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What on earth is this mess?


redfishsc

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Well yall, I could not resist the temptation to post a pic of this mess.

 

I have access to all sorts of free solid-surface acrylic (Corian, HiMacs) that's used as a high-end kitchen/bathroom countertop material.

 

So, I decided to make an aquarium out of it. I have already built the tank (basically a 10g) and I stayed SMALL because I didn't want to build a large tank that would be a large liability should my construction methods fail.

The tank has been tested for several days now and not so much as a drop of leakage.

 

The front of the tank is 1/4" plexi. I avoided glass because epoxy will not bond to glass worth a flip.

 

 

Here is a pic of the "sump" that I am putting on it, albeit it quite a mess and only halfway done. It is a 10" cube and will be attached directly to the side of the tank---- you'll see how I put it all together in the coming week.

 

The clamps serve the purpose of holding everything very snug and tight until the epoxy cures up. This is where being a cabinet maker has it's advantages!!! That box has at LEAST 16 clamps on it (which is overkill---- if it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing).

 

 

OH-- BTW, notice how bright the pics are. Our entire shop is actually lighted with a BUNCH of 6-bulb 48" T5HO fixtures. I have coralline algae growing all over me. ;)

 

sump_in_clamps.jpg

 

sump_in_clamps2.jpg

 

Everything is put together with marine epoxy that I tested for strength. Now, someone may say that the glue joints will fail in time, but these are no ordinary glue joints like you see on a regular aquarium---- since the HiMacs is 1/2" thick, I can cut tongue-and-groove joints that, ALONE, are strong enough to keep the aquarium together even without epoxy (the epoxy serves to strengthen this but mostly to work as a permanent sealant). The stuff may fail but I seriously doubt it, but that's also why I kept the tank to 10g size.

 

Here is a rough schematic of how all the joints will fit together. You can see how these joints--- technically called "lock shoulder" joints--- fit together to form a MUCH stronger joint than a typical flat-faced "butt joint" ever could. This is good b/c I was not totally sure how this epoxy would work. It's worked GREAT so far.

 

All the grooves were cut using a 10" table saw. This stuff machines just fine with carbide-tipped saw blades.

 

 

CUSTOMTANK2.jpg

 

CUSTOMTANK1.jpg

 

Edit: change subtitle.

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There's a sump in there? :lol:

 

More, more, more!

 

 

Someone at work asked me today what I was building and I told them I was making a model of the BORG mothership.

 

 

I'll try to get a few more pics tomorrow when it's out of the clamps, and of the tank as well.

 

 

Lord I hope this tank works because if it doesn't, I just embarrassed myself good for the whole world to laugh!

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Someone at work asked me today what I was building and I told them I was making a model of the BORG mothership.

 

 

I'll try to get a few more pics tomorrow when it's out of the clamps, and of the tank as well.

 

 

Lord I hope this tank works because if it doesn't, I just embarrassed myself good for the whole world to laugh!

 

so only one side is plexi glass?

 

lol a little over kill on the clamps? lol

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Yes, only 1 side is plexi. Not unlike those aquariums that are built into a wall, except much teeeenier.

 

One possible good side to this is that the lighter color of the material may actually aid in light distribution in the tank by reflecting it somewhat back into the tank.

 

Well, that and I only have to keep ONE piece of clear plexi to scrub algae free. Can't beat that!

 

Oh, and the clamp overkill actually isn't overkill in numbers, I put two clamps per joint to make sure the pressure was spread out fairly evenly. Sure does look like some sort of torture device!

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Awesome build! I had the same basic idea, but was going to use marble countertop material.

 

 

Very doable, if you can cut the stuff. Very heavy too, but imagine the temperature stability on a tank made from 1" thick marble!

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Here's with the sump attached to the tank. I'll probably finish the construction of it tomorrow. I used a LOT of marine epoxy to glue the two sides of the two boxes together and I'll be cutting water passages between the two tomorrow morning if I can get my fat rump out of bed in time.

 

BTW, I've decided to call it my Rock-Box Nano since the material looks identical to granite or sandstone (well, once the epoxy smudges are sanded off).

 

custom_tank3.jpg

 

 

custom_tank4.jpg

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Can you frag me off some of that rosy red stuff in the first chamber? How much for shipping to 3485967354869778? :lol:

 

I like what you are doing. I am learning a lot by watching what everyone is doing. I am bouncing my ideas off my hubby & son to see if they can help me fine tune my DIY project to add to my contest tank.

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damn you people who know how to work with raw materials! make me jealous.... ;) I like what you got going on over there.

 

 

LOl, you assume I know what I'm doing. That's only a half truth..... :huh: I know exactly how to make the special cut joints, get all the parts cut precisely to fit, glue and clamp it up.

 

What I don't know is that this will work long term. I figure the worst that could happen is the tank falls apart, kills $50 worth of fish and $300 worth of coral...... :o

 

Well, actually I'm pretty confident about the whole setup and I am intentionally OVERbuilding it to make sure I have as few problems as possible.

 

Can you frag me off some of that rosy red stuff in the first chamber? How much for shipping to 3485967354869778? :lol:

 

I like what you are doing. I am learning a lot by watching what everyone is doing. I am bouncing my ideas off my hubby & son to see if they can help me fine tune my DIY project to add to my contest tank.

 

 

Lol, you could probably frag off a piece of that pecan tree in your neighbor's yard and paint it red, that's what the handles are made of I think.

