# Construction Journal for Plywood Tanks, update on last post.



## defaced (May 23, 2005)

*See Last Post*
The update isn't at the bottom of this post like usual. 

So I'm crazy. No, seriously I am, I'm going to complete - from 4x8 sheets of plywood to initial testing before adding frogs - six plywood 25 gallon tanks in less than a month. Ok, well that's the goal, but it'll be interesting to see if that becomes a reality. I'm loosely following this tutorial on how to make plywood aquariums (Link)

*Concept:*

The tanks are going to be [outside dimentions (inside dimentions)] 15" (14") wide, 20" (19.5") deep, and 24" (21") high. That works out to almost 25 gallons (24.8 to be a bit more exact). The bottom is 3/4" plywood, with the back and sides being 1/2" birch veneere plywood. The top and front will be 3/16" glass from the 20H tanks these are replacing. I'm going to attempt to be a glazier, this will be interesting. These tanks will be fited with individual drains with ball valves for shut off and at least two misting heads with a shut off for each tank. These will be acessable from the front via a removeable facade. Also to be included, will be two 60mm fans per tank with adjustable fan speed for each tank. I think this will give me the control over each tank I need to ensure the frogs I place in them are very happy. 

*Construction Phase I: **
The Shell:*

I offically started yesterday, the 29th, and got all of the major pieces of plywood cut. This included the back, sides and bottom. I don't have a table saw so I used a circular saw, a piece of angle iron, some clamps, and a 4' framing square to get good cuts. The cutting took all day, and being hot, it felt like it took an eternity, but I finished around eight and was glad it was finished. 









My saw setup. It's ghetto, but it works and makes straight cuts. 









The fence, the line to be cut, and the clamp that made it all possible. 

I hadn't thought about what blade I was using at the time, but a 24 tooth framing blade wasn't the best idea to use on veneered plywood. Ripping tyeilded ok results, not the best edge, but not bad. Cross cuts on the other hand yeilded guigantic splinters. Because it was the holiday I wasn't able to get a new blade. If you decided to take on a similar project, save yourself some problems and get a 60+ tooth blade.









After alot of time in the sun and some profain words, this is the result: 32 pieces of wood and some scrap. Notice the lovely burs on the nice expensive plywood :x

I didn't have alot of time to work on the tanks today, but I did get the first one assembled. I did a dry assembly (no glue) to get an idea of how large these would be and to see if I needed to do anything different. This warrented going to the hardware store and buying some quick change bits because I was using four different bits per hole, predrill, counter bore, counter sink, and lastly a troques bit for the stainless steel screws I bought. The dry assembly went without any interesting events, just lots of holes. 









305 stainless steel (SS) desck screws. These things were expensive, but are a dream to drive. The torques head makes things so much easier compaired to a phillips. 









A counter sunk screw. I'm not sure if I'm going to cover these with wood puddy or not.









Ah, the shell. This went together pretty easily, took about 45 minutes. I hope to speed that up with my new bits and such, but it probably won't happen.

I got the marine epoxy today. I picked up 1.5 gallons of "Basic No-Blush Marine Epoxy". Basically two cans cost me like 75 bucks plus shipping. I'm itching to try this stuff out. I've never really used epoxy aside from the 5 dollar tubes you can pick up so this will be interesting. I've heard that it must be used outside. The lovely 90 degree temps we've been getting lately are going to kill my pot life, but curing is going to be easy. 










I think that's about it for this installment. This write up is kind of a trial at writing articles for my site so if you have any suggestions to improve the article let me know either here or via pms. I'm a good sport abour criticism so don't be afraid. 

*-- 5-30-06*

*Links:*
Plywood Tank Tutorial
Screws
Epoxy Info, Epoxy Store (the site is a nightmare to navigate)
60mm Fans
Fan Controller

*Labor:*

Layout and cut plywood: 4 hours
Assemble first tank: .75 hours

*Costs:*

2 x 1/2" Birch Veneere plywood, $25 per sheet, $50 total
12 x 60mm fans, $4 per fan, $48 total
1 x 1.5 gallon epoxy, $75 per 1.5 gallon, $75 total
1 x 1lb #8, 2" SS deck screws, $17 per pound, $17 total

I think that's it as far as materials so far. My total project cost will be higher because of tools I needed to buy. I will not be including materials needed to furning the tanks, just to construct their shells for an accurate compairison to other tank options.

*-- 6-02-06*

Too late and not enough pictures to do a full write up, but today included these two things:

Home made table saw:









And my first venture into fiberglass, repairing a mistake:








^Click on the image and check out the detail on that macro shot.

