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DIY Quad 40g Breeder Stand / Fish Wall

20K views 63 replies 23 participants last post by  flight50 
#1 · (Edited)
Alright everyone, I have talked about my multi tank build in a few of my comments for quite some time now. The time has arrived to put those words to action. I have been designing and planning since last summer for both my Phase I and Phase II builds. I have gone thru numerous revisions and finally came up with the best setup for my plans. This thread is only of my Phase I 'Garage Fish Wall' build though. I actually started the process in June as I organized and cleaned up. I wanted to get a little ahead to make sure things were going smoothly before posting. Each weekend I inch a bit closer to being able to setup one tank to start. Once I actually start setting up tanks though, I will setup a few journals and continue life of the stands there. Enjoy!

The Clean Up
Location of build determined. I have quite a bit of stuff to cleanup.




After a month of organizing and building an outside shed in between this build, this is what the cleaned up area looks like.
 
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4
#6 ·
Week 4
-plywood tops cut to fit and edges rounded by router


-plywood tops for top and middle shelf assembled. bottom shelf is only loose fitted. it will remain loose for ease of shimming purposes down the road.



-at the end of this week both stands had all exposed surfaces sanded with both hand and belt sanders.
 
#9 ·
This is something I'm very interested in doing myself eventually so I will be keeping my eye on it ! Looks great can't wait to see the end result
 
#10 ·
Thanks for the compliments. I feel that I put alot of effort in to my fish plans since last year so I too am hoping for good results in the end.

dasob85 I took a look at your 40 stands and it pretty interesting itself. The pipe work is interesting. I will be attempting drilling holes next weekend or the week after for the tanks I do have. I need two more 40s to have all 8 tanks. My bulkheads are on the way along with my hole saw kit. It will be my first time drilling though. I have watched several videos on drilling. My intents is to create a template using a 1x6 and not have to worry about the 45 degree start. Did you have any issues with drilling or anything extra to add. My piping won't be as complex as your though for all eight will feature the Bean Animal overflow.

Stevenjohn21 are your intentions for your garage as well? I am hoping for good results as well that's for sure. For the first year, these tanks will be experimental. I will setup one rack and take them thru the 4 seasons......excuse me, the 2 seasons that Texas has, lol. I will run these tanks as Aquascapes only during the experimental period. I need to know how the temps will hold up in my garage before adding fish. I have 2 ideas in mind for cooling. 1) will be evaporative cooling. Each display tank will have a small fan blowing across the surface. Should work great with a sump in which will keep the display filled to its rim. If evaporative cooling isn't enough, I have a diy cooler in mind to try.

If all goes well
 
#20 ·
Stevenjohn21 are your intentions for your garage as well? I am hoping for good results as well that's for sure. For the first year, these tanks will be experimental. I will setup one rack and take them thru the 4 seasons......excuse me, the 2 seasons that Texas has, lol. I will run these tanks as Aquascapes only during the experimental period. I need to know how the temps will hold up in my garage before adding fish. I have 2 ideas in mind for cooling. 1) will be evaporative cooling. Each display tank will have a small fan blowing across the surface. Should work great with a sump in which will keep the display filled to its rim. If evaporative cooling isn't enough, I have a diy cooler in mind to try. If all goes well
Im in the process of moving house so im not sure where i will put my fish/shrimp racks. Its funny though, every house we view the wife is looking at the kitchen/bedrooms and im looking in the basements/garage to see what tanks would fit where lol
 
#11 ·
I had no problem drilling all of mine. I did 60 tanks in a day. I bought a drill press and a good bit. Used plumbers putty and put cutting fluid inside around bit. Made a template out of cardboard. Each tank took about 5 min start to finish. Broke 5 10g and then gave up. Glass was too thin.
 
