All Acrylic Build

Ive worked with acrylic for years but I still dont trust myself building my own tank. I also questioned what plastic adhesive wouldnt harm the fish. Also, dont you worry with that much acrylic that you will have hazing on the areas with water edges? It seems like there will be a lot of upkeep. Cool idea though, I want to see the final product. Good luck!

 

The Weld-On solvent adhesives should be fine once fully cured, The tank will have a few weeks before any water goes in it (other than stress testing the system after one week).

I have built several large scale acrylic filter systems and after watching the last one for a year, I have not seen any ill effects on the plexi. Since this is being set up as a fragging tank, I do not expect much maintenance in the DT, the sump sytem should be really cool, as it is being design as a series of removeable buckets at different heights; I expect maintenance there to be a snap...

This is of course assuming that the whole mess does not explode on me, LOL

 

Weekly update…

The stand is almost complete.


Setting up the first corner to be glued on.


Clamping the first corner.


All for sides attached.


Base attached.

I still need to install the top piece and the base of the DT. I unfortunately ordered the wrong size bulk-heads for the DT, so that set me back a bit. The correct pieces should arrive early this week at which time I can drill the base of the DT and the make the appropriate cuts for the top of the stand.

By the end of this week I should have the stand complete, DT complete, overflow done and then can start working on the internals for the filter system.

 

A little more progress...


Glueing the base of the DT


Attaching the top of the stand


Main tank on stand

Going to be really fun to try and photograph this thing when all of the masking has been peeled off!

 

Ok.. This is a cool idea for sure! I built a nano tank out of 1/2 acrylic (16x16x24) which I LOVE. It was tricky but not difficult to work with, if that makes sense. it was my first acrylic build. Next time I want to build all of the filtration into a hidden overflow/ fuge panel into the back. (though of that all after the fact). I would love to see you pencil plans if you wanted to scan and post them. Super awesome and ver unique build, following fo-sho!!
Heidi

 

Weekend Update


I constructed the overflow box and glued it into the DT; was lots of fun cutting the strainer sections. Also two 1 ¼ inch roundouts were cut (one on each side) to allow for the return lock-lines.



The tank was filled for leak & stress testing… NOTE: TO ALL NEW DIY’ers DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP!



Front pic of system.



Back pic of system.

Amazingly enough this sucker holds water, and even more impressive the stand appears to be rock solid! I have been banging and flexing the sides of the tank and stand and there does not appear to be any structural issues. Being a rimless design, I was extra hard on the sides of the tank.


With any luck I will be moving the system to my home office next week. Once installed I will finish the acrylic work for the filtration system and plum the tank.

 

Moving right along....

I moved the system to my home office today removed all of the masking… It really looks sort of eerie, depending on your view angle you would swear there is really nothing holding up the tank. After I fill the tank and polish up all of the acrylic I will have a tank that appears to be floating 3’ off the ground!

I also constructed a frame to suspend the custom led fixture I built a few weeks back above the tank, also looks very cool in person... pics are not that great. Once I have it filled and all cleaned up I will try and take better pics of the whole thing... So far I am personally really pleased with the results.









Still have a lot of acrylic work to do on the filtration system, so I will likely not have things moving along until late next week.

 

wow! this looks great, cant wait to see it with water!

 

looking pretty sweet where are your getting your acrylic from?

 

I buy my acrylic from Delvies Plastics. I have used thier stock on many projects and have been pleased with the quality. It is also close to where I live in Idaho, so shipping cost are not too bad. The only down side is thier sheet selection is fairly limited so if you need a non-standard size or color you will have to look elsewhere.