Finially, and opportunity to give a massive update. This will cover what I did over the weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) and what's planned to happen this weekend. 

The first thing that had to be done was to assemble all six of the tanks. For assembly I decided to ditch the predrilling for any screws that were on the side of the tanks. For pieces that get mounted on the front or need precise placement, I kept the predrilling operations. This helped cut the time down massively, I was assembling tanks in 20 minutes which helped things alot. 










Once assembled the next order of buisness was to get all of the trim pieces cut. This was cake now that my ghetto table saw had legs:










I used this to rip pieces to width and a miter saw with a make shift fence for the crosscuts. I made sure to buy a fine toothed blade this time...










The faces got fitted and the drains were drilled. I changed me drain design to just using a 3/4" to 1/2" slip reducer as the fitting that gets epoxied into the tank, then I'll use 1/2" PVC for the rest of the drain. The outer diameter (OD) of these fitting is the world's most annoying size 1.01". So I bought a 1" hole saw, cut the hole, then used my dremel with a sanding bit to reem the hole to the proper size. What a royal pain that was - dust everywhere, hot dremel, and of course LOUD! With that done, the PVC fit through the holes well... with some lovely gaps, so I used some Gurilla Glue to fille the gaps. This is so the epoxy wouldn't drain through the gaps because it's very thin.

I put the drains in front to minimize the length of PVC needed to mount the ball valve to the "control panel" under the tank. 



















Up next was staining the inside. I decided on using Minwax semi-transparent stain (I think that's it, I'll have to check). Anyway, the color for the inside is "Early Spring", the color for the outside is "Onyx". Staining with this stuff was super easy. I didn't have to wipe it off and it's water based so cleanup was a breee. With the inside stained, I got to my big mile stone...

EPOXY!!!

I decided doing the bottom first was the best course of action. This would allow me to find out how the epoxy flowed over large areas and handled when it was being laid on pretty thick. I mixed 3/4 of a quart at a time. There were no fumes and no heat to my suprise. I mixed it for around 3 minutes ensuring to get the epoxy from the bottom and sides into the mix and poured 1/4 of a quart into each of the tanks. This worked out to be a perfect amount to cover the bottom with about an 1/8" of epoxy. I did have a few goofs though:









^Notice the complete fillet between the bottom and side of the tank shown by the smooth transition. 









^ This from not spreading the epoxy onto the sides of the tank. Notice the lack of a smooth fillet shown by the right angle joint between the two pieces of wood. 









^This is from not making sure the epoxy was completely spread. The first three tanks I did look great, the last three have some of these discontinuities. That's what happens when you epoxy at two in the morning :wink: 

I'll have to do another layer of epoxy because of these problems, but I could have avoided that if I had payed more attention to detail. 









Isn't they purdy? This is what the rack will look like for the most part. There are still a few details that aren't finished in that picture. 

So the tanks are built and the bottom is epoxied, now time to finish the trim pieces. I made a gluing fixture so I could get a 1/2" rabbit without having to think. I decided gluing would be better than getting the router out to do this - not the best idea. This is so painfully slow, but the results look better IMO. The 1/4" pieces came from Lowe's finished lumber area. They're Poplar, not my favorite wood, but they're going to be stained black so it's not a huge deal. 



















With the trim pieces glued together for the top, I decided to do the top facade piece next. This was a pretty important piece because it had to cover the fans but leave room for them. I screwed the front piece in place and used a scrap piece of plywood to hold the poplar piece into position while I clamped it for drying. 









^In that image the tank is upside down, so you're looking at (from top to bottom) the trim piece that is mounted flat on top of the tanks, the scrap piece of wood, and the poplar piece for the rabbit. The top front trim piece got screwed over these and the poplar piece got glued to that. 










Somewhere in there I stained (or actually my brother stained) the outside "Onyx", you can see the results in that last pic. I'm actually pretty fond of it. 

-This coming up weekend:
-Finish the trim work and stain the outside.
-Drill holes for the fans and test mount them. 
-Mount the control panel under the tank.
-Epoxy the whole inside of the tanks. Hopefully apply second coat to the sides once the first dries. Fix the blunders in the bottom's epoxy.
-Start assembling doors and hinges
-Polyurethane the outside of the tank
-Finish up odds and ends for Construction Phase I

Welp, that's the long and short of it. I burned about 16 hours of solid work on these this weekend and spent around 50 bucks on parts for the trim and the doors. I'll do a proper break down later. I've gotta go to sleep. This waking up at 5am crap is going to kill me.