#12 ·
I bought a drill press as well although with so many tanks, making a template could work too. I drilled 2 different sizes for the return and the drains. I also did the bean animal but I considered the placement inside the tank looking symmetrical. I also wanted to save some space in the back since the 40 is already pretty deep so I had to do some 90 degree bends to the side in order to put in the street elbow for the open drain. I think the next time I do this for the other rack, I'll be making a diy box on the back of the tank and then you can have the bulkheads point straight down and make it look cleaner too. Good luck drilling and I look forward to seeing updates :) subbed
 
#16 ·
Week 6
-stands have semi-gloss spar urethane applied. probably can't tell though. the far stand came out more reddish for some reason. I did this one first. perhaps the can was too full and couldn't mix as well vs the application for the closer stand in the pic. both stands have the same stain and the same urethane though. oh well, I am still satisfied with the out come.
 
#19 ·
Lol, thanks. Bomb proof is what I was going for. I would be crushed to see them not able to support the weight. So I chose to over build than not to. I agree its to nice for my garage, but I planned on taking quite a few pics for posting so I wanted it to look as presentable as possible. My phase II will be my 180g or a 150g build all from scratch for display in the house so I wanted to test out my stand design and construction skills in my garage first. A failed 180g/150g stand in the house, won't be pretty at all, lol.
 
#18 ·
You know, I thought about a drill press for consistency but I don't really think I would have a need for it down the road. I pretty much have collected quite a few tools with almost every project I do and this is one I have debated on. I will probably pass and go with my cordless drill with an elevated wood template sitting in a plumbers putty boundary.

Thanks again for the compliments. I can't wait to see the final as well. Over the course of the year I have gained a lot of patience so I am taking my time to get better results.

Dogfish, I have two answers for your question. The first is because bgallodoro did it and it looked sooooo good. I recall drooling when he got done staining. It showed quality and effort put into it. I felt that with the time I put in, I might as well stain and urethane it for the best presentation. The second answer is, actually I almost painted it. Originally I was going to stain and changed my mind, then I was going to go with paint to save money and therefore used cheaper 2x4s and cdx ply instead of sanded. Then I thought again and knew I would regret not sticking with my original plans. So I went ahead and spent the extra money. Paint would have covered up the wood grain that I wanted to display and I couldn't decided on a color that fit my plans.

The stands are finished with Minwax's Helmsman Spar Urethane designed for indoor/outdoor. It protects against rain, moisture, temperature and humidity so I was sold to definitely stain with that type of protection.

The next part of this build will be working on the wall itself. I need to get the new electrical circuits ran, put in the tank drainage piping and re-paint the wall. From there it will be on to plumbing the tanks. Stay tuned.
 
#21 ·
Racks look great! I look forward to seeing what you do with this. How much did you spend on building these racks?

I'm actually going to be doing something similar soon with 4 40B tanks, 2 racks in my garage. I"m just waiting on the next $1 per gallon sale (hopefully soon).

I'm back and forth on the sump and co2 though. Not sure if I'm going to go sump or HOB filters. Tanks will be for growing.

Anyways I'll be following. look forward to seeing your progress! I'm also in Texas (Abilene)!
 
#23 ·
Thanks for the compliment. I feel like I bust my tail on it, lol. Glad you asked about the price. I was meaning to post a bill of materials but it slipped my mind. I am with you on the next petco sale. I need two more 40s for displays and 4-5 40g to break down to build 18x18x17 sumps. I bought a 15g to toy with the idea of break down and its not too bad if you can get in the seams. The 15g I bought had 0 clearance in the seam so it was a pita at first. I am hoping the 40g will be a bit easier to take apart.

bgallodoro24 & dasob85, I did the wood template and bored thru a scrap piece of glass. It went okay but it took 5 mins for one hole by taking my time. With more than one hole needing to be drilled, I broke down and took the advice you two gave. I am the owner of a new 1/2hp drill press now, lol. It goes so much faster. I even tried to go fast on purpose and the glass did not break. I bored several holes to get a feel for the limit I can take the press before breaking the glass but it never happened. Now I know I can go at a steady pace without breaking my real tanks so I am ready to drill them in the upcoming weeks. Taking my time took 2 mins per hole, going fast I did it in 1 min. So I can say it was a good investment. I am sure now that I have the press, it will come handy down the road.
 
#24 ·
I haven't done much lately due to being super busy at work getting out projects. Its been consuming some of my weekends now unfortunately.

