45 Galllon Cube. My dream tank...only smaller!

Oh man, I just found an alarming thing! My skimmer water level was like 2" below the neck which is far from where I keep it set. Well my son mustve turned the shiny red knob! Oh dear. I need doors and fast before he puts his lunch in there! I mustve been drunk when I thought we had taught him enough self control to keep things out of the tank...he showed me!

Im going to call the hardware stores today to see if I can get a qoute on custom doors. Im out of time for this project so it wont be chrishayes built, shucks.
 
Good thing it was just that... A buddy of mine experienced a disaster when his toddler son decided he was going to feed the sump a whole container of spectrum pellets. The next day, there was absolute mayhem in the tank from what I suspect was an amonia spike. You got off easy Chris! good catch. I meant to ask you some time ago how your son was with the tank.
 
Hes been great and really has a good base concept for leaving things alone but" hes approaching true toddlerhood so hes being a bit more testy with things. This is the first time hes touched anything other than the "up down" mag cleaner that I let him play with. He has his own tank in his room that he cleans the glass on so hes gotten a good amount of teaching on what he can and cant do/touch.

In the end, I need to just take the temptations away from him with doors. As a bonus it will quiet the hiss of the skimmer! I think itll look nice too. I just didnt want to spend on custom doors and these will be CUSTOM. I want my fuge to be a glass cutout in the door so I can still view it without opening the door. I could easily make these with a little time and a new pocket hole tool but I dont think I could finish them. I might just build them in the next few days and install them without staining and poly.
 
"my son mustve turned the shiny red knob! Oh dear." I dont blame him! sometimes I find myself turning the shinny red knob too just cuz its there! lol I guess we could consider this as training, somones gonna have to tweak these things when wifie is mad hahah. Maybe he is suggesting you wet skim the algae outta the tank?...
 
Well I decided to take care of this issue before it becomes a catastrophe. Got the frames completed today, just need to round over the edges with the router and then go get some 1/4" ply for the insert. Then ill cut out for the fuge window. I have a piece of glass left over from my sump project so ill make use of that. Heres where im at.

IMG_0054.jpg
 
Yeeeeaaaasssss.......the DIY is back...we all missed that in ur thread!!
Yes looking forward to looking thru that fuge window :D
 
Haha thanks guys! It's hard to DIY anything when u r pretty much done with everything ya know? I take requests too so if u want il build it
 
jbanks directed me to your thread. I just started a 45 cube myself. I haven't had a chance to read through the whole thread yet, but I will. Looking good!
 
Well, first things first. THe bad news. My fuge caulerpa went sexual and fouled the whole thing up pretty bad. Its recovering though so I dont think its a lost cause yet.

IMG_0057.jpg


Then more on my door project.

Using this

IMG_0058.jpg


I did this

IMG_0059.jpg


Which allowed me to do this

IMG_0060.jpg


Then I rounded over the edges with the router like this.

IMG_0061.jpg
 
I then cut out some 1/4" oak ply for the door skin and inserted it into the rabit I did earlier.

IMG_0063.jpg


It looks like this from the front. This is the side door.

IMG_0062.jpg


I laid the piece of glass out on the door skin and traced a line around it and cut it out.

IMG_0064.jpg


Then trimmed it out.

IMG_0065.jpg


It looks like this with the glass installed and fully trimmed out.

IMG_0066.jpg
 
Now with 3 coats of stain on it.

IMG_0073.jpg


Both doors together

IMG_0074.jpg


Im currently on my second coat on the back side of the doors and im going to get a coat of poly on it tonight before I go to bed since I only have one day left til I leave for vacation and onto the op table. Ill post more pics tomorrow once im done with poly and have them installed. Hope I get that far as I really dont have a choice at this point. Its gotta be done.
 
Yes that's what il call a "window with a view"
Extremely top notch DIY.
Dude ur an electrician+carpenter.
An Electripenter.....wow!
Uv been busy lately. Waiting to see it mounted.
 
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