*-- 6-29-06*
Things are moving along - slowly. I got an internship at the same place my girlfriend's dad works, so I live with him during the week and go home on the weekend. This has put a huge damper on the time line of these tanks, but they're getting done even if it is a little slower than I had hoped. 

Nothing super exciting in this update, just pics of the false bottoms and the control panel. Most of this past weekend was spent finishing the outside of the tanks. Talk about a pain in the ass. Had things been done properly in the first place it wouldn't have been so bad, but I've spent as much time making the outside stain job look good as I have everything else. This is largely because the onyx stain really looks bad if it isn't applied perfectly. A traditional stain wouldn't have been bad, but this stuff is more like painting than staining. Anyway, I wish I wouldn't have chosen to stain the outside like I did or at all for that matter. 

Now that I'm done bitching, off to the pictures. 





































Solly might recognise those :wink: Close-up pics of my Ghetto Saw. Since it's a hit I figured I'd post them here. Basically I took the table and flipped it upside down, put the saw about where I wanted it, squared it up with one edge of the table (this being where my "rip fence" was going to be (a modified 4' framing square) and mounted it in place. The for the blade is about 1" wide and 7" long. I cut it with a jig saw. And in the last pic you're seeing the zip tie that holds the trigger down to turn the saw on. My assistant unplugs the saw when it needs turned off. 










The water test. I had just siphoned out a few gallons from my 75g tank and had the plumbing hooked up so I figure what the hey, lets see if it actually holds water. I went to bed, woke up, and low and behold it did. And I got to test my drain to see how it would work, not spectacular happened, so I call that a sucess. 



















Pics of the plumbing system and the ball valve as it will appear on the control panel. The control panel will be hidden by a removeable piece that will be held in place by some magnets. This will make it easy to do adjustments while still keeping everything hidden. 



















False bottoms. The false bottoms are held up by ten 3/4" PVC couplers. I hot glued them to the egg crate and then layered from there with #7 craft mesh, window screen, and two layers of weed cloth. In retrospect, I should have reversed that order so it would act as a better filter, but this will work. The six false bottoms are all the same to speed things up a bit. I'm pretty sure only one will need any kind of modification, and that will be for a water feature, but we'll see. 



















This is the fan controler I picked up from NewEgg (the link is at the top of this post I think...) This controler will control the fans for the three tanks on each shelf of the rack. That will leave one control open, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that. The hole this sets in is just enough smaller that it has to be pressed in, so that will do the bulk of the holding with only something to keep it from tilting - I haven't gotten that far yet. 

So that's what they look like right now. This weekend will see the installation of the infrastructure and the beginning of the Phase II. I'm off for the next two weeks so if finances allow I'll finish these. 

Someone asked, I've been flipping back and forth between 1/8" and 3/16" glass. Since nothing has to be mounted on the glass, 1/8" will be fine, but I like the feel of 3/16". In the end, price will decide.
*See Last Post*


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## wishIwereAnExpert (Jul 18, 2005)

Let me be the first of many to say THANK YOU. Looks like I might ditch FCA for this coming rack...

Why 32 pieces plus scrap of wood? Four pieces per tank X six tanks is 24...

-Solly


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Your more than welcome. I haven't forgot about your plumbing thread. I'll bump it tonight. 

I can't multiply, 4*6 is 24 not 32. I realised that after I went to bed. I'm going to go back and clean that post up anyways, there are a slew of spelling mistakes and typos. 

I'll be updating this regularly with all of the particulars and plenty of picture so if there's anything in particular you'd like to see just ask and I'll take a shot of it.


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## wishIwereAnExpert (Jul 18, 2005)

One thing I'd like to see is a running tally of costs and labor. I'm curious if it's really worth it.

-Solly


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Got ya covered Solly. It's at the bottom of the main post.


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## wishIwereAnExpert (Jul 18, 2005)

And one more thing and then I promise to shut up...

Why do you need glue? Couldn't you just screw it together, and the use a thick epoxy mixture with lots of filler to fill the seams, and then just paint epoxy on the rest? Just a thought...

-Solly


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Basically because it was in the tutorial and I hadn't made a concrete decision to use it or not. I know from a strength stand point it was moot for our applications, but I had though about not using because the possible problems I could run into while staining the tanks. I plan on using very thick layers of epoxy to coat the inside of the tanks. That with the screws are more than adaquate for the application IMO. I'm not sure if I'm going to silicone it either, but that will depend on how flexible the epoxy is. 

And you're fine, keep asking questions. You know someone else was wondering the same thing anyway.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Tiny update, see bottom of first post.


