Here are a couple quick pics of mine.
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Sent from my iPhone using MASC - Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado
Sent from my iPhone using MASC - Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado
The Etoimos 270g FOWLR build
- Thread starter Etoimos
- Start date
I finished the stripes up on Monday.
Red paint laid down over the taped off area to seal the edges
After the two coats of red dried, I taped off the black stripe.
Sealed those edges with red.
Next was two coats of black (technically, really dark grey).
Then all that was left to do was carefully remove all the tape and checkout if all this time and effort paid off or not.
There were some spots that needed touching up, especially in the corners.
I think it turned out pretty good for my first time taping and painting stripes. I did learn a couple of things doing this. First, do not paint over both edges of the tape when sealing a color, just paint over the inside edge of the tape. If you do this you will end up with a paint line on the outside edge that will show where you taped it off. It is not very noticeable since it is the same color as the wall, but it is there. Secondly, put down a really good coat of paint, or maybe even two coats, when you are color sealing the tape. I thought I had put down enough paint to seal between colors, but as you can see in that last photo, I still had areas were some of the next color bled through.
Red paint laid down over the taped off area to seal the edges
After the two coats of red dried, I taped off the black stripe.
Sealed those edges with red.
Next was two coats of black (technically, really dark grey).
Then all that was left to do was carefully remove all the tape and checkout if all this time and effort paid off or not.
There were some spots that needed touching up, especially in the corners.
I think it turned out pretty good for my first time taping and painting stripes. I did learn a couple of things doing this. First, do not paint over both edges of the tape when sealing a color, just paint over the inside edge of the tape. If you do this you will end up with a paint line on the outside edge that will show where you taped it off. It is not very noticeable since it is the same color as the wall, but it is there. Secondly, put down a really good coat of paint, or maybe even two coats, when you are color sealing the tape. I thought I had put down enough paint to seal between colors, but as you can see in that last photo, I still had areas were some of the next color bled through.
Your walls are what I always imagine in my head, you know....what it is supposed to look like.
I try to paint stripes:
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I try to paint stripes:
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Happy Easter everyone.
My RODI reservoirs showed up on Thursday. Man these things are big!
On Friday and Saturday I made some decent headway on the fish room.
I got my cabinets hung.
The door painted.
I did not want to just have bare concrete floors for multiple reasons, but I also did not want to paint or epoxy just the fish room area as that would look really weird if I ever had to remove the fish room. Or I'd have to put in a ton of work doing the rest of the 3 car garage so that it matched. So instead, I ordered some rubber garage floor tiles and got those installed.
It is messy, but the cut really well on the table saw.
The room is starting to really come together now.
The last thing I got done yesterday was getting the countertop installed. What huge PITA that was! I'm repurposing all the cabinets and countertop from the garage since they were not being used out there. The problem was that they were 72" long and I only have space for just under 60" of counter top. Cutting it down was not too bad.
But getting it into the fish room by my self and keep it both straight and level was very difficult. I scraped and dinged and gouged the walls pretty bad.
I did finally manage to get it in place and repair all of the wall damage.
I don't like the color of the countertop at all, but I'm not sure what to do about it. I don't know if you can paint a laminate top and not have the paint flaking and peeling about a little while. Anyone know?
My RODI reservoirs showed up on Thursday. Man these things are big!
On Friday and Saturday I made some decent headway on the fish room.
I got my cabinets hung.
The door painted.
I did not want to just have bare concrete floors for multiple reasons, but I also did not want to paint or epoxy just the fish room area as that would look really weird if I ever had to remove the fish room. Or I'd have to put in a ton of work doing the rest of the 3 car garage so that it matched. So instead, I ordered some rubber garage floor tiles and got those installed.
It is messy, but the cut really well on the table saw.
The room is starting to really come together now.
The last thing I got done yesterday was getting the countertop installed. What huge PITA that was! I'm repurposing all the cabinets and countertop from the garage since they were not being used out there. The problem was that they were 72" long and I only have space for just under 60" of counter top. Cutting it down was not too bad.
But getting it into the fish room by my self and keep it both straight and level was very difficult. I scraped and dinged and gouged the walls pretty bad.
I did finally manage to get it in place and repair all of the wall damage.
I don't like the color of the countertop at all, but I'm not sure what to do about it. I don't know if you can paint a laminate top and not have the paint flaking and peeling about a little while. Anyone know?
Do the 2 part epoxy counter top! Hundreds of YouTubes on it. Stone Countertops is a big one. Leggari products does another good walk through. Plus you can use spray paint to match your colors! It would be awesome. I have some U.S. flag stencils if you want to add a ghost flag to it.
