20g of solid starfire - My tank build and DIY

[Kimberly63]

A lot of people in the reef club know that I'm building my own custom tank and I pretty much just finished it. I have my build thread on another reef website but I figured I'd post here too so I could get some input. My next step on this tank is to run a water test.

I decided I want to build my next tank (currently have a 10g AGA) so I thought about something I'd really like to have. Something around 20 gallons, rimless, and solid starfire. I worked at a glass fabrication company when I got the glass so I had easy access to anything I wanted. I talked to a guy in our CAD department at work about doing up some drawings for the bottom plate of glass. I designed my bottom panel with the drain and overflow holes in the back corner. I made the panel 19.5 x 19.5 tempered starfire.

(1) 19.5 x 19.5 with two holes drilled - polished edges
(2) 19.5 x 12 - polished edges
(2) 20 x 12 - polished edges

The bottom piece is tempered and the sides are all annealed because if I were to get a small chip or crack in a tempered side panel, the glass would explode.

I decided on 1" drain and 3/4" return. I ended up having the holes drilled at 1-1/2" and 1-3/4".

I went to Lowes and got painter's tape and taped up the glass.

 

[Kimberly63]

I designed the corner overflow glass to be dark gray-tinted and have 45 degree mitres on the sides so it fits perfectly into the corner. It's 10" x 11-1/4"

Here's a pic of the glass and how much you can see through it.

Mitre

I laid out all the glass panels and put pieces of tape on the sides. Then I cleaned all the places where I would silicone with rubbing alcohol.

Siliconing a whole tank sucks - especially if you are working yourself. I recommend having a friend help hold panels since you have to work quickly. I had to use my fingers to smooth the silicone bead because I had roughly 5 minutes to finish before the silicone started to set instead. soaking my fingers in a bowl of alcohol helped get it all off.


Next I siliconed the overflow in:

I'm so glad I got it mitred because it was a perfect fit into the corner.

Done!

 

[Kimberly63]

My next worry was whether it would hold water or not. I waited about 3 days until I was sure the silicone was cured before I did a water test.


NO LEAKS! It looks like there's a leak in the back but I spilled water.

 

[Kimberly63]

Next was the stand build.


Frame:

First I stained the top of the stand to see how the color worked out. I did a red mahogany minwax stain on birch laminate and it turned out really nice. Crappy cell phone pic though - stain doesn't look that red in person.

Next I set the top on and marked where my holes needed to be drilled. Unfortunately, I had to make notches into the frame so I could fit the bulkheads. If you notice too, I have an extra piece of ply sitting under the top so it gave me more room for my bulkheads - each piece of ply was 3/4".

Here's one with all the laminate on. To cut out the front, I marked the front with painters tape and used a jig-saw to cut out the opening - worked pretty well if you ask me.

Here is a pic of putting the skin on.

 

[Kimberly63]

Jig-sawed a hole for bulkheads:

Setting the top on to make sure everything was even

I drilled my first piece of top plywood on from the top down then I wood glued the stained piece on top. I didn't want screw holes in the top of my stand.

I cut all the trim with 45 degree edges then stained them. Then I glued them and clamped them on and put finishing nails in.

I put on about 3 coats polyurethane because it goes on so thin. I used the Minwax Helmsman type because it's made for in bathrooms, outside furniture, etc. A little expensive - like $10 a spraycan but I think it was worth it. I got the satin finish.

Since the stand is red mahogany, I bought the same brand/color of wood putty for the finishing nail holes and I'm very disappointed with the results of the putty. I didn't realize but the putty never dries hard so you can sand it down and the color has more of a purple hue and doesn't really match the stain that well. I thought once I did the poly, the putty would blend better but it's very visible. (oh well, at this point, I could have my tank on top of a cardboard box for all I care)


Poly is still wet:

I decided to paint the inside of my stand using black krylon fusion spraypaint (I could care less on what it looks like inside). Doesn't look spectacular but I ran out of polyurethane spray and I'm sure not buying another can.

 

[Kimberly63]

So I was curious on what to put on top of the stand for the tank to sit on. I bought cupboard liner - like the mesh looking foamy stuff. Just to give it some cushion so the panels will have less stress on them.

Anyway, I decided to build the return and the durso standpipes. I got everything I needed from lowes and I wasn't too keen on the white showing through my grey glass so I used Krylon-fusion spraypaint. (yes this is safe to put in the tank and can be used
on egg-crate as well).

The durso was pretty cheap to make - maybe $5 which beats a $40 pre-made one. For the return, I'm using a split loc-line that will reach over the overflow into my display.