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## Cody (Oct 31, 2004)

defaced said:


> ...I plan on using very thick layers of epoxy to coat the inside of the tanks. ...


Mike, I could be wrong but a lot of thin layers is way better with epoxy or fiberglass than a lot of thick layers. I think it affects the drying time to where it just doens't cure right, I know it puts off some heat when it is drying. 

It looks good though, I like the homeade table saw in the middle of the living room, nothing like cluttering your living space for a few vivs.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Actually, this stuff puts off little/no heat while it's curing. I had planned on doing several thin layers until I read in the product info that it can be laid up to 1/4" thick in a single pass without any problems. I need to do a few tests today to make sure that's the case, but so far it's curing fine. I'm probably only going to coat the inside about 1/16" - 1/18" thick, and my little fiberglass repair job is about that thick and looks great. The ultimate test will be to see if I end up with water all over my floor at some later date in the furute, but I can't test that now. 

I'm pretty proud of that table saw. It's so DIY it's not even funny and I've been itching to get one but haven't wanted to put down the cash so I just made one. Today it's getting legs. My front porch is going to look like a ******* wood shop.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Semi-update. I'm finishing up this quarter at school, took my only final today and have a photography project to finish up tomorrow, then I'm to drop a huge update in, but here are the highlights:

All 6 tanks are assembled, have drains, epoxied bottoms, stained inside, and the first coat on the outside (I think it's going to need two). I've got every piece of wood cut for the trim, but I've got 12 more pieces to glue up and I can only do one at a time, so it's taking a while. I figured out how I'm going to do the door, I think everyone will like my solution, it's pretty left field but will work wonderfully. 

To do:
epoxy inside
polyurethane outside
finish trim pieces and assemble
Route access pannel
Look at my glass options
Assemble/mount door and magnets for holding it closed
Fans
Misting system
Plumb drains.

In total, if I had the glass, the tanks would be finished by this weekend and they would be decorated/planted by next weekend.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Bump for update.


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## OneTwentySix (Nov 11, 2004)

I don't mean to seem rude, but I'm kind of curious. I'd imagine building a large tank would possibly pay off, but why bother building six 25 gallon tanks when you can buy similar sized tanks for a similar price? Just the ability to customize the tanks and not have to worry about paying for drilling glass?

In any event, they do look very nice.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

-I hate working with glass tanks. They're so limiting because of what they're made of. Look at my post, do you think I'd pay to have someone drill my tanks?... Never. 

-It's very difficult to make a front opening tank the size I wanted from stock aquariums. 

-It's more space efficient. Ex. Anything with a 12x24 foot print (20H and 25g) will either fit two to a rack, but they go up onto the side rails (face out), or three to a rack, but at 12" wide, there's alot of extra room on the side (side out). I dislike the size of 29g tanks so that's not an option. 

I have access from the top and the front of the tank making maintaince easier and...

-I'm a college student so I'm moving alot. Glass tanks and moving don't go together. 

IMO, why bother with the numerous limitations of glass tanks when there's better options if one is willing to put in the effort. 

After doing this because I've already made the initial purchases of things like epoxy, stain, tools... I'll be able to complete any size tank I want in a weekend from plywood. The only reason this is tanking as long as it is, is because it's six tanks.

Edit: I forgot one:

-Just because I can, it's fun, and it's not in any way traditional in this hobby. 

-Good practice for writing for my website.


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## RGB (Jan 15, 2006)

Mike,

Looking good, your ghetto woodshop is awesome, sure beats my miter box!

I was curious why you stained the inside of the tanks, aren't you putting epoxy inside?


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## Guest (Jun 9, 2006)

good question 
i wonder if the epoxy is clear?

keep it coming love the tanks sofar


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Ron, I just liked the idea of having a green interior to compliment the way the tanks will be furnished. 

The epoxy is crystal clear. Have you ever seen a clock like this where the finish is so rediculously thick?








That's what this epoxy looks like when it dries. I had an opportunity to epoxy the inside of three of them this weekend, I'll do another update tomorrow after work.


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## RGB (Jan 15, 2006)

I see, those are gonna look very cool. Can't wait to see the finished product.


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## Jordan B (Oct 8, 2004)

Any updates?


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

That's tomorrow's project: get this thread updated. The outside of the tanks are finished, this doesn't include doors though because I don't have the glass or the funds a the moment to buy it. The false bottoms are also finished. This coming up weekend I'm going ot install the fans, misting stuff, and the drains, then on Phase II - The Decoration. Having a "work residence" has really dampened the timeline for these tanks.


