DIY ADA Style Rimless 22g tank & stand

[malaybiswas]

Wow!!!. Five days over, not a drop of water leaked. Tank seems to hold on pretty good. Now its time to drain and pack it before I move to my next one....stand # 1

[malaybiswas]

Alright...back after 1 week. I spent last week building my first tank stand. Since this was my first wood project ever, I wanted to finish it before I document it. Certainly it is not professional grade, but I am pretty happy how it turned out.

I won't go into the dimensions since that is already posted earlier in this thread. So I'll go straight into a photo feature trying to explain my journey.


1. First the materials. I decided that a small work bench and some clamps would be nice idea (and it paid off). Got this Black & Decker portable work desk and 4 clamps for about $50 from Lowes.


For the wood, Lowes again. I was really lucky that they agreed to cut 2 4' X 8' MDF sheets into 32 pieces (took approximately 60 cuts) all for FREE!!! Now thats what I call customer service. All together
Wood - $30 X 2 = $ 60
Wood screws (1", 1.5" & 1.75") - $25
Wood Glue - $3
Wood Filler - $4
Water proof sealant - $5 (Decided that I would coat all the sides with it before putting on the laminate sheets for extra protection)
Door hinges & locks - $12
Plywood planks (2' X2' 1/4" thick) - This was more of an after thought when the door was not moving freely due to the contact with the floor at the bottom. The plank will go at the bottom of the stand
Formica Laminate Sheets - $124 (for 2 stands)
Contact Cement - $15

A total of about $150

For the light bars I decided to use copper plumbing pipes...3/4" thick and glue them with copper bond. I would use right angle connectors so that I don't have to buy a pipe bender (which works well but is a cookie cutter with probably very less (if any) use to me after this project. Budget wise cheaper too).
2 each of
copper pipes 5' - $26
copper pipes 2' - $10
straight joints & 90 degree joints - $4
pipe cap - $5
pipe clamps - $2
Nuts & bolts - $2
Copper bond glue - $6
Total approx $55

So in total it cost me about $205 for 2 tank stands (material cost) or $102 per stand compared to $700 for a similar config ADA stand. Also it let me design my stand size to accomodate space at the back for lights and back splash.

Apart from the raw material required to build the tank I bought a Dremel power tool kit for cutting, sanding & polishing. About $125. So tool and work station cost me around $175.


2. First thing, I marked the points where the pieces will be joined and drilled the guide holes. Below are 2 sample pictures.
'



3. Next I screwed (no pun intended) the bottom panel with the 2 sides and 2 back panels.


View from rear...at this point the 2 back panels are joined to the 2 side panels too.


4. Followed by attaching the frame at the top and the bottom.




5. ...and the horizontal front panel


6. Finally the top panel is marked and joined to all the vertical pieces on sides, front and back.




7. Here is when I tried fixing the door and realized that a bottom platform is needed which will extend about 3/4" in the front of the stand so that the door can easily move on it (instead of scraping the carpet). Selected 1/4" plywood plank and cut it to required size (24" X 18").


8. Turned over the stand and applied wood glue on the entire bottom panel


9. Attached the plywood and stacked the best make shift weights ever...Books . It was left like that for 24 hours before I reinforced the sides with wood screws (below)


10. At the end, hinge the door...


...install the magnetic lock...


...and done!!!


Well not quite done yet. I applied the waterproof sealant on the entire outside and inside surfaces and let it cure for 24 hours. That the final state right now. I'm waiting for the laminate sheets to come in next week. Once laminates are applied, the copper pipes will be installed to finish it. Till then I got to finish assembling the other stand.

Feedback please

[CL]

Very well done.

[malaybiswas]

Finally after over a month, my projects are completed successfully. This last post is to catch up of the finishing steps. In the first 2 weeks of december I completed the following

1. Built my second tank. Won't go into process since it is same as described earlier in this thread. Except for one small leak which I was able to fix easily, it came out clean and was tested successfully for over a week before put into use

2. Built my second stand. Again I am not going into the details.

3. Laminated the 2 stands.

Cut the laminates into proper dimensions leaving about 1" on each edge from trimming later on




Laminate application tools
- contact cement
- Dowel rods
- Roller
- brush
- Router and File
- pencil, measuring tape etc.


