Franken-Bar-Pond

[pastry]

Sanding time (and I'm not going for perfection... intentionally will have imperfections like gaps, uneven/non-flush corners, etc...)
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[pastry]

Stained the "base piece". Time for the ledge for cocktails, rim the top, and make the doors for the rear access-side (the side with the big square hole).Compress_20230820_203752_2891.jpg

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[pastry]

Alright, done for the night. Cocktail ledge is attached. Doors & Rim (and trim around "porthole") left along with a tad bit more stainingCompress_20230820_222539_9774.jpg

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[pastry]

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[brewmaster15]

Looking good Elliot! Did yiu decide what kind of discus will be housed in the mancave palace?
Al

[pastry]

Looking good Elliot! Did yiu decide what kind of discus will be housed in the mancave palace?
Al

Gooooood question, Al... No idea yet (yikes)

[pastry]

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[pastry]

Hey, I think I'm going to paint the INSIDE of the tank (so no "mirror affect" when looking through porthole). Been researching & investigating with Krylon spray paint keep coming up. That true? I'm paranoid... but I always trust what feedback I get here (...even when feedback is, "Elliot, you're an idiot" :P)

[brewmaster15]

Never used krylon paint but I did read up on it awhile ago... my understanding is only the Krylon fusion line is aquarium safe but its meant for plastics not glass.I could be wrong there.

I did use Drylok once in a failed attempt at making a pseudo sand bottom ... mixed sand into the drylok...it looked pretty horrendous but I did use it for angelfish and it did not kill them.. looking on line drylok still looks to be considered not toxic... only problem is its white.. real white.

[pastry]

Al, if I have to do all white, I'm down. Just imagine looking through the "porthole" (the only view from the side; skinny view), I'll need the inside walls & bottom to avoid "mirrors". I'd rather other colors, but if stuck with white. I'll do it.

[pastry]

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[brewmaster15]

Elliot I believe you need to change the title to this thread. Something that reflects the project better..

ELLIOT's Man Cave Bar Tank

Or something else.. let me know And I can change it.

[pastry]

I agree, Al! But what about: "Franken-Bar-Pond"?

And can I use Krylon spray paint for INSIDE painting? Because I don't want "mirror effect" on the sides when looking through the porthole.

Painting all black on the sides yet will create a 10 substrate paint for the bottom with different tones of tans.

And this is crazy, because two nights ago a buddy of mine stop by to pick up some wood screws and had a buddy with him who lives in my neighborhood and that guy as a business where all he does is take triplet and make cool light fixtures integrated into the wood. Apparently he has a very expensive Target market and he's got plenty of business, but instead of Driftwood he really just has Kiln dried wood of all different sizes and told me to come over to his place and select a piece out that I wanted for the tank. He said he would trade me a large piece for the go-kart I am getting ready to sell. I told him two large pieces because I want one for my big tank as well. Here's my question is kiln-dried wood safe? I asked what type of blood and he said Cedar which I replied no. But, the best piece of wood I ever had in my tank was Cedar and it had definitely been leathered long enough being underwater and whatnot that instead of hurting my fish, it was probably one of several things in the tank at that time that created a horny goat weed pandamic in my tank ( every damn fish I had in there was breeding and literally multiplying with babies growing to adulthood... priscella tetras, lemon tetras, discus, rams, apistos, bn plecos, etc). But I'm still wary. That said, when I stupidly decided to remove that awesome piece of driftwood, my wife wanted a piece of it for her smaller tank at school and I got the Saw-saw out, cut into a 6-7" thick portion, and it was still Cedar through and through within the middle 3.5" of that piece. You could smell it immediately. I love the smell of Cedar but before I got smart on wood, I learned what would really screw things up for fish & that's one of them. Yet that's also proof that at a certain point, it's safe. But I had that piece in there for about five or six years.

I think I will try one piece in the new bar pond first because I don't care about the fish being put in there at the beginning. I will probably put in there the pair of angel fish that I have been trying to get rid of.

If they survive then I will probably send them to my wife's aquarium at her school 2 most likely die and then hope for a pair of my discus to start spawning again where I will use it too praise babies. Hear that or I will turn it into an mbuna tank because my youngest son's mbuna are just now getting to that point where they are starting to multiply.

[LizStreithorst]

I'm finally getting a handle on your taste, Elliot. At first I thought you had none (forgive me) but I have come to see that your taste is funky weird, just like you. Who is in charge of the decor of your house, you or your wife?

[pastry]

Dying laughing, Liz... literally was taking a swig of beer when I start reading your post and a little bit went down the wrong way when laughing. I love funky weird! But not in my house. That's why before we got our current house two and a half years ago, there was one thing I told my wife I would not let her do and that was interior decor. OMG, I bet my tongue for 13 years at the other house when I let her they're half of the decorating. There are times when no Rhyme or Reason works, and then there are times where no Rhyme or Reason doesn't. I never choose either, I always have a method to the madness on the inside of the house, but in her case she chose no Rhyme or Reason and didn't realize it sucked. Over the course of that time I slowly but surely try to lessen the horrendous decorating one piece at a time. Also genetic because she totally gets it from her mother who had two absolutely beautiful elongated paintings I got in Puerto rico, framed with Carolina Gamecock garnet thin pieces of basic milled composite and chopped off large amounts of each of the paintings. It got worse when I tried to figure out a way for her to finally have her own Hobby and I got her into shabby chicing and distressing wooden furniture we would get from second hand stores. Next thing you know every frame & wooden furniture started to become bright colors that were distressed. I had to try to teach her about stuff like that being more desirable within the interior as an accent piece or two. She didn't get it and just kept shabby-shaking the sh** out everything

I actually paint and do woodwork (carvings, furniture, woodburning collages). I'm slowly but surely doing the paintings for the entire house. Unfortunately, my secret, other nerdy pleasure of painting, was noticed by some people and it spread. Now have a number of paintings I have to get done for other people even though I really need to get back on the ones for the house. I'm totally grateful for how cool it is by their people that want me to do things and other stuff for them but that used to be one of my releases after the Marine Corps and it hasn't felt like that for a little while. Four more paintings and I can get back on the ones for our house.

As for FrankenBarPond, it's in my detached garage which is my garage because my wife has another garage, so essentially this is my man cave of which I don't mind funky :P. So I told my wife we're going to paint it like "the Folly Rd boat" which is a boat hull on the way to Folly Beach that anyone can paint over the previous person's stuff and paint their painting, message, or design. If it get's out of hand, then I'll just let my wife distress it