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## Homer (Feb 15, 2004)

It looks great, Mike. I like your DIY table saw. When you finally settle down and get your woodshop outfitted, you'll really appreciate having a big cast iron saw with a good rip fence (I know I appreciate mine now that I used a circular saw for alot of the things you are doing!) . . . and you'll be workin' up a storm building the biggest plywood frog room ever!

When you go to build your next rack setup, though, I can tell you that 1/4" ply with 3/4" staves along the seams have plenty of rigidity and cut down the weight tremendously if portability is an issue. Plus, if you glue those seams, you can secure the seams/staves with an 18 gauge brad nailer instead of screws, and you have an excuse to buy a new tool.

Keep us posted, as it's looking great. I love plywood tank threads!


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## Steve (Apr 8, 2006)

Hey Mike..

These tanks are looking very cool indeed. Love the DIY tool benches. Waiting anxiously and patiently to see the doors and the glass. What thickness of glass are you gonna use? will GS stick to epoxy?

Anyway, get back to work on those tanks your fans need progress.

Regards

Steve


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## zaroba (Apr 8, 2006)

wow, they look great.

i might have to steal your design when i expand my collection


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## Homer (Feb 15, 2004)

Steve said:


> Hey Mike..
> 
> will GS stick to epoxy?



Yes. 8)


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Bump for update.


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## Steve (Apr 8, 2006)

Awesome Mike.

Just a quick question, the epoxy you used, does it have any flexibility? for example if you moved from a very arid area to a very humid area and the environment caused the wood to expand, would the epoxy flex with it?

The reason i ask is the wooden hex i'm making is hopefully coming back to UK with us at the end of 2007. Its creation is here in Nevada but in UK its more humid, another reason why i was thinking of lining mine with silicone as i know that will flex ok with change.

Just a thought.

Brilliant work Mike, keep at it.

Regards

Steve


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

That's a really good question, I don't know if it would or not. One thing to consider is that how the wood is finished will have an effect on that too. say for example you encased the exterior of the tank in something like epoxy or another plastic, then you've isolated it from humidity related size changes vs say leaving it unfinished or finishing in a traditional manner that would leave the mating surfaces of joints uncovered by the finish. 

The other considerable factor is exactly what epoxy would be used on the inside of the tank. Since there are so many different formulations, there are bound to be some that are optomized for flexibility. The one I'm working with doesn't seem to be one of those, but I could easily be wrong, I'd have to do some experiements. If you're interested, I can cover some samples and post what I find - I'll be nice for me to know any way. 

My thought is that because you're working with plywood, there is going to be alot of expansion in different directions. Now the plywood may be act like a buffer where the inside doesn't expand at all and the outside does, or it could distort uniformaly throughout its cross section - I don't know. But if you were to have problems, it would be at the joints of the tank, so simply siliconing those would prevent that from being an issue. 

----

I'm honestly not sure if GS will adhear to this epoxy or not. From my encounters with GS, I imagine that as long as the GS contacts the epoxy while its still tacky, it'll stick. If not, then I've got some tricks up my sleve to adhear the two - polyurethane adheasive, epoxy, TNT... You know, the usual


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## Guest (Jul 11, 2006)

Mike & Steve,
ive never worked with any flexible epoxy. all of the stuff ive ever worked with hardens up pretty rigid. with the first tanks i built i had trouble because of this. after loading it up with dirt plants and water i tried to move it. the movement and weight were enough to crack a portion of the eopoxy (in a corner) and cause the dang box to leak. to keep this from happeneing now i use silicon in between the pieces of wood as i attach them together. i aslo use excessive amounts of epoxy in the corners.

as far as flexing over time, i dont believe the epoxy is going to allow the wood to flex in. IMO, (ive never moved with one of these tanks put together) if there is any swelling it should be minimal, and i believe the eopxy would be strong anough to force the swelling to go in an outward direction.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

It's 4am; five of the six tanks are planted (the 6th has a water feature and will take some more time). I'm missing one piece from each aspect of the infrastructure to finish them, so they're 99% done. Update in the early afternoon: ice cream, then sleep.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

I'm a little on the lazy side this week, hence the ever delayed update. In my laziness I did get the images resized and online. No comments about the pictures are online yet, that's for a later date - but before I get the glass on and that updated.

Warning - 40 images and a little more than 10megs. Sorry for the size, I didn't think about that when I resized them. 
Link

I tried to get them in cronologial order and pictures of each tank in each stage of foaming/dirting/planting.