 

 

Coolwaters, man, you just don't even know how many clamps we have at the shop. What you see is only a trifle. We are just finishing up building 250 bookshelves (8ft tallX3ft wide each!) for a brand new PhD and faculty building and we ordered a bunch of clamps. We probably have 150 clamps and most of them are much bigger than the ones I'm using on this tank. We are gluing up a LOT Of wood panels for some architectural millwork in the building (well, we're done now) and that takes a LOT of clamps.

 

It's good to be a cabinet maker :D :D :D :D

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Here are some more pics. The construction is DONE, the sump tested with Maxijet 1200 SUCCESSFUL.

 

Notice the material is two different colors: that's what happens when you are working with free material, beggars can't be choosers!

 

 

Here is a front view of the tank and a part of my finger (stupid camera phone this happens in half my pics! :slap:

custom_tank5.jpg

 

 

 

Front view at eye level. I have a few places I need to clean the glue joints.

custom_tank9.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Top view.

custom_tank6.jpg

 

 

View of built-in surface skimmer. Water enters here, is pulled down through the small chamber by the MJ 1200 at the bottom, exhausted into the larger chamber where I'll eventually put in a skimmer and perhaps an algae turf scrubber. Water returns to the tank via 50,000 holes drilled in the wall between the tank and the sump.

custom_tank7.jpg

 

 

Pic of the crude, but effective DIY strainer-- I could have made it less ugly but who gives a rip? Fits perfectly. The posts simply give me something to grab and lift the tray out with. I plan on putting in a bag of carbon, followed by Seachem Matrix, and topped with a layer of filter pad.

custom_tank8.jpg

 

 

 

 

Now, for those of you who are Christians, please pray that the epoxy will maintain the great bond that it currently has!!! I don't want an expensive slow leak.

 

 

For those of you who are more atheistic evolutionists, cross your fingers and hope that random selection doesn't weed me out of the gene pool in the area of SUCCESSFUL creativity. :huh:

 

 

I'll be folloiwng this one. I'm curious as to how waterproof the material is. Looks really cool at this stage.

 

 

The material (HiMacs) is 100% waterproof. It's basically solid acrylic.

 

 

The epoxy is marine grade and made especially for use below the waterline. The package says "not recommended for aquariums" but the bond is very strong and I think it's a CYA statement so people don't try to bond glass.

 

The joints are not standard butt joints as you can see. It gives me a LOT more glue-bonding surface area and also provides a lot of latent strength.

 

 

I am planning on building a wooden enclosure w/ a canopy that will fit snug around it so that if, for whatever reason, the glue fails, the tank does not fall apart.

 

 

Overkill is a great thing!

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I need to do one like that but I'll use glass(Acrylic scratches :()

But on the left I'd have a fuge then behind it the pump and filtration medium.

Thats what I hate acrylic is easy to use but scratches,glass is a pain because it is hard to cut and work with...

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I need to do one like that but I'll use glass(Acrylic scratches :()

But on the left I'd have a fuge then behind it the pump and filtration medium.

Thats what I hate acrylic is easy to use but scratches,glass is a pain because it is hard to cut and work with...

 

 

I considered glass, but the acrylic will bond with the epoxy a lot better than glass. I may regret my decision later :huh: and I may have already scratched the crap out of it, we'll find out when I put the lights over it.

 

If all else fails, I have a 25H that I can use!

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where is the return? i dont see a nozzle or anything

 

 

If you look closely in the pic below, you'll see a myriad of 3/16" holes drilled, basically in a shotgun pattern, that provides the return. In testing, these holes provided more than enough water exchange to keep up with the MJ1200.

 

custom_tank9.jpg

 

 

Edit: forgot to add pic :slap:

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ok, so how are you directing the outlet of the mj1200 to the half a million holes you have drilled?

 

hahahaha :lol:

 

...i LOVE your tank idea tho, its pretty sweet lookin

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ok, so how are you directing the outlet of the mj1200 to the half a million holes you have drilled?

 

 

I didn't quite drill a half-million, I stuck to around 50,000 b/c the drill was wearing out my hand.

 

 

The water just naturally flows from the sump chamber through the holes. The water level in the sump rises about 1/4" above the level in the main tank because it needs to build a slight head of pressure to handle the flow from the MJ1200. If, in time, I decide I want a smaller flow, I have a 160gph powerhead I can put on there instead.

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I think the OP must have the intake on his circulation pump pulling from the overflow chamber next to the chamber in which it sits. (I.e., the intake of the pump must be drilled through the wall dividing the two chambers of the "sump") Otherwise, there would be no displacement to keep water flowing over the teeth and into the overflow chamber.

 

Is this correct?

 

Its either that, or its magic.

 

(In other words, the pump is pulling water into the chamber in which it sits rather than pushing it out. The effect is the same in the end, but it "looks" deceptive, since you can't see how the pump is plumbed in the pictures.)

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That's exactly right, SPS20. Now, I could plop it into the side that has the media tray, but if it clogs, I can't easily access it.

 

I started to plumb it so that the powerhead is discharging directly into the tank from the larger chamber (instead of using the thousand-hole passive return style), and I had a good reason for not doing it.... but I forgot it. :huh: I think it was because I didn't want to put the powerhead in a place I might later regret in a small tank like this b/c once you drill the hole, it's not easy change your mind. With the more passive return style, you don't get nearly the water motion that a direct pump discharge would have. I have two other pumps that I'll be running for water circulation (a HOB filter with little/no media and another powerhead).

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