My first acrylic aquarium build from scratch

[M@tt]

Made my first acrylic aquarium from left over scrap acrylic. First attempt and no leaks. I have experimented with this stuff a ton in the past. For example I made my own protein skimmers, skimmer waste containers, top off holding tanks, overflow boxes, sump partitions, probe holders and other various stuff. Once I can accumulate a few more pieces of equipment I might actually start offering products and services to a controlled crowd.

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[M@tt]

I'm going to post a few other projects of mine here as well

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[M@tt]

I had a few buddies ask about my nozzle's I use on my return lines.....

Here is the way I have found to be able to adjust the flow and make more of a linear output.

I use this.......

To make this.....

I can mill different width cuts to allow more or less flow through the nozzle

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[M@tt]

Quick update.....no pictures of the actual tank

I was getting tired with the old overflow box without teeth. Fish would go over the overflow box right into the sump which resulted in dead fish.

I purchased a few pre-cut pieces of new black acrylic from a local guy on salt-city. I fired up the old mill and cut teeth into the the acrylic. This took forever, but turned out real nice. It is accurate to 4 thousandths of a inch! Next chore is to drain half of the water out of the 125 and tear out the old box and install the new box.

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[h4n]

very nice Matt!

 

what size is the tank? and Plans for it?

[FireRedShrimp]

Looks great! I look forward to photos of it set up, and of future tanks.

[M@tt]

Thanks guys. This one was put together for a friend of mine. I will share pictures once he gets it going. My next tank project will be a 10x10 by 15 tall tank for my wife's classroom. It will have a built in filter system

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[Soothing Shrimp]

Beautiful.  Did you have problems with bubbles in the seams?

[M@tt]

Thanks.  

Unfortunately I did have bubbles on the seams of this one.  I have never had this issue before, but this tank was constructed of all old/scrap acrylic which was pretty badly warped.  I had to apply well over 100lbs of weight on each corner of the panels when I was bonding them together to get the seams tight.  I am going to order some product here pretty soon for my wife's school tank.  I will keep you guys updated with pictures along the way

[M@tt]

sorry....double post

[Soothing Shrimp]

Yeah.  I've heard unless using a pressure chamber, the bubbles are a common occurrence.

[EricM]

wow must be nice to have access to machines like that!

[Triton]

I would love to learn how to do this

 

You should do a DIY step by step for the next one

[Liberty1776]

Very well done sir!  great attention to detail is necessary to do things like this, and you certainly demonstrate that. 

 

You mentioned getting more equipment... are you looking into the new 3d printers? (insanely expensive)  Sure would be nice if you did, I would like to make a Liberator if I had one

 

looking forward to more pics for sure !

[M@tt]

I will definitely do a write up next time around. Attention to detail is a must when doing things like this....if you want them to turn out decently.

I'm open to new projects. Let me know if you guys have ideas for items that you would like to see be made.

The equipment I want to add is small and I expensive, but with our first child coming this month cash is tight. Things I would like to add- bar clamps, router with a few nice flush cutters, electric bending wire and a oxy torch for flame polishing

[Doc4PC2]

That look like great work! Say, do you know where I can get a square to round adapter. I have a Penguin  Marineland BioWheel 200 and BioWheel 100,

and the intakes are square, but I wanted to hook up a surface skimmer, but it is round, so I am trying to find a adapter that will go from square (the biowheel intake) to

round (the surface skimmer) ?

 

Thanks for any answer!

[M@tt]

Do you have measurements for both pieces. I have been successful in the past heating up the square object and reforming it into a round shape if they are close to the same diameter. If not I could possibly machine something. Could also try a couple layers of heat shrink tubing

[M@tt]

I dropped off this tank at my buddies place yesterday.  He polished it up a tad and filled her up.  He is still not sure what to put in it.  My recommendation was a nice mat of fissidens or moss with a few crypts, then toss in one of his awesome betta's and dwarf crayfish

[Triton]

One tank idea I had was pretty cool, have a 2x2x1 or 3x3x1 or even a 4x4x1' in the center of a room.

 

Do a center overflow with large driftwood stacked around it to hide it, heavily planted, sand substrate, 4 pendent lights, and sump filter under it, or even use canisters... \

 

If you wanted to hide EVERYTHING, have a 6"x6" box in the middle, tons of drilled holes, and have it 1/4" shorter than the top of the tank, in the middle of that have a 2x2 box, with the same size hole in the bottom, through the 2x2 hole you could run the lines for 2 canister filters and the heaters. It'd be like having an internal sump built in

[M@tt]

You could even do a toothless overflow box in the center so the water would simply overflow over the top of the box directly down into the box.  I actually have done a similar design to this in a nano saltwater tank.  However, the box was on the back of the tank and I had 3 media baskets that the water flowed through.  At the bottom of the box was a maxijet 1200 pumping water back into the display. It was a really clean and efficient setup

 

And another picture from my buddy

[Doc4PC2]

Wow, those look awesome! Both yours and your buddies.  The shrink wrap idea is a good idea. I could try that, because they aren't very big.

The square intake is only about 5/8" X 7/8" square, and the surface skimmer is just your normal small skimmer.