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## Guest (Jul 16, 2006)

*well*

do you have a final pic of them all set up. ie: all the tanks in one pic?


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

No because they're not all done. I still have to do doors for them and work on the 6th tank with the water feature. That one is still just GS waiting for a final scuplting and then dirt.


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## JL-Exotics (Nov 10, 2005)

Ahem... any updates for us?


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

This weekend/early next week. I had planned to pickup the glass last weekend, but when I showed up at the shop they were closed. I'll also resize those images from the last "update", add text, and put them on here like I did for the first part of the journal.


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## zBrinks (Jul 16, 2006)

Any updates?


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## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Ya know, I've been wondering the same thing? Lets see those thigs. :wink:


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Alrighty, looks like I'll update 

These have been up and running since right after that last post when I got the glass - around the beginning of August. There have only been a few things that have caused problems. 

First (as you can see in some of the pics below) are the holders for the misting nozzles. Hot glue doesn't hold to epoxy or polypropylene very well. So these holders have been coming off. I've since started using stainless wood screws to hold them in place. 

Second, the glass was slightly too big for the openings of all but a few tanks, so the fronts of them had to be removed, moved down 1/4", and put back on. This broke the seal of the epoxy around the inside of the tanks. Only one has leaked any interesting amount, and that's just started, but a few fronts are in need of being replaced because of water absorption. Which leads me to problem #3

The area of wood that the hinges are secured to wasn't sealed when I made the tanks. I didn't think I'd need to do it. So as the tanks are sprayed, the water runs off of the glass and onto this unsealed plywood. Guess what happens, the screws that hold the doors start pulling out of the water soaked plywood. So I am replacing the fronts with solid wood (red oak), sealing them properly, and using silicone to seal the epoxy-epozy interface between the tank and the front. This will allow me to simply rip the front off if I need to, clean some silicone and reapply, and put them back on. This will give me access to the false bottoms if I need it. 

As you'll see, I'm missing a tank. Yes, almost a year later, I have one tank that isn't done. It's about 80% done in terms of hardscape and structure, but it'll need to be planted and proofed before I put frogs in it. It's the tank I'm trying hydraulic cement in. The dry run I did with it which lasted at least a month, probably more, was great. I just had to make some, eh, adjustments we'll say. 

The Leucs' and Galacts' tanks were recently refurbished per se. I removed all of the old dirt (which was hardwood mulch) that had become a nasty mess, and replaced it. I also replanted those two tanks, so they haven't had an opportunity to grow in like the other tanks. 

So for the pics:
Here's the rack:









From left to right on the rack, top to bottom:
Leucs:









Galacts:









Female Uyama Pumilio:









Pair of Uyama Pumilio:









Dwarf Cobalts:









Screw being pulled out of front piece of plywood:


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## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Very nice Mike! What do you think was the problem with the hard wood mulch? What did you replace it with?


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## pigface (Apr 28, 2006)

Nice , I really like your leuc & Galact tanks . Your driftwood in the foreground , does that go all the way into the background . I like how it uses the whole space from front to back .


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## pigface (Apr 28, 2006)

Nice , I really like your leuc & Galact tanks . Your driftwood in the foreground , does that go all the way into the background . I like how it uses the whole space from front to back .


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

The issue with the hardwood mulch was that it didn't drain well. Pretty much, it held loads of water, soured, and had plenty of bug eggs in it - which I don't mind - except for it introduced snails into at least one of my tanks so I have to beat them to my eggs. I replaced it with cocofiber because I have it in a couple of other tanks and it seems to be doing good. I haven't settled on a soil mix yet to say the least, so I'm sure that will come out and be replaced eventually. 

Thanks Mark. The wood all of the tanks goes from the front to the very back. I like to make hardscapes that use the volume of the tank.


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## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Yea, One thing that I was wondering, is how much petroleum ends up in mulch. I’m sure they oil the grinding equipment just like you oil a chain saw:? 

Right now I’m having the problem of my soil layer drying out too quickly. I ventilate my viv leuc viv with air that is pumped in and vented into the LECA along the front glass. This works well as far as cleaning the front glass goes, but it dries out the substrate pretty quickly. Right now I’m using a mixture of LFS and Oak leaves. My mist pump comes on for one minute every morning and by late afternoon much of the substrate in front of the tank is bone dry. I may have to add more moss or perhaps I should pump the air into an airtight jar of water before it goes to the tank.


