New 240g project

[Steve]

Oh baby! 
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[kodyboy]

Looks awesome!

[Regalblue]

Great to see!!

[danotaylor]

Nice! Makes the 75 gal bemba tank look like a 40 breeder lol

[Rob S]

Very nice. Big tanks rule, the possibilities are endless.

[Steve]

Some before, during & after pics of buffing out the acrylic today using Novus 1/2/3 buffing compounds. Will probably buff it out again but looking pretty darn good even after just the first round of buffing.
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[jkeeler]

Nice!  Coming together....you are going to have lots of room for fish.

[jcunningham0295]

Looking great as always Steve.

[Steve]

Thanks guys....but I think I just might have some sort of mental issues lol. All that buffing and it did come out looking really good, but there were still some small/tiny scratches that I just could not stop staring at. I'd say once water was in it 99% of people would not notice...but I KNEW they were there lol.

So after I got done working on the auction tank 3dbg for the night...I broke out the 2000 & 1000 grit wet sandpaper and started the laborious job of wet sanding the entire tank down to make the whole thing look like new. Ran short on time but got one side wet sanded. Lots more sanding and then rebuffing again over the next week or so...

[Steve]

Well even though I buffed it all out last week and was "happy" with it, there were still a few small spots that were bugging me. So I decided to go ahead and wet sand the entire tank down with 1000/2000 grit and then rebuff it all out again. Just finished it up and couldn't be happier with the results because I know if I didn't do it now I would always regret not doing it when I had the chance.

 
 

[kodyboy]

Looks great!

[Steve]

Test filling right now, 90% full. Needless to say after my 265g nitghtmare a couple years ago my nerves are SHOT right now 

[Steve]

 Tank is 100% filled now so leak test in progress (fingers crossed If all goes well then I'll drain it down in a few days and start working on the 3D background for it.

[E.Y.]

Looking good Steve! Can't wait to see the start of the background. 

[Steve]

Well came home today after dropping off some stuff at the auction and started right onto working on the background for the 240g build. I can say for sure that this background project will in fact be the death of me! lol. I'm doing it a bit different than any of the others I have done before. Making the rocks stick out anywhere from 1-2" all the way out to some full 6" thick rocks to really give it some nice 3d feel to the background. Adding some caves which I plan to backlite with blue cold cathode lights the way I did one of my tanks a few years ago. Also plan to do a full stalactite probably over to the left side. Having to carve the really thick 6" foam sections is much more time consuming than than any of the other background I have done before. I have a solid 10hrs of work into just what you see here today. And thats maybe what 15% done? uhg. I'm thinking I'll have around 100 hours into this one by the time it's all carved painted and sealed. Should be worth it though when done