Won't go into details of laminate application process as I am no pro. I just followed the guidelines in this tutorial. Can't say it was professional grade but pretty happy how it came out. Here is the finished product.



4. Fixing light bars.

For light bars, I choose copper plumbing pipes (3/4" diameter). 2 5' pipes were clamped behind each stand.


Behind is my 80 gallon tank which will be broken down soon to get way for my new tanks.


Next, I took 24" copper pipes and cut them into 18" length and drilled them to fix hooks. The pipes were then welded to the vertical pipes using 90 degree joints and using liquid copper weld. All products are available in HD or Lowes (beware copper is a good conductor of electricity so all eletrical wires and connections nearby needs to be properly insulated and/or separated).

I made loops with wire clothes lines and suspended my 48" Aqualight from it. The picture below is after the final setup (80 gallon already gone...fishes in hospital tank). I used an old 10 gallon tank (shown below) to do fishless cycling.



The last 2 weeks of december was cycling time. I used 2 eheim canister filter and inline heaters. Plumbing was done as shown below. I had a few spare pumps which I plumbed inline to start the siphon after cleanups. Once the siphon starts, the pumps will be switched off and the filters will work on their own

Inside of the first stand with only the filters, plumbing, heaters.



Second stand has all the timers (light, co2), the CO2 supply setup and miscellaneous stuff. I used paintball co2 canister from walmart with red sea paintball co2 adapter. The solenoid valve is connected in the same timer as the lights. The bubble counter outlet bifurcates into 2 lines for 2 tanks.


Added small under cabinet lights inside the stands.


All the wiring and plumbing mess behind the stands


The filters matured in 10 days and I have already setup and started the 2 new tanks since last Sunday. The journals of the tank scaping and progress are here for tank 1 and here for tank 2.

[CL]

Very Awesome!

[malaybiswas]

Originally Posted by clwatkins10

Very Awesome!

Thank you

[lotekfish]

Very professional job, and I say that as an ex-professional cabinetmaker. If I were going to build an ADA tank and stand I would have done it the same way. Gray laminate over mdf is the way to go, it's very waterproof and durable.

Thanks for sharing, you make me want to build a similar ADA setup but I have no more room.

[malaybiswas]

Originally Posted by lotekfish

Very professional job, and I say that as an ex-professional cabinetmaker. If I were going to build an ADA tank and stand I would have done it the same way. Gray laminate over mdf is the way to go, it's very waterproof and durable.

Thanks for sharing, you make me want to build a similar ADA setup but I have no more room.

Thank you very much.

[boltp777]

great job man wish i had the money maybe when im out of college and not 19. ill do something similiar to this. i still cant get over the scape you came up in your default avatar pic its one of my fav scapes of all time i wish somehow you could bring it back and try it again sometime if so i think like it would win a ada compeitition.

[speedie408]

Very nice! Gives me motivation and a guide for when I'm ready to tackle my own DIY tank & cabinet.

[malaybiswas]

Originally Posted by boltp777

great job man wish i had the money maybe when im out of college and not 19. ill do something similiar to this.

Thank you very much. I had bought a lot of my tools. Unless you want to own a variety of tools for the long run, consider renting them instead whenever you are ready. That would be much more budget friendly for you.

Originally Posted by boltp777

i still cant get over the scape you came up in your default avatar pic its one of my fav scapes of all time i wish somehow you could bring it back and try it again sometime if so i think like it would win a ada compeitition.

I am with you on that. That's why I did not change my avatar. But I realized that it had several design flaws for which it did not work out the first time. I am working behind the scene in a different approach to rectify those errors and come up with a similar scape. Not for winning an ADA contest (not that I would not love to ) but that is very near to my heart and I don't want to give up on it. Thank you for your appreciation and encouragement.

[malaybiswas]

Originally Posted by speedie408

Very nice! Gives me motivation and a guide for when I'm ready to tackle my own DIY tank & cabinet.

Thank you very much. It really feels good when others find inspiration in your work.

[heydude819]

oh man, i just started this fish tank business and already want to build my own stands and tanks! Until I find a bigger place, I can't really do much