44G Hex Tank: Build Log with Pics.

[Waterkeeper]

I'm really not sure what I paid. LOL... <==-=-

I manage a retail store so I order this stuff direct from hagen and sell it to myself at cost + 5% . I don't want to say what I paid cause that would just be wrong.... I'll put up my reg. retail price from my store tomorrow for a frame of reference.

I fired it up this evening, the phasing on is not as fluent as I hoped. it still kinda "pops" on and has about 6 steps to brightest. The PHase off is much more fluent. I guess because the phosphor is already lit it works better.

all in all I think I 'm going to be very happy with it. I'm still miles away from worrying about my lighting yet so...... maybe this weekend I will get to the foaming.

Question:
how is everyone covering the grade that falls into the water. I mean how and what are you adhearing to the screen to cover it up? I was thinking about silicon some of the gravel that will fill the water feature. any other ideas??

[Waterkeeper]

P.S. to all you fellow reefers out there.. I got in the Hagen GLO T5-HO fixtures at work, hooked up a few, pretty nice..... if your curious send me a message, i'll tell ya all about them.

[beefcakemighty]

i dont think the water fall stream idea over kills.. i did see a forum post using pvc piping split in half to make the stream bed but i cant find it but it looked great you could try the same
it would be cut like this and then you would lay it down making a trench with it. then seal it in place and you can control where the water goes and it wouldnt run all over the place

[Waterkeeper]

Nice Idea with the PVC.... I may try that!

[Devil_Boy]

The slanted pieces going into the water, after the screen was siliconed to them and dried, i just smothered silicone all over it and put pebbles on it, then black sand to fill in the holes the rocks didnt. I did this before i put it in the tank so it could lay flat on its back. It turned our pretty good, plus gives and nice rocky surface to crawl out of the pond. Once my moss gross they will mostly be covered in moss.

[Waterkeeper]

I'm kinda stressing about the lighting thing... been researching the effects of passing UV through glass and acrylic after reading this other post in the equipment forum.. I'm really not trying to build my versa top out of starphire glass.. and even the eggcrate we use is designed for lighting says it is made to limit UV...
There is going to be a canopy on this tank. I want my lighting in the canopy, out of the tank, and above a top.. is a screen top my only option here??? where is the happy medium?

[Waterkeeper]

Got some wood today.. getting ready to foam her up, thought I would take some pics first..






The waterfall is powered by a whisper 10i filter behind the divider. I cut a piece of 2" PVC in half, smothered the inside with silicone and poured some gravel all over it.





More pics later when I am into the great stuff phase.

[Waterkeeper]

I ran into trouble with the uprights coming unsealed from the false bottom. I couldn't leave them just floating around under there while i flipped the tank around so I marked the outline of the FB, placed the uprights, marked them on the glass, and siliconed them over the marks.





There are 3 sides to the background on this tank, so I will have to roll it 3 different ways at 3 different times to complete the foam. I had to balance it on the back point to seal in the edges of the false bottom and false back.



Here is how I locked in the filter.. you can link zipties if 1 isn't long enough.

[beefcakemighty]

looks like its coming along great but im not sure if you ahve the gravel level with the sides of the pvc or did you put one layer that curves with the pvc???? i was think if its level the water may not flow right but im not sure...i wish i could get the pictures for you cause i dont think im explaining things right... i can see you understand what im saying but if you had the pictures you would see what it looks like...arrrrrrrrrrrggggg!!!!!! ill ahve to draw it or something for you i dont know......hmmm maybe if i find time tomorrow or som time this week...heh....

[Waterkeeper]

I knew what you meant beefcake. I just lined the pvc with silicone and poured a ton on gravel in there and let it cure. that one picture just shows the tube full cause I left a bunch in it to let the weight help press it in while it cured. It curves with the pvc.
I realized that I needed to cover up the eggcrate in the front after I had sealed in the FB, so I hat to break the seal and pull it all out today so I could silicone some gravel to the fronts.. AAAARGH! got a little ahead of myself, but it was an easy fix.

Here is where I am leaving it for the night, ran out of black silicone.