Here’s the one and only flag I made, and first attempt with epoxy. It’s easy to work with.
View attachment 18709
Here’s the one and only flag I made, and first attempt with epoxy. It’s easy to work with.
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Not a lot of physical work done since the last update, but there is some movement on the build. I placed an order for a Synergy Reef SK-60 sump this week. I'm having them make a few tweaks to it to fit my needs, but nothing major. So far the communication and interaction from them has been superb. I opted for the Red Mercury color combo to match the fish room.
I also got an update on the tank, it will be here on Sat! I've got the U-Haul rented and guys lined up to help me move it from the truck to my garage. I've not built the stand yet, so they are going to come back out once that is done... so we get to move this thing twice. Nice! lol
I also got an update on the tank, it will be here on Sat! I've got the U-Haul rented and guys lined up to help me move it from the truck to my garage. I've not built the stand yet, so they are going to come back out once that is done... so we get to move this thing twice. Nice! lol
This weekend turned out to be pretty productive.
I installed my temp/humidity controlled fan and ran the wiring for it. The big connector coming out of the head unit goes to the fan. It controls the fan as well as feeds power to the head unit. If you have a second fan (I have one sitting on the shelf to see if I'll need it), you can plug it into this same head unit and control them both from it if you are running the same settings. The smaller connector goes to the remote temp prob. The fan cable is super long, but the temp prob cable could have been longer. Better yet, they should have all been ran over Bluetooth so that no wires were needed at all. Otherwise, I really like the whole system and it works really well. The really test for the fan will be when I have the sump all setup and running in that small room.
I also did some other light cable management while I was messing with the fan.
I did not care of the exposed rough lumber on the stand, so I skinned it in some cabinet grade baltic birch plywood.
The top of the stand was also made from the same type of wood.
I left a lip on the stand top so that if there is a major spill, it should not work its way back under the stand. I'm going to be storing stuff, mainly boxes of salt, under there and did not want them getting wet.
I had hoped to just paint this stand white and put some caulking between the wood and walls, but the walls are slightly out of square and the left too big of gaps to do that.
Using the same plywood as the stand, I cut a few strips to width and then ran them though the router to make some trim pieces.
These did the trick to close up the gaps.
Instead of just white paint, I decided to coat the stand in white Flex Seal. Even though the can says it will cover 37 square feet, I needed slightly more than one can to cover my 29 square foot stand (I guess the trim and skirt pushed me over the coverage amount).
I had to do more taping and "painting". I'm still not exactly sure how I feel about the Flex Seal. It was a real pain to paint on as it is super thick. I used a brush to do the trim and it would either not go on with enough coverage or it was too heavy and wanted to run. Using a roller for the stand top and skirt was much better, but still a pain compared to regular paint.
The other draw back to Flex Seal is the drying time. It takes 24-48 hours for it to dry, a fact that my son tested out for me. Doh!
I installed my temp/humidity controlled fan and ran the wiring for it. The big connector coming out of the head unit goes to the fan. It controls the fan as well as feeds power to the head unit. If you have a second fan (I have one sitting on the shelf to see if I'll need it), you can plug it into this same head unit and control them both from it if you are running the same settings. The smaller connector goes to the remote temp prob. The fan cable is super long, but the temp prob cable could have been longer. Better yet, they should have all been ran over Bluetooth so that no wires were needed at all. Otherwise, I really like the whole system and it works really well. The really test for the fan will be when I have the sump all setup and running in that small room.
I also did some other light cable management while I was messing with the fan.
I did not care of the exposed rough lumber on the stand, so I skinned it in some cabinet grade baltic birch plywood.
The top of the stand was also made from the same type of wood.
I left a lip on the stand top so that if there is a major spill, it should not work its way back under the stand. I'm going to be storing stuff, mainly boxes of salt, under there and did not want them getting wet.
I had hoped to just paint this stand white and put some caulking between the wood and walls, but the walls are slightly out of square and the left too big of gaps to do that.
Using the same plywood as the stand, I cut a few strips to width and then ran them though the router to make some trim pieces.
These did the trick to close up the gaps.
Instead of just white paint, I decided to coat the stand in white Flex Seal. Even though the can says it will cover 37 square feet, I needed slightly more than one can to cover my 29 square foot stand (I guess the trim and skirt pushed me over the coverage amount).
I had to do more taping and "painting". I'm still not exactly sure how I feel about the Flex Seal. It was a real pain to paint on as it is super thick. I used a brush to do the trim and it would either not go on with enough coverage or it was too heavy and wanted to run. Using a roller for the stand top and skirt was much better, but still a pain compared to regular paint.