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## Android1313 (Dec 15, 2006)

Very nice Mike! I like the Galact viv. Well done my man! What up with that screw thats coming out of the front? Is that gonna end up leaking? It would be a real shame after all that work.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

I hadn't thought about petrol ending up in mulch Chris. I think we could be surprised either way if we knew how much was in the mulch. I could see there being very little because of how little is used to process alot of mulch. I could also see there being alot based on where they get their raw materials from. 

For your Leuc tank, have you ever soaked the substrate with water? Say just dump a glass of it onto the substrate. I ask because your ventilation/misting may be fine, but your substrate is too dry to begin with for the misting to recoup from the vent. I hope the made sense. 

Using a water filled glass is an interesting notion, but I'm not sure it would work. The reason the glass clears ls because the dry air can absorb the water from the glass. If you add water to the air before blowing it across the glass, then it absorb any. It'd be worth trying because of how simple of a fix it would be though. 

My third thought, is to add some peat moss to your substrate at the front. Peat is known for getting very soggy, so that may be to your advantage. 

And lastly, can you reduce how often your air pump runs, or increase your misting? 

----

Andy, I've got a fix for the messed up fronts. It'll take some effort and temporary relocating of the frogs, but it should work pretty well. I'll update once I start working on it this weekend.


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## ian (Dec 25, 2006)

Great job Mike. I like the look of your leuc tank. Where di you get your wood from? How big are those pieces? They look like logs. What are the dimensions are your rack and where did you come across that? I've only been able to find a chrome or gray rack but never black.

Keep up the good work!

Ian


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## Grassypeak (Jun 14, 2005)

Thanks for the suggestions Mike. There is no screen layer above the LECA so peat is out. The air pump is a linear piston pump which supplies my fishroom. It is on 24/7. I control the input to the tank via two valves. One supplies the airstone that powers the little waterfall, and the other supplies the vents along the front of the tank. Since this is a leuc tank, I’ve been keeping the valve all the way open for a few weeks at a time and then closing it way down for a few weeks at a time. When the valve is all the way open the substrate dries out too quickly even with daily misting. When the valve is shut down the broms start to develop these grey patches on the undersides of their leaves. I’m thinking that the best bet is just to add more sphagnum, leaf litter, and possibly some coco chips.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

I think adding more substrate would be a good idea Chris.

Ian, the racks I use come from Target. 55 bucks for a 4' rack. They're not the stiffest design, but they work for what I do. The wood came from local places I collect it. I very very rarely buy wood. IMO, the price isn't worth what little it takes to source and collect it. Most of the pieces have a long dimention of 18" or so. They're definately not your typical drift wood that's for sure.


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## B&Y (Mar 10, 2007)

Your rack looks very nice. I really like your set-ups. I have a question with your *Fan Controller *that you used. I am looking to use the same type of controller unit for fan speed, but I am a bit confused towards wiring a plug to the unit. Can you explain how you did yours? Another question I have is where you housed the controller unit. It's my understanding that these units throw a lot of heat. Is this true? I was thinking of housing it in my custom made hood. My concern is moisture where the whole unit is exposed and also adding more heat to the custom hood that has fans mounted to dispurse the heat. I just don't want to be adding more heat where I am already trying to take heat away due to the lights housed in the hood.


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

Those are the controller units. These are directly from the computer hobby, so all of it's readily available. The controller you see on the front of the bottom center tank is a Vantec fan controller I picked up on from Newegg.com. Behind the rack, there is a AT computer power supply that runs to the controller (there's supposed to be two of them, one for each shelf of tanks, but the center tank of the top shelf is out of commission) then from the controller there's wiring going to the two fans for each tank. Below are pics of the power supply and the connections that go to the controllers. 

As for heat and the controller, there isn't any that I've noticed. The power supply probably produces some heat, but it can be located remotely so that's not really an issue.


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## B&Y (Mar 10, 2007)

Thanks so much for the information. I had a feeling that I wasn't going to be able to do it without the Power Supply. I will just have to hide the power supply in the stand somehow. Do you you know if they make extension connection cables for the wires that run to the fans? I looked for cabling on NEWEGG.COM, but came up short. I figured that I'd ask where your rack system is fairly big and must require extra cable to be able to reach the power supply from the fans running on 6 different tanks. Again, thanks for your help and especially your quick response.


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## FishinAggie03 (Jan 27, 2007)

defaced said:


> I The wood came from local places I collect it. I very very rarely buy wood. IMO, the price isn't worth what little it takes to source and collect it. Most of the pieces have a long dimention of 18" or so. They're definately not your typical drift wood that's for sure.


What kind of wood do you look for and what kind of places do you look for it at?


