature. Plus the light has a remote and has several options for colors.
Until tomorrow everyone! I’m exhausted lol!
the house is up here in Cleveland. I-O from a fellow Buckeye!
