Joe's Wet Dream, A 600 Gallon Work In Progress

[KEEPERZ]

Real nice set up-did you fab the stainless or have it done and I would think that hood must be heavy when you have to take it off.

[Frank A]

Sweet. Welcome Aboard.

[psychographic]

Did you put the patterns in the stainlees or did it come that way?

[Jobiwan]

I had the skin fabricated at a stainless steel specialty shop, they had never done a tank before and liked the unique challenge. No way any hobbyist could do this, a lot of specialized tools and expertise involved, the swirled pattern was also done there, they have this technique where they do it in three layers, the result is something that appears 3D, you feel like you are looking several inches into the skin, can't capture that with the camera. It also doesn't show fingerprints and such like a shiny finish would, so it does have some practical justification. The framework, the actual stand as it were is shown as the last photo in the first series of pics. It is fabricated out of 2" square 1/4" thick steel tubing. I had it coated with truck bed liner (Like rhino), durable stuff that gives lifetime protection against rust. It took six big guys to carry it into my house, it weighs at least 400 pounds, probably more. The hood is not as heavy as you might think, two of us were able to carry it into the house, and three of us set it on the tank after all the lights, fans, etc were installed. The hood has been in place just a little overs two weeks, I used a couple of 250 HQI's for temp lighting for the previous 3 months. An engineering genius is coming over tomorrow to begin installing a lift to raise the hood, it's based on a counterweight principle and will involve no electricity, I'll post photos, I think it will be very unique, he's only done one other on his 300 gal tank. I was originally planning to use some sort of winch or hoist, but they jerk things around enough to trash halide bulbs, and do some damage when lowering the hood. The hood has doors that give me enough access for feeding and other minor chores. Thanks again for all the compliments, best regards, Joe

[Deepwater]

Originally Posted by Jobiwan

I had the skin fabricated at a stainless steel specialty shop, they had never done a tank before and liked the unique challenge. No way any hobbyist could do this, a lot of specialized tools and expertise involved, the swirled pattern was also done there, they have this technique where they do it in three layers, the result is something that appears 3D, you feel like you are looking several inches into the skin, can't capture that with the camera. It also doesn't show fingerprints and such like a shiny finish would, so it does have some practical justification. The framework, the actual stand as it were is shown as the last photo in the first series of pics. It is fabricated out of 2" square 1/4" thick steel tubing. I had it coated with truck bed liner (Like rhino), durable stuff that gives lifetime protection against rust. It took six big guys to carry it into my house, it weighs at least 400 pounds, probably more. The hood is not as heavy as you might think, two of us were able to carry it into the house, and three of us set it on the tank after all the lights, fans, etc were installed. The hood has been in place just a little overs two weeks, I used a couple of 250 HQI's for temp lighting for the previous 3 months. An engineering genius is coming over tomorrow to begin installing a lift to raise the hood, it's based on a counterweight principle and will involve no electricity, I'll post photos, I think it will be very unique, he's only done one other on his 300 gal tank. I was originally planning to use some sort of winch or hoist, but they jerk things around enough to trash halide bulbs, and do some damage when lowering the hood. The hood has doors that give me enough access for feeding and other minor chores. Thanks again for all the compliments, best regards, Joe

you da man ,, too bad we can get to see the 3d effect

[psychographic]

The 3D effect looks like it's done with a grinder. I have participated in what is called a "Panel Jam" , it's when a bunch of Pinstripers get together and paint panels for trade or sale. A popular panel is a bare aluminum blank gone over with a fine Scotchbrite pad made for a grinder, but in our case they are then painted with Candy Colors. The grinding allows the light to catch the scratches made by the scotchbright pad, when you move or the light source moves the pattern appears to move also.

[Jobiwan]

Exactly right, they did use a grinder, I never would have thought about it, but they had a few artwork things, like salmon etc hanging on the wall at their shop, I had to have it then...

[workn4frags]

Those are some sweet skins.

Tank looks amazing too.

