[coseal]

last journal kept here was 10 years ago! i have been in and out of the hobby over those years. but if you watch enough green aqua on youtube you get the itch again! lol..anyway i had a severely hard water stained 60p in storage, took one look and said nope... so i scoured the internet for a new tank. i initially wanted to go with a UNS 75p as i really liked the ada 75p i had years ago. but in the end went with a waterbox clear 30. i have never seen a waterbox tank in person so was a little skeptical when i ordered, and was pleasantly surprised when it arrived. i have owned multiple ada tanks and a couple uns tanks, and i would rank the build quality right there with them. this tank is 60cmx45cmx45cm a great footprint for any aquascape style really. lots of depth to work with! one of the things i struggled with the ada 60p was the 30cm front to back.

anyway... on to the build i guess! will likely be a slower one as i really enjoy the design and build process of the hobby and will DIY where feasible.

tech specs of build

tank- waterbox clear 30 60x45x45
stand- home made ADA style 60x45x76
light- chihiros vivid 2
filter- eheim 2215
c02- yes
lilypipes- cheap

did a quick render in fusion trying to decide how i want to do the side of the cabinet. i like the UNS cabinets but think the slots are a bit big and the ada cabinets half circle cut out makes hose's hard to deal with. what do you prefer?


Screenshot 2020-10-21 213333 by shaun s., on Flickr

 

[coseal]

seams and lights ohh my

just got back from the home depot with one of the finest sheets of 19mm birch plywood they had under roof! contemplating doing like a mini build thread for the stand in this thread or.... should i create a new post in the diy forum and "spread the love" so to speak? anyway my living room is dark as a cave so the lighting isnt real good for pictures at the moment but, i did grab a few of the tank's silicone work for anyone wondering what a waterbox seam looks like.


wb2 by shaun s., on Flickr

dunno if i like the permanent logo at the top of the tank... prolly put it to the back.


wb1 by shaun s., on Flickr



busted open the chihiros vivid 2, pretty nice for the price imo!


chihiros1 by shaun s., on Flickr

 

[coseal]

progress!

well had the day off and cut some wood! going with a white outer and a birch inner. with a bonus of exposed edge plywood.. i know its not everyones cup of tea, but i love it! have the same motif on a set of stools i made for the kitchen. anyway wood is cut, and i got some adjustable feet on the printer they should be done in the am! then ill glue this thing together and shoot her with some poly.

pile of wood!

DSC_0014 by shaun s., on Flickr


made in austria! fancy!

DSC_0016 by shaun s., on Flickr

 

[coseal]

ready for some football?

thought id upload some pics while i wait for the glue to dry lol!

#wishihadfestooldomino

Untitled by shaun s., on Flickr


using only glue and biscuits for this one!

Untitled by shaun s., on Flickr

my leveling feet hot off the printer!

Untitled by shaun s., on Flickr

made the hole for the bolt head slightly undersized and used a soldering iron to heat the bolt till it "squished" into the plastic feels really solid!

Untitled by shaun s., on Flickr

Bump: ohh yea, forgot to ask! how long will plants live in a ziploc? if i keep them wet and give them light? i can set up a tank pretty quick, need to anyway to qt my fish for this tank. just curious as stuff is starting to roll in!

 

[coseal]

wish i had of used 12mm plywood

ok stand done! turned out great! even found a cool motion activated ikea light upstairs in the closet>

DSC_0001 by shaun s., on Flickr


DSC_0014 by shaun s., on Flickr


artsy close up of those custom knurled leveling feet lol

DSC_0015 by shaun s., on Flickr


i have a door for it, i swear! gonna wait to drag this thing up the basement stairs to install it...

 

[mourip]

i did grab a few of the tank's silicone work for anyone wondering what a waterbox seam looks like

Hard to tell from the photo. Are you happy with the seams and overall tank quality?

Thanks.

 

[coseal]

yes! tank looks great! i really dig the mat precut and glued to the bottom. dont care much for the laser etched logo at the top of the tank but, i can just turn it to the back. i got the stand upstairs today and decided to put a fresh coat of paint in the nook where it will live. need to come up with a solution for hanging the light i have an idea still fleshing it out tho!

 

[brohawk]

Stand looks fantastic so far! Nice work!!

