600gal plywood build.

Man I hate staining, but I did 3 more coats today. Waiting until it takes on that satin sheen evenly over the whole tank... indicating there's the bare minimum stain/polyurethane mix there to be waterproof. Black stain is tricky because I want the grain to show through subtly, so I gotta put juuust enough on that it doesn't drown out the grain. Probably 2-3 more wipedowns will do it. I also wiped a bunch on the stand just for ****s and giggles. I still need to sand the stand and fill the screw holes and crap, but I had a stain soaked rag in my hand so I wiped a bunch on the stand to see how it looked, and maybe identify areas that need more sanding.

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filling, sanding staining... was staining the inside of the stand last night... got about halfway through before I really needed to go inside (Broken down car, The 225 acrylic build, This project, and trying to get the house ready for visitors on thursday is exhausting.)
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Going with relatively dim lighting. I think I will have 300w or so of fluorescents on hand for photos, but 90% of the time I'll just be running a couple of 75w CF floodlights. My arowana doesn't like bright lights, and the catfish don't need it. They are too big and violent to have any plants in there, and the recycled glass I used is scratched which becomes more apparent under very bright light.
 
Looking good!
 
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