DIY Rustic 25 Rebuild

Well its been about 2 months since ive posted anything. In that 2 months ive had some issues. I had a power outage for a week when something chewed some wires in the walls....joy....over that week i lost id say close to 85 percent of my tank. I mean literaly had a small colony of zoas, my clownfish, my chromis, A hermit and some snails. I wasnt heavily stocked yet otherwise i may have been really heartbroken. Well this was about 1month ago. So i decided to give my good buddy what was left of my stock and start over.

I decided to build a stand and canopy this time around. I have to say ill never buy a stand again. Enjoying the process of this. Been slow only really getting to work on it for like 30 mins a day or so when i get home. My new job and 2 year old consume a lot of my time. I'm in no real hurry though. My idea for the stand is a more rustic looking stand. I built the frame from 2x4s for the stand and 1×2 for the canopy. My wife complained about the leds brightness above tank before so with her in mind i decided on a canopy. I started wrapping the stand with some old fence pickets i had from when i replaced my fence. Knew id find a use eventually for them. Ill add some pics at the end of this post of everthing do e so far to catch you guys up.

Ill still be running my diy pvc overflow just with a modification or 2. I will be painting it black as well. Havent started yet waiting i til my stand is cometed.

Tank specs-
30 in x14 in x 17 in 30 gallon with a weird notch cut out in back holds about 25 when overflow is added. Gives me plenty of room for overflow stopping or clogging up.
10 gallon diy 3 chamber sump
Reef octopus bh-50 skimmer - seen one in action and was impressed
2 ai prime leds - really enjoying these so far
2 hydor koralia 425 pumps with controller
Not sure name of return but its gph is 600 after head height its about 300 or so. Its nothing special.

I have an extra 5 gallon i could do as a refugium. Not sure if i want to do that or use this as a quick set up hospital tank. Dont plan on keeping any monster fish anyways.

I'm having issues uploading pics at the moment but as soon as i can get them to i will.

 

Wellll i guess you have to be logged in to post pics lol. Please excuse my messy garage im gettimg ready for a garage sale as well.

 

Last post for now i promise. Was working on some ideas for scaping it. Ill add some more pics as i do more. Let me know what you think would like yalls opinion.

 

Got to work on my stand yesterday with some help lol. Just gotta finish up the door samd it and stain it. The firts photo is of current stand and second is of what id like finished to look like. 2nd is just some random cuttings thrown on to give me an idea of what i want. Last but not least is my little man helping me out with some sanding.

 

The rustic look of that stand is going to be legit, keep up the good work and I dig the aquascape. Is there going to be a sand bed?

 

I like the unusual I think it's gonna look great

 

Thanks. Got the stand finished for the most part just have to build door and seal it up. Ive debated with myself on the sand bed part. If i dont do one id leave the egg crate out. I like the pros of a bb tank but i like the look of sand. I wont be adding any sand gobies this go around as the one i had before drove me nuts. Show of hands who would do bare bottom and how many would go with sand. If you did sand would you go.deep or shallow bed.

 

Although sand annoys me I do like the look of it. I'm personally not a big fan of BB

 

The look at first stears me away from a barebottom but then i think of all that room for zoas. All in all ill probably do sand, but thats still up in the air for now as i have other things on my mind. Like how to plumb it and keep room for my hospital tank and all my other goodies.

I want to build a reactor for it, but im not sure if my return pump will have enough juice to get it though the reactor and up to the tank with the extra 4 inches i added to the tank. Can i add the reactor to the plumbing to the sump or does it need to be in the return?

 

sand rocks (see what i did there?)

 

Finished the stand. Got all my pvc for plumbing as well. Im gonna get the over flow built and painted tonight so it can sit and cure until im ready to set up. I might as well touch up the back of my tank as well where the paint got scratched from ball valve.