Boom's 180 Gallon Tank Project

[Boom]

...

I then ran another bead of silicone around the edges of the box where it meets the tank glass, to make a better seal.

Many people have said that silicone doesn't bond well with acrylic. Well that is true to a point. While you cant use silicone to bond acrylic to itself or to glass to make a tank, for example, you can use it like I have here. The silicone really isn't holding any pressure. In fact the pressure from the water in the tank will hold the overflow box in place, the 'cone is just to seal the gap, which it does a fine job of.

Here's another shot

Next was the plumbing under the tank. This is only for the drain (from the tank into the sump.

As you can see, I installed a ball valve, which allows me so completely close off the flow of water for maintenance on the sump. Right above the top of the sump is another connection. This is a union connector. It basically allows me to unscrew the pipe to disconnect it there, which allows me to slide the sump out on those fancy sliders I put it on.

Well I hope that all makes sense. As always I'm open to questions or comments.

That's as far as I got today, it was a sursprising amount of work actually. Hopefully I'll get the tank painted this weekend. But I have a pretty full plate so we'll see how it goes.

Oh, and I'll see you all at the auction on sunday! Cheers.

Boom :boom:

[Boom]

Alllllrighty then. No replies since Friday... hmmm.... hope you all havn't lost interest.

I know, busy weekend with the auction, hope everyones weekend was good.

So lets continue. I spent about 5 1/2 hours in the garage last night and a few more hours this afternoon. I got the tank back and sides painted black. I used 2 full cans of Krylon Fusion flat black paint, and still may need another can. It covers quite well and adheres to the glass nicely. I did as suggested on the paint's instructions and wiped the glass down with paint thinner first. This gets any dirt, dust and oils off the glass to allow the paint to adhere properly. I did a few thin coats last night, and finished it off today.

Not a gret pic, but here it is.

I also sanded down the inside of the cabinet area and had to use some woodfill on the screw holes. I then used a good quality primer to prime the wood. Today I also sanded and primed the top of the stand. Here's how it looks to this point.

The rest of the time in the shop was spent turning a rough cherry board like this...

... into this usable nice cherry lumber.

The longest wide board on the left will be the front face trim right under the tank and above the cabinet doors. The long skinny piece is a trim piece that will be just inside the cabinet doors. The other 8 boards will be put together in this configuration, to make up the cabinet doors.

Today I also straightened some black walnut I bought. I resawed the pieces ( a technique used to make one thick board into 2 thinner ones) and planed them to just over 3/8" thick, intending to use them for the panel for those doors. But I'm not real happy with the quality of the wood, so I may see if I can find some nice walnut veneer and make some panels that way instead. I'll have to see.

I'm also seriously considering NOT doing the walnut inlay into the cherry boards that I had originally planned. Not only is it alot of extra work, but I feel it may take away from the beauty of the cherry itself, rather than add to the project. Again, I'll have to see.

Today I also tested the sump's ability to hold water, it's good.

And also tested the overflow box and bulkheads ability to hold water, both good also.

AND, I also picked up the pump I'll be using in the sump, as well as some filter media.

All that before mynight shift started. I'm at work now until 5:30 am. Yay!

Edited October 28, 2008 by Boom

[Drydock]

Lookin' good Boom. Keep the pictures coming.

[2manytanks]

This has to be the most well thought out tank I've seen. I sure wish I would have spent the attention to detail that you are.

With all the heater talk a page or two back, have you thought of putting an in-line heater in?

[jvision]

Looking good! :thumbs:

[Boom]

Thanks guys. I'm trying to make sure I think of everything ahead of time, cause we all know that if you forget something it's a P.I.T.A to add or fix it after.

I've heard of the in-line heaters that go into the flex tubing, but can you get them for ridgid pvc pipe as well? I ended up picking up a 300watt heater from G&E pharmacy for $22.50 so I'll start with that I think. FYI, G&E pharmacy has a limited selection of aquarium stuff. $22.50 for Elite heaters, no matter what size 50 watt to 300 watt, all the same price. Just don't clean them out, they might catch on and jack the prices up...

Edited October 28, 2008 by Boom

[Boom]

P.S. I'll try to get a better pic of the tank painted black. I didn't realize how crappy that one is.

Boom :boom:

[Parachromis1]

Wow, I'm very impressed.

Wanna come do some work for me?

Ps, wouldnt a vaneer inlet work better than a walnut peice you suggested, would it look better?

[Boom]

Wow, I'm very impressed.

Wanna come do some work for me?

Ps, wouldnt a vaneer inlet work better than a walnut peice you suggested, would it look better?

Yes pimpdocta, I do work for other people, PM if your serious.

And if I get what you mean by a "vaneer inlet", I believe your talking about the panel that forms the interior part of the type of cabinet door that I'm building, comonly called a frame and panel door.