But now you all can get a glimpse of what the setup would look like minus the last 2 40s and the sumps. Over the holidays I will try to get the tanks drilled for the plumbing and take more pics once the plumbing and electrical is done. Excuse the paper on the tanks. I am just trying to keep as much dust and insects out as I can until I am ready to fill them.


Bill of materials w/ estimated prices (rounded in .05 cent increments)
(39) 2x4x96 $2.75 per board
(2) 5lb 3" Deckmate Screws $30 per box
(3) 48x96x3/4" CDX Plywood $24 per sheet
(2) qt of Minwax Stain $7.75
(1) gal of Semi Gloss Spar Urethane $40
(purchased 1 gal to build a 90g and a 180g stand next year)

Grand total of $294.75

Not to bad. Two large stand for under $300. I am sure if I got these built or bought off the shelf at the size they are, it would be well over $700 each. Earlier this year when I was looking at 125g tanks, the tanks went for about $475-550 and the stands were more expensive than the tank itself and its for a single 125g. I am all for DIY stands. They can be build alot stronger, nicer and more customized than buying retail if you do it yourself. Plus it gives us something to build for the hobby, lol.
 
#26 ·
I wish the sale was going on, lol. I need more. But to answer the question, I have been collecting a lot of stuff since June 2012. Besides the 6 40g in the pics I have a 125g, a 5ft custom 90g, a 55g, 2 29g and 4 10g. Of all those only 1 29g is setup, lol. I have put some time in planning multiple tank setups for awhile so I have been trying to collect everything I can when I have the money to do so.
 
#28 ·
Any updates ?
 
#29 · (Edited)
No not really. Nothing worth taking pics for at least. I haven't even been on here in weeks due to end of year work load. But I have drilled all my tanks for the Bean Animal though. I have also bought majority of all my plumbing fittings and piping. I just have to put it together. Now that Christmas shopping is over and the petco sale is on again, I can jump back to the project. I need the 4 sumps to complete the stand and a few extra tanks to break down to make weirs and baffles. I have also decided not to run (8) 40g breeders. Since I want to display my custom 5' 90g somewhere, I will dedicate the top of one on the stands for that. Its basically the same dimensions as the 40g but in a 5' footprint. I really want my main display in house and to be a 125, 150 or 180g. So the 90g was going to waste away as a sump to the main display tank.
 
#30 ·
Fascinating, those are some fantastic stands! I'm a great admirer of those who actively pursue the DIY side of this hobby rather than blindly, mindlessly, suckling on ADA's teat attempting to throw money at our problems rather than logic or elbow grease, thus I'd like to congratulate you, and I would truly love to see what you ended up doing with these!
 
#31 · (Edited)
Its been quite awhile since I have followed up with this thread. I apologize. Since my last update I have been doing a few things here and there through out the year so the project definitely is not dead. Mainly, I have been collecting alot of parts, equipment and hardscaping needed to do the project as I intend. This update will be a progress report from Nov 13' up til today.

Nov 30th
I started drilling my tanks for the 1" buckheads. Of the eight tanks I needed to drill I only lost 1 tank. I replaced that tank the following day and proceeded with drilling and had no problems with it the second go around. Go figure that it was one of the Tetra tanks that was lost.




April 27th
Waited until temperatures warmed up to continue. So basically I was on winter break, lol. Here I cut out the electrical box locations and ran my main tank drain line behind the tanks. Each sump will have a discharge tube that will be indirect drained to the 1.5" main line. I wanted to go thru the wall to drain outside to also double as emergency overflow control when I am not manually draining. But I didn't want to drill thru my brick exterior wall. Instead I will just connect a 2" sump hose to the hub fitting to drain when I open my garage door. Bummer but its not the end of the world.



March 3rd.
I started putting the wier's in place for the overflow system. It was a pita considering the spacing is less than 3" from the glass for a large handed person to silicone in place. The silicone job isn't the neatest by any means but I will try to clean it up once I actually start setting up the tanks. I got a little better as I went along. I will also try to conceal as much silicone as I can with the scaping. After installing the wiers, all tanks were leak tested in the overflow an the tank itself for a week. No leaks on the tanks itself. I did have to reseal half the overflows though. Second time was the charm. But no leaks with the Aqueon or the Tetra tanks. I have gotten into numerous debates about the quality of Tetra tanks in some threads. They are not Aqueons so if you don't trust them, don't buy them. No need to criticize them when most don't have experience with them. Check the quality of the tank before you walk out the store and you should be fine. Tetra wouldn't be selling tanks just for everyone to return them to the store. Worst case scenario, reseal it yourself or use it for scrap glass. I have done it for the latter of the two with no issues. Only the bottom pane is tempered. Best price for scrap glass.