 

[coseal]

stand

here are some pics of the stand in its finished state, and some mounting hardware and profile example for my "light bar"

IMG_1411[1] by shaun s., on Flickr

IMG_1409[1] by shaun s., on Flickr

IMG_1410[1] by shaun s., on Flickr



"light bar" hardware. printed these pretty robustly with petg. the light is on the heavy side... one side will be attached with a drywall anchor and the other a tapcon into brick

IMG_1407[1] by shaun s., on Flickr

 

[monkeyruler90]

Very excited to see how the light fixture goes.

How are the plants holding up in zip bags? I've kept mine in there for a week and then just put them in a bucket of water outside and they survived for a while

 

[coseal]

i set up a qt tank, figured id need one for the fish i wanna get so might as well. i was hoping to have everything i needed to set up this week but i dont think thats gonna happen. still waiting on a bag of soil... i ordered 20l of regular(way to much) and 3l of powder to top it off! the regular is here the powder no clue lol. if i had of known it wasnt going to ship in a couple days i would have moved on to another vendor.

i do have an update on the light! was looking at it today and more specifically seeing how much cord i had to work with... this cord is amazingly long! its also very black! i wish chihiros had of taken a cue from twinstar,ada and used a clear or gray to blend in with the suspension cables a bit more. no problem here as i am a hoarder and buy a bunch of crap i dont "need"! had some nice 2 conductor gray in a drawer just waiting for its time to shine. tinned up the ends and installed it easy enough.

the black

Light2 by shaun s., on Flickr

the gray

Rewire by shaun s., on Flickr

 

[coseal]

let there b light!

ok we almost ready to go!

lights hung stand illuminated! very happy with it so far, damn thing only made me paint my fireplace lol!

Clr30 by shaun s., on Flickr

Clr30 by shaun s., on Flickr


here is a pic of the light bar.... i figure if this tank doesnt work out i can always hang coats from it :|

Clr30 by shaun s., on Flickr

 

[jellopuddinpop]

Personally, I would be a little sketched out by 3d printed leveling feet. This is going to hold a lot more weight than you think, and if one of those feet give way, it's going to be a big shock to the tank. You can almost certainly find the size you're looking for on Mcmaster.com for pretty cheap.

https://www.mcmaster.com/leveling-feet

 

[monkeyruler90]

that light hanging is CLEAN! I love it

 

[coseal]

Personally, I would be a little sketched out by 3d printed leveling feet. This is going to hold a lot more weight than you think, and if one of those feet give way, it's going to be a big shock to the tank. You can almost certainly find the size you're looking for on Mcmaster.com for pretty cheap.

https://www.mcmaster.com/leveling-feet

ya, i love mcmaster! and i have some mounts here in various size's, but we are going to be dealing with a static load of roughly 300lbs. these are printed with petg at 90%infill and are 1.5" in diameter im not sketched out at all... maybe if they were printed with pla?

thanks for checkin out my thread!

 

[coseal]

that light hanging is CLEAN! I love it

thanks!:smile2:

 

[Tbakes]

Agree with what's been said - very clean looking light install; stand is beautiful and the initial woodscape is great!

 

[coseal]

lost and found....

ok, i apparently bought a 2217 somewhere in my aquatic adventure over the last 15 years... lookin through old pics i used it on the ada 75p i had 10 years ago. looking at the vermetid snail shells it looks like i may have used it for saltwater at one point or another.

Clr30 by shaun s., on Flickr

do these things come with baskets like the little models? my 2213 has a big basket that removes from the chamber...

took the impeller out looks like the day it was new! these things are expensive for a reason i guess..

Untitled by shaun s., on Flickr

 

[coseal]

a utility belt for my filter?

ok, been in a holding pattern waiting on dirt.... spent some quality time with the new found eheim 2217. i love the quick disconnects they use but hate that they flop around so much i also wanted to try an inline diffuser this go around so i kicked around some ideas and came up with this!


a utility belt! lol

Eheim belt by shaun s., on Flickr



Eheim belt by shaun s., on Flickr

i used the old spring trick to pull this off. i tried a few different methods this one worked the best, and super simple!

Eheim belt by shaun s., on Flickr

thinkin this will work out well and keep things tidy!


questions,comments,concerns?

 

[coseal]

wood floats?

got my scape the way i want it! now time to plant, will prolly do that this weekend. water test went well..... 1 little leak on the inline diffuser(righty tighty lefty loosy)

Untitled by shaun s., on Flickr

Untitled by shaun s., on Flickr


Untitled by shaun s., on Flickr

Untitled by shaun s., on Flickr