[Jobiwan]

Thanks Deepwater, here are some photos of the early phases, the first is the sump/refugium schematic I did, followed by a photo of it after construction. I did the basic design of the system, but Jason gave guidance along the way and tweaked my ideas to make it happen, credit should go to him, not me:
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this is the stand after construction before the bedliner treatment. The tank was larger than Jason's work table, so he actually built the tank on the stand.
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Here's the tank after construction, the handsome dude is me
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A couple of photos of the stainless shop, you'll see why I said a hobbiest couldn't have done the stainless work:
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The sump/fuge being carried in:
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Moving the tank to my front door:
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A couple of shots of the Hammerheads with the OM-4's in place, they power a total of 12 closed loop outlets, theoretically moving 16,200 gallons of H2O per hour, but thier is some loss through the plumbing:
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Here's a photo of the love of my life....and that's my wife sitting next to it:
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And here's her reaction when she came home and saw the tank and stand after it was moved into the living room:
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[Jobiwan]

Thanks workn4frags, I was worried that the stand would take away from the tank, drawing focus away from the tank, but it compliments it pretty well, similar to the effect of fine wood cabinetry

[Deepwater]

Originally Posted by Jobiwan

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Here's a photo of the love of my life....and that's my wife sitting next to it:
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hahahahha thats funny , hope she does read this forum jking , I think in the back of here mind she saying " where is my diamond ring the guy owes me for buying that skimmer jking

Great log man. Just awesome

[Jackson6745]

The wifes reaction is priceless
Have fun stocking that bad boy and keep the pics coming!

[KEEPERZ]

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A couple of photos of the stainless shop, you'll see why I said a hobbiest couldn't have done the stainless work:
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Joe-this hobbiest does stainless for a living my man-here in Vegas there's alot of bars and kitchens to be built, -I used that scratch finish on the bar I built in my house and really like the look also,saying that, I figured you would need a pully system of some sort to remove that hood by yourself,I went with an acrylic instead of metal, hood on my old 450g just for that reason-the metal looks alot nicer though-good stuff

[JF2381]

Thanks for the sharing the progress shot. I see a lot of thought when to the planning of your tanks and it looks like it paid off. Thanks for letting us be part of your tank by sharing with us.

[1ucky]

This is one amazing looking set-up! I Wish you all the best and great luck with everything!

[Adamc1303]

Your tank is a work of art.

[Deepwater]

Originally Posted by Adamc1303

Your tank is a work of art.

Yes it is ADAM ---Hint Hint

[Jobiwan]

Thanks again folks, I'll keep posting pics, let me know when you get sick of them. As far as the stainless Keeperx, it's just that everything was laser cut to avoid sharp edges, it was built to a 1/32" tolerance, the doors are 1/2" thick and appear to be a solid piece of metal when it is actually 2 sheets modded into a hollow door, since you do this for a living I'm sure you could duplicate it, it boggled my mind that such a thing was even possible, I was thinking of the term hobbyist as a DIYer like me that didn't really know what he was doing when it comes to stainless, I'm sure there are very few people like you that can work with this material, it's a specialty all of its own.

As for raising the hood, we just started prepping for that today, there will be pulleys involved and a 300+ pound counterweight, they will be concealed in the wall behind the tank, I was Randy's gopher today, did what I could to help, mostly tried to stay out of his way. Basically today we removed siding and plywood to gain access to install the equipment, Randy will spend the next couple of weeks fabricating everything, we should get it installed in two weeks.. Here's some photos of the initial work, I'll have more interesting ones in two weeks.
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This is Randy, siding off.
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Finished product for today, now that he knows exactly what he's working with Randy will spend the next two weeks fabricating the lift components. All the pulleys and counterweight will be within this wall, there will be an exterior access door installed. The outlets you see are five dedicated circuits, I had them placed terribly, they will all be moved now, most to the equipment room in the crawl space.
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And here's a shot of my golden angel...Note the big eyes, I'm guessing that this is an adaptation to his deepwater existence, they live around
100 feet down or more
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[Deepwater]

Sweet pic of the angel , Beautiful color

I'll keep posting pics, let me know when you get sick of them

youre kidding right lol , lets us know when you get tired of posting them

[Djay]

Originally Posted by Jobiwan

The framework, the actual stand as it were is shown as the last photo in the first series of pics. It is fabricated out of 2" square 1/4" thick steel tubing. I had it coated with truck bed liner (Like rhino), durable stuff that gives lifetime protection against rust. It took six big guys to carry it into my house, it weighs at least 400 pounds, probably more.

truely amazin. how much did the stand alone go for.