This is all the above parts glued together

Drilled a hole at the top for air-line tubing

Added 3/4" pvc to it and getting ready to paint:

Looks pretty sharp B)

 

[Kimberly63]

Did the return standpipe - used same 3/4" pvc and glued on a 3/4" threaded/slip elbow for my split loc-line. The slip side got glued onto the pvc and the threaded side is to screw on the loc-line.

I drilled a hole in the back of my stand.

Plumbing - 3 feet of 3/4" and 1" flexible tubing

Clamps that I got from Lowes.

I put the 90 degree elbows for the bulkheads into the hoses (do this first because you'll save yourself a headache).

I had to use hot water to run over the smaller (3/4") hose because it was such a tight fit.

Then I used a flat-head screwdriver to tighten.

 

[Kimberly63]

Tank on the floor:

Bulkheads fit!

The return is glued in because it didn't fit snugly into the bulkhead but I left the durso unglued. I also rigged up some netting to cover the drain-hole in the durso so snails wouldn't get stuck in there. I'll make it purdy with a zip-tie later.

Standpipes in place:

 

[Kimberly63]

Okay here's a picture of my sump (wet/dry filter). It's on a temporary shelf until I'm not lazy and make a nice one for inside. It will probably work well, but it's very hard to get in and out of my stand so I will most likely build a sump at a later time. I think I would be more satisfied in having this tank DIY top to bottom.

Here is the hoses clamped onto the elbows under the tank - kind of blurry. I had such a hard time getting all this crap on that I wanted to punch something.

This is the return (3/4") hose that I fit this little nozzle on that threads onto the pump

My QuietOne 1200 pump in the sump - 296gph (I need to find a non-metal clamp for this)

 

[Kimberly63]

Plastic canvas or craft mesh from Walmart - $2 for several sheets.

Cut a long section out and spraypainted with Krylon Fusion (this stuff makes the world go round)

Siliconed plastic canvas strip in the back of my overflow glass:

Front:

Progression shots

April 30th:

May 07th:

 

[Kimberly63]

The lighting is a 250w Geismann pendant (yes, I know, overkill but boy I LOVE this light). I have drop ceilings so I had to make something to hang the pendant from. I went to lowes to have a 1" diameter conduit cut and I bent it about 15" down to hang the light. Funny story - I don't know anyone with a conduit bender and at Lowes it costs $40 for the tool. I used the tool in the aisle before I left. I'll be putting that on this tank as soon as I transfer everything over from my 10g AGA.

Here is my 10g AGA that is being transferred into the 20g.

Everything is now pretty much complete. I started this build in December and I think I've had more go wrong than I would have liked but it looks good so far! I haven't built the door yet and who knows - I may never get around to it. I may thumb-tack a pillow case up or something

More updates to follow...

 

[ironwill723]

Nice job Kim. Where did you find the tinted glass for the overflow? Is it a lot more expensive than clear glass?

 

[Kimberly63]

The tinted glass is from where I got the starfire where I used to work. It was a toss-up between the grey and the teal blue but my standpipes would have been more noticeable with the teal. Starfire is definitely the most expensive glass you can get but it shouldn't be too much more than regular glass. The expensive part is polishing and mitre. Actually that piece was free for me because it was small enough to use scrap that was going to be tossed out anyway.

I wouldn't know how much a shop would charge because we sold wholesale to contractors and distributors. I definitely like the glass better than acrylic overflows.

 

[LeviChar1]

very very neat. I didn't know you were so handy. looking for work? lol

 

[Kimberly63]

If I remember correctly, we sold starfire at $10 per square foot to distributors and tinted at around $3 or so depending on if it was plain glass or not - costs were added if it was polished or tempered. I think that's at 1/4" thickness. Then a distributor would probably charge 2-4x for mark-up.

 

[Kimberly63]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14975561#post14975561 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LeviChar1
very very neat. I didn't know you were so handy. looking for work? lol

pfff I didn't know either...

Actually if I was still employed where I got the glass, I would probably make custom tanks for people on the side.

The stand is another story... I had so many problems that I'll probably never build anything ever again. lol. I built the whole thing with a drill, hammer, jigsaw. I was fortunate to find a regular table saw to borrow for a day to cut the trim edges at 45 degrees. If I had good tools, it would have went a lot smoother. Fortunately, Lowe's and standford's cuts wood to your liking.

 

[hunterd_67]

Nice job!

 

[Versus]

Tank is coming along awesome Kim! I really cant wait till it all comes together , since mine is not coming up at the moment I will have someone elses build to drool over .

And everytime I see that cat picture I start laughing.

Hey the la monte , tin angel and delucas still there in pa? ahah sorry its about lunch time and im hungry

 

[superstein61]

looking very nice Kim - congrats

 

[cloakerpoked]

Very nice. I want my next tank to be starphire...just no comparing it to anything in my opinion.