well, bad news. the seal on the tank wasnt as good as i suspected. after about 3 hours of sitting filled water started pouring out of the tank. and even better, i was asleep. so. now my living room is a swimming pool, and i get to start the tank all over again.
but time to look on the bright side.
- i get to re start this project
- when i tore up the carpet in my house, i found that, apparently, i have nice hardwood floors underneath.
- now i can rebuild my stand the way i want it
so for now, i moved the tank back outside for resealing when ever i get done tearing out the carped and rearranging my living room.

(lol. you can kind of see the wood just inside the door where i started cutting out the carpet)