July 27th
I started dry fitting the Bean Animal.


August 23rd
Here I came up with a concept for a return hose holder. Each holder is a 2x2 piece of glass to be siliconed in place. I had to modify the trim of the tank with a dremel to allow clearance for the 1/2" spa tubing. Tube is connected to a 1/2" 45 elbow. I cut up a 1/2" coupling to 1/4" and sandwiched the glass to keep the tubing positioned where I wanted it. It all worked out great. The 45 degree will direct the return flow to my Koralia 550/600 to circulate thru the tank.




Today
One column of one stand is completely glued in place. I wanted to test everything out on one before I duplicated it 3 more times. Solve any issues here first and it solves them for all 4. A video of the fill test is at the end of this post.


Miscellaneous Pics progress thru out the year.
Derimmed 4 tetra tanks to run as sumps. Pic is old but they do have a center glass brace in place now and they will have a single wier in place on both the left and right side to overflow into a central wet/dry filter before its returned.


Custom elbows for inside wier on display tank. From left to right. A normal 1" street elbow. A modified street elbow. A modified 90 elbow with a 1" piece of rigid pvc in place. I like the radius alot better on the regular elbows versus the street so I custom made them all to shorten them up.



Some of the plumbing and equipment purchased.






The original plan was to run (4) 9.5 magdrive pumps but I gained a little knowledge from people turning to dc controlled pumps. For one 9.5 magdrive the wattage is 93w. For one dc (Jabeo 6000 in this case) is 40w, it has controllable pump speeds, it pumps alot more gph and has a higher head than the 9.5 magdrive. So I bought one to give it a shot.

I purchased (4) Watts whole house filters to run 4 Cerges. It will be inline after the return pump and has a bypass valve to hopefully control flow better and keep air out the system since this version does not have a purge. I will run either a custom air manifold or purchase a ready made manifold. The intent is to run the Aquariumplants.com electronic regulator. I have the single co2 outlet and I love it. I won't use anything else so I will be exploring options to make it work. They use to sell a multi manifold for their regulator but they yanked it from the website. I emailed them and I was told to contact a particular person there so perhaps they still make them.

To start I will be running (1) 100w heater per sump. For the first year of setup, the display tanks will only be aquacaped tanks without fish or invertebrates. This will allow me to test out how the water temperatures will vary by seasons and to account for any cooling methods needed. I will also add a second heater as necessary once other life is introduced into the tank.

All in all, I am satisfied with how everything is turning out so far. I am really really taking my time for I am meticulous about this project. This is the reason why no updates have come regularly for I wanted to get things going before really posting results. Below is my drain test for the gravity portion of the bean animal. The return system is not connected yet because I just recently glued it together and it needs time to cure. I will be giving the system a complete run thru with the return pump in place tomorrow. I will then leave it running for a week or so just to thoroughly check everything out before plumbing the other tanks.

Here is a quick video of the test as mentioned.
http://youtu.be/kwgTahfG_u8
 
#32 ·
Forgot to mention that I had also started the 2nd Phase of my project. Another reason for my delayed updating. Phase II is for my display tank in my living room. Originally I was going to do a 125g or a 180g built from scratch using 1/2" cel cast acrylic. Since that original thought, I ended up getting a new living room furniture set and I had to alter my plans. Sticking to that plan would have taken up more space for my entry way in my house. Since I already had the custom 5' 90g tank on hand I figured it was a fairly sized tank. So I will just set it up as the display instead of using it for the sump to run one of the intended 6' tanks. Here are a few pics of that build.









Ph II is currently on hold for the moment so it will remain in its latest state until I can remove the 29g from the Living Rm space. The 29g will be taken down and upgraded to one of the 40g tanks in the garage. Once this is done, I can jump back to PhII again.
 
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