My ADA 75P Journal

[RossMartin]

Hi All,

I've been reading about on the forums for years. I had a marine tank until i visited The Green Machine whilst away for work for two days. The second day I took my girlfirend up there and she loved the planted tanks, so we ended up walking away with an ADA 75P!

I decided to self build the cabinet as i've always fancied giving it ago and have seen others do it succesfully. I got some waterproof 18mm MDF cut to size and built it to the ADA sheet that is available on the internet (or PM me if you want it!). I used wooden dows, waterproof MDF glue and screws to put it together! Unfortunately my old iphone broke so i don't have the majority of pictures that i took whilst building it, but i do have the below.

This was when i was checking that the cabinet was the right size but also using 25l water cannisters to help glue the two bottom bits of wood together:

I used about four coats of Waterproof MDF primer applied with a roller, paying particular attention to the edges:

I then uses Dulux "Night Jewels 3" for the exterior paint and did a colour match on a Ford Forcus RS for the green interior!

I've got some toys to go in the cupboard and some glassware! 1 x JBL e1500, 1 x JBL e700, Exteranl 300w Hydor heater and a JBL CO2 setup. I have a 2kg fire extinguiser and regulator on the way!

I brought a 150w metal halide and tried a few design on how best to suspend it. It weight 7.1kgs! I didn't want to hang it from the ceiling as it made it awkward to move so i got a local welder to weld me up a couple of 1" square steel tubing into an upside down L shape. These can easily take 10kg each hanging off the very end. I cleaned them up and brought some metal sparay paint primer that was a similar as i could get to the colour of the cabinet. I then drilled this to the cuboard and hung the halide.

Regarding the layout, i like the idea of moss overhangs and a banked landscape. After ordering some wood for The Green Machine i came up with this layout. I'm not sure about the stones! The left hand side will have a gravel/sand in it with different sized stones covering the gab and some riccia stones to help with the border. I have used ADA Amazonia and i have Powersand in the garage. Not sure whether to use it or not!

Any feedback would be welcome has i have never done this before!

Thanks

Ross

 

[Alastair]

Wow very nice. Love the green inside the cabinet too. Looking forward to how this turns out


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[toadass]

Good job on the cabinet mate, looks a promising start considering youv'e never done it before.
I take it you didn't put the powersand in as you already have the substrate in place???

 

[RossMartin]

Good job on the cabinet mate, looks a promising start considering youv'e never done it before.
I take it you didn't put the powersand in as you already have the substrate in place???

Thanks!

No powersand in yet, I was thinking to just put the powersand in except under the left sand bed and the hill on the right so hopefully i don't have to take it all out. I've also just realised that i haven't removed the tannins from all the wood. I'm going to run the e700 to polish the water so might just fill it up with loads of carbon to remove the tannins for now. I don't mind if it takes a few weeks, nor if i put the plants in and there is still some colour in the water.

 

[creg]

cabinet is absolutely awesome

 

[Antipofish]

Looks great. Just don't do any filter maintenance the morning after a night on the tiles or you may just see the kebab you ate the night before, with that green cupboard interior Seriously though, I think its great that people are being more adventurous like that mate

Was looking at the MH rig. It looks really good, but was wondering if you could feed the power cable on the inside of the tubing to hide it more ? Send it up vertical to the horizontal, feed it through a drilled hole (you can get a rubber grommit from a plumbing merchant) and then hey presto, the rest of it is hidden

Loving the hardscape so far too.

 

[RossMartin]

Wow very nice. Love the green inside the cabinet too. Looking forward to how this turns out

Thanks Alastair, i was going to go for the Focus RS Orange but the green looked a lot better in my opinion!

cabinet is absolutely awesome

Thanks Creg, i wanted a bit of Ying and Yang with the colours!

Looks great. Just don't do any filter maintenance the morning after a night on the tiles or you may just see the kebab you ate the night before, with that green cupboard interior Seriously though, I think its great that people are being more adventurous like that mate

Lol, my girlfriend made a similar comment! I think cabinets are the most boring bit of aquariums, so i spiced it up a bit!

Was looking at the MH rig. It looks really good, but was wondering if you could feed the power cable on the inside of the tubing to hide it more ? Send it up vertical to the horizontal, feed it through a drilled hole (you can get a rubber grommit from a plumbing merchant) and then hey presto, the rest of it is hidden

Loving the hardscape so far too.

I was going to hide the power cable in the square steel tube and already have some grommits. I haven't done it yet as i'm not sure on how high the MH should be. Its at 57cm at the moment but will need to lower it i imagine. Also the power cable has a moulded US plug on it and i didn't want to cut that off just yet as i haven't used the MH in anger! The power cable is only about 1.5m long, so what i might do is see if i can replace the power cable with a longer one. I'm rubbish with electrics so might have to get my dad round to help with that!

Thanks

Ross

 

[Antipofish]

Hi Ross, I was about to suggest the same thing about changing the power cable. It should be OK as long as it just enters the MH unit via a grommit. If it is sealed using resin you will have to rethink. I don't believe MH units could be considered double insulated though, so I cannot see why it would be resin and not a grommit. So is this US voltage using a step up transformer ?

 

[pariahrob]

Lovely cabinet. I built one similar not long ago for my 60-P. Funnily enough my door was painted bright orange but I decided to go all grey in the end. I didn't want it to detract from the scape too much. Next time I'll do what you did and put the colour inside. Looks really well finished.

As fro hiding the power cable mine is also cable tied but once the tank is established and I know the height ranges for my luminaire I'll hide it in trunking. You have a better option of the hollow steel. It's going to look really slick (already does).

Your power sand really wants to be under the amazonia but that isn't too much hassle, seeing the stage you are at. Beware the ammonia levels you get from the amazonia as well. I'm still waiting for mine to stop leeching into the water.

What plants are you thinking of for your scape?

 

[Antipofish]

Lovely cabinet. I built one similar not long ago for my 60-P. Funnily enough my door was painted bright orange but I decided to go all grey in the end. I didn't want it to detract from the scape too much. Next time I'll do what you did and put the colour inside. Looks really well finished.

As fro hiding the power cable mine is also cable tied but once the tank is established and I know the height ranges for my luminaire I'll hide it in trunking. You have a better option of the hollow steel. It's going to look really slick (already does).

Your power sand really wants to be under the amazonia but that isn't too much hassle, seeing the stage you are at. Beware the ammonia levels you get from the amazonia as well. I'm still waiting for mine to stop leeching into the water.

What plants are you thinking of for your scape?

Just remember guys: The ammonia leach is a GOOD thing, it gets your filter bacteria going Do water changes every other day of about 50% till its cycled

 

[HarryRobinson]

Great job on the Light fitting and cabinet! My eyes keep getting drawn to that rather large long piece of wood along the whole aquascape. If it where me id move it somewhere else because it draws your eyes away from the other aspects of the scape. keep it upp!