50 Gallon SPS Reef

Building Pictures

This is the primary support structure for the tank stand.  It can support far more than it will ever need to and provides a distributed force on the ground that it rests on.  No nails were used in any of the fabrication process.

Here you can see how the inside base to the stand was cut to shape.

Here you can see what was used for the front face.  Pretty much a 3/4" piece of Oak plywood.  I used a jigsaw to cut out the door frames.   Eventually I removed the center support and replaced it with a more robust poplar support.  Unfortunately I didn't have the access to stock to use a 100% hardwood face and had to use the plywood instead. Fortunately it wasn't as big of an issue since it was being painted in the end.

My little shop helper.

This is the almost completed product.  I caulked all of the seams and primed the interior and exterior with Kilz Oil Based Interior paint.  I used two layers of a latex paint for the finish coat.  Hopefully this will be enough to withstand the high humidity environment.

Here is a picture of the plumbing for the Ocean Motions Squirt.  It is a device with a magnetically driven chamber that constantly revolves and redirects the input flow to one of the four output lines.  This helps give a fairly random current pattern, much like what corals are used to in natural reefs.