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

B&Y: the wires that run to the fans are home made. Basically, I went to radio shack and bought some 22ga stranded wire, and spliced it between the fan and the plug.

Fishin: I look pretty much anywhere that's wooded or around bodies of running water. When you pick up a piece of wood you can get an idea of how good it will be based on its weight. The heavier the wood, the less time it's been in the water and usually will survive a pretty long time in a viv. My favorite wood is Osage Orange (Hedge Apple). It's heavy and hard as hell, but when it's old and weathered it's got a dark red/brown look to it that looks really good in a viv.


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## Laxman (Aug 26, 2005)

how high are the pieces on the front that keep the false bottom and substrate from being viewed???
im building one 12"x12"x32" and was wondering how deep i would need to make the falsebottom/substate....
oh yes and how much epoxy do you think you used per tank???

i know lots of question haha


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

My false bottoms are slanted down in the front because of the drains. So from the floor of the tank to the top of the piece of wood is about 3-4". Typical false bottoms are about 2" and substrate depth can be anywhere from just barely covering the false bottom to several inches deep. There's a fair amount of flexibility to the whole thing. 

My 1.5 gallons of epoxy was able to do all six of my tanks and I still had around a quarter of it left over. If you know the surface area you need to cover, and how thick of a layer you want to use, you can calculate the volume of epoxy you'll need. My advice is to epoxy all of the pieces of wood while they're unassembled and flat. Epoxy is very viscus, but it does flow which makes it hard to apply on anything that's not flat. 

-Minor update, the new fronts are coming along nicely. The last part that needed to be epoxied is curing as I type this. I think I've settled on a hinge design, but there are some things I need to prove out first. I also have to ask my boss if I can use a TIG welder after work some time in the next couple weeks or so, but that shouldn't be a problem. 

And because an update sucks without pics:








Let's see if I can't screw up the name of this, this is a dado that will be lined with epoxy and then filled with silicone to act as a gasket and protect against water damage. Measurments are approximately 3/16" wide and 3/8" deep. 









This is what will be the inside of the front part of the tank. The duct tape dam worked out great for keeping the epoxy in. I only had a small amount run onto the edges of the board.


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## Laxman (Aug 26, 2005)

lol hurry on the hinges because that is my last thing i need to do right...
i have the wooden......box¿ made with a small 4" high canopy on the top but just need to get an idea for the glass


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

I'll probably do my tests this weekend and order the material. Should have them welded by the end of next week. 

Unless you have some way to TIG weld I wouldn't hold your breath for my update on the hinges. I would just go with the way I did it previously but with a stainless hinge (pending the results of my peel test) and just drill a hole through the aluminum angle so there isn't a clearance issue with screws and the hinge. If you need pics/drawing let me know and I'll take some of what I'm talking about.


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## Laxman (Aug 26, 2005)

yeah those pics/drawings would be nice....building the whole thing and planning it up seemed sooo easy until now when i have to decied how to put the glass on....oh and btw i can soulder(sp)


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

I wouldn't solder this because of the application. This is going to be in intimate contact with the inside of the tank, you need to me cautious of what metals can leech into the tank. There are lead free solders, but you still have to be concerned about tin and any other metal in the solder alloy. That's the reason I'm using 304 stainless for the new hinge design. 










That gap is the problem









If you drill a hole where the red circle is the hinge has room to close completely.









That will keep this from happening which is part of the reason the front failed (water is the other).









This is the hinge design. Each red line is a joint held together with silicone.


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## Studdlygoof (Feb 10, 2007)

Is countersinking the hole so the head sits flush an option...try an 82 degree countersink instead of a 90 degree so you wont open the hole on the opposing side as much...


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

If you're working with a stainless hinge, yes. If you're working with a plated hinge (which I wouldn't advise), then no. The hinges I used are plated so counter sinking it further wasn't an option because I didn't want the holes to rust. Too bad I didn't think about the pin of the hinge not being plated


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## Studdlygoof (Feb 10, 2007)

Ah I didnt realize it was plated...i thought it was the 304...can you drive the pin out and reinsert a stainless rod? I'm assuming some of those acrylic hinges would stand up to the wear and tear of your application?


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## defaced (May 23, 2005)

No because the inside of the hole the pin sits in would also not be plated. Plus finding the right size pin could prove to be difficult.


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## senseijack (Jan 18, 2007)

Great vivs! 

I used to build fishtanks out of marine plywood, and found a site with detailed tank plans. I thought it might provide some useful information and ideas for anyone working with plywood vivs.

http://www.athiel.com/lib6/tank.htm


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