IM 4g Media Rack

[gnubbs]

I have needed a media rack for a while for my 4g Innovative Marine tank, but kept putting it off. I had hoped to get one from one of the vendors that does custom acrylic - but that didn't work out. So, when I saw that an online laser cutting service (Pokono) was giving $20 off your first order, I decided the time had come.

 

First up, I took some measurements of the tank and fired up the free drawing program that the Pokono recommended. To be honest, the program on Mac is pretty flakey, but eventually go the job done. Because of the size of the sides, I had to order a larger piece of stock than I had hoped. So, I added enough pieces to make two media racks and some float sensor holders.

 

Here are some tips for the laser cutters (all learned from the Pokono site):

1. Place pieces with straight sides next to each other and remove the duplicate lines in the drawing program. This allows the laser to cut the sides of two pieces with one pass. Removing the duplicate lines gets very tedious.
2. Curves are very expensive to cut! My drop plates originally had holes instead of rectangular slots. Making that change cut the cutting costs by almost a third.
3. Measure twice! My braces ended up a bit shorter than I wanted - not a big deal, but not what I expected.

Once I got the parts, I just used super glue to put it together (not ideal, but what I had). Turned out great - and I have parts for a spare if I ever need them. Send me a PM if you want me to share the SVG file I sent to the laser cutting service.

 

Total cost including shipping for enough parts for two media racks - $46 + super glue

 

 

[Droy008]

Wow looks great!

[Clown79]

Very nice!

[MainelyReefer]

Awesome, I like the blue. I also run an IM 4g pico, it's one of my favorite little tanks and I just picked up the custom caddy 16 from IM after a lot of searching and it has helped so much the stock baskets are so flimsy. The custom caddy isn't perfect though had to modify to quiet it down hope this works well for you