The other draw back to Flex Seal is the drying time. It takes 24-48 hours for it to dry, a fact that my son tested out for me. Doh!
This weekend turned out to be pretty productive.
I installed my temp/humidity controlled fan and ran the wiring for it. The big connector coming out of the head unit goes to the fan. It controls the fan as well as feeds power to the head unit. If you have a second fan (I have one sitting on the shelf to see if I'll need it), you can plug it into this same head unit and control them both from it if you are running the same settings. The smaller connector goes to the remote temp prob. The fan cable is super long, but the temp prob cable could have been longer. Better yet, they should have all been ran over Bluetooth so that no wires were needed at all. Otherwise, I really like the whole system and it works really well. The really test for the fan will be when I have the sump all setup and running in that small room.
I also did some other light cable management while I was messing with the fan.
I did not care of the exposed rough lumber on the stand, so I skinned it in some cabinet grade baltic birch plywood.
The top of the stand was also made from the same type of wood.
I left a lip on the stand top so that if there is a major spill, it should not work its way back under the stand. I'm going to be storing stuff, mainly boxes of salt, under there and did not want them getting wet.
I had hoped to just paint this stand white and put some caulking between the wood and walls, but the walls are slightly out of square and the left too big of gaps to do that.
Using the same plywood as the stand, I cut a few strips to width and then ran them though the router to make some trim pieces.
These did the trick to close up the gaps.
Instead of just white paint, I decided to coat the stand in white Flex Seal. Even though the can says it will cover 37 square feet, I needed slightly more than one can to cover my 29 square foot stand (I guess the trim and skirt pushed me over the coverage amount).
I had to do more taping and "painting". I'm still not exactly sure how I feel about the Flex Seal. It was a real pain to paint on as it is super thick. I used a brush to do the trim and it would either not go on with enough coverage or it was too heavy and wanted to run. Using a roller for the stand top and skirt was much better, but still a pain compared to regular paint.
The other draw back to Flex Seal is the drying time. It takes 24-48 hours for it to dry, a fact that my son tested out for me. Doh!
I installed my temp/humidity controlled fan and ran the wiring for it. The big connector coming out of the head unit goes to the fan. It controls the fan as well as feeds power to the head unit. If you have a second fan (I have one sitting on the shelf to see if I'll need it), you can plug it into this same head unit and control them both from it if you are running the same settings. The smaller connector goes to the remote temp prob. The fan cable is super long, but the temp prob cable could have been longer. Better yet, they should have all been ran over Bluetooth so that no wires were needed at all. Otherwise, I really like the whole system and it works really well. The really test for the fan will be when I have the sump all setup and running in that small room.
I also did some other light cable management while I was messing with the fan.
I did not care of the exposed rough lumber on the stand, so I skinned it in some cabinet grade baltic birch plywood.
The top of the stand was also made from the same type of wood.
I left a lip on the stand top so that if there is a major spill, it should not work its way back under the stand. I'm going to be storing stuff, mainly boxes of salt, under there and did not want them getting wet.
I had hoped to just paint this stand white and put some caulking between the wood and walls, but the walls are slightly out of square and the left too big of gaps to do that.
Using the same plywood as the stand, I cut a few strips to width and then ran them though the router to make some trim pieces.
These did the trick to close up the gaps.
Instead of just white paint, I decided to coat the stand in white Flex Seal. Even though the can says it will cover 37 square feet, I needed slightly more than one can to cover my 29 square foot stand (I guess the trim and skirt pushed me over the coverage amount).
I had to do more taping and "painting". I'm still not exactly sure how I feel about the Flex Seal. It was a real pain to paint on as it is super thick. I used a brush to do the trim and it would either not go on with enough coverage or it was too heavy and wanted to run. Using a roller for the stand top and skirt was much better, but still a pain compared to regular paint.
The other draw back to Flex Seal is the drying time. It takes 24-48 hours for it to dry, a fact that my son tested out for me. Doh!
The other big step this weekend was actually getting the tank!
The U-Haul truck worked out really well and the lift table that Chris at Reef Koi let me barrow made things super easy.
Several of my buddies from work helped me get it unloaded an into my garage where it will sit until I get the sand built. Below are some quick phone pics of it. I'll try and break out the big camera and get some better shots of some of the details this week.
The U-Haul truck worked out really well and the lift table that Chris at Reef Koi let me barrow made things super easy.
Several of my buddies from work helped me get it unloaded an into my garage where it will sit until I get the sand built. Below are some quick phone pics of it. I'll try and break out the big camera and get some better shots of some of the details this week.