As you can see the "frame" part is solid cherry. There are a couple of ways to do the interior "panel". The way I started is by making thin walnut boards out of one thicker one. When you cut the board in two lengthwise, you get 2 boards with matching grain pattern. Lay these out correctly and you have a "bookmatched" panel. In this application, to avoid excessive wood movement, it's usually adviseable to glue up several narrower boards to make up the width of the panel. The panel is then inserted into slots in the inside edges of the frame.

The other way to do it is to use a piece of manufactured wood like ply-wood or MDF that you can cut to the size of panel you need. Unless you get REALLY nice plywood, it won't look very good in a furniture quality piece. So what can be done is use a nice piece of veneer (a very thin slice of wood) that can be glued to a substrate (plywood or MDF work good), cut to size, and placed into the frame the same way.

Either way can look very nice if done properly. The solid wood can be even nicer IMO but you have to have the right pieces of wood. In my current case, I'm just not happy with the wood, so I'll see if I can get some nice veneer. Veneering is a bit of an art form in itself, and I don't have much experience with it, so it'll be another learning experience. ALOT of firsts for me in this project.

Boom :boom:

[Parachromis1]

Okay I get what you're saying now.

I'm very very impressed, you're one determined person to do all this, and in such a short time.

[geleen]

Looking very good indeed! Nice to have the tools to do that.

John

[2manytanks]

Any suggestions on a good place for hinges? I haven't been able to find much that I like for my cabinet.

[Boom]

Yup, go to Lee Valley. They have every type of hinge you could possibly imagine. I really like the Blum european style cabinet hinges and have used them on several projects.

Here's a link:

Lee Valley Hinges

Didn't do too much today. Just put a coat of white paint on the cabinet interior, and a coat of flat black paint on the stand top. Once that's dry, I'm gonna move the tank back onto the stand, finish the rest of the plumbing and then fill 'er up and test run everything!

Edited October 29, 2008 by Boom

[African_Fever]

I know you're feeling the 33 is a great size sump, but I think in the future if you decide to go with more fish or different fish, you'll end up wishing you had gone larger. It just gives that much more total volume and stability to the entire system (especially if you go salt, I know we all want to whether we've taken the plunge or not). You could've gone with the shelves on just one side and had a 4' sump instead (75 gallons or more I'd think would be easily possible).

Why would you cheap out on the heater? The longer I'm in the hobby the more I realize you get what you pay for; I used to be hooked on the Aqua Euro titanium heaters, but after going through 4 in the last couple weeks (two that I had went on me, and neither of the brand new replacements worked at all), I'm getting something better and more reliable (biotherm with separate thermostat/controller). To lose a bunch of fish due to cheaping out on a heater is not something I want to do. But, depending on how warm your pump actually runs, you might not need a heater at all. I've heard of a number of people who don't need any heaters and have more problems with cooling their tanks due to the heat output of the pumps.

Great project and awesome write up of the whole ordeal. At first I was thinking all the extra 'prep' work you were doing to the wood was just too much, but the more I look at your pics the more I can see the difference between what I'd call a professional job (yours) and 99% of the other DIY stands out there - great work!

I'm looking forward to seeing your tank completed!

[Boom]

Thanks for the compliments african fever. In answer to your questions, the shelves on only one side wasn't an option the wife was willing to budge on. I'm lucky to be putting a 36" sump in there as the original plan was to build my own no longer than 30". I've heard (and read) the concerns of the sump size many times before. Although I agree that bigger would be better, more stable, etc, etc. I stand by my arguement that even a 33 gal sump is far better than a large cannister that many people get away with using on this size tank. I will simply have far more capacity for filter media and a much higher flow rate than can ever be achieved even with multiple large cannisters. And I don't have to drop $400 bucks on one either. :thumbs: Oh, and I have no desire to ever go to salt water, I just love my africans too much. You might say I also have african fever.

As to the "cheaping out on the heater" question. I think you answered it yourself. I may not even need a heater at all, so why spend big bucks on one? In addition to that, I've used the Elite heaters before and NEVER had one fail. So just cause I got it for cheap doesn't necessarily make it crappy. Just my opinion.

The extra prep work I do to the lumber isn't always necessary in this type of project, but it does make it look nicer. It's also easier to work with straight wood with flat faces and edges. There is nothing worse than trying to screw a flat piece of plywood to a twisted 2x4. I'm anal when it comes to working with wood, I'll admit that! But to me, the final product that comes out when you've taken the extra steps are definitely worth the effort.

This probably isn't the place, but I could always post some pics of some of the other woodworking projects I've done. I've done a few aquarium stands (Sloughshark has one) and one for a friends 150 that I don't have pics of yet. I was waiting for him to set the tank up, which it is now, but I havn't been out to his place since. And lots of other non-aquarium related stuff, including coffee tables, boxes and lots of other stuff. I actually want to start my own web-site, but don't know how and havn't had time to learn.

Boom :boom:

Edited October 29, 2008 by Boom