Oceanic 37gal cube; almost all DIY; many pictures

[Bishop]

This has been a long time in the making; I think I started this tank about four years ago, but most of the work has been done in day long spurts here and there. Much of it was done as a mark of procrastination from other things, and much of that within the past year. Often it was a spontaneous decision and I managed to forget the camera almost every time.

The tank has gone through several permutations from a 40gal breeder to a 60gal cube, to a 37gal cube. I'm only going to show the current and final permutation here.

So the concept is a small cubish tank, on a slightly larger stand, mostly self contained, and quiet.

I began with the sump; 3/8" black acrylic to promote sponge growth one side clear for visibility. The baffles are removable for cleaning or alternate configurations.

 

[Bishop]

Originally I intended to go with an AETech Evoultion 500; but at some point I built a beckett DIY skimmer out of the leftovers from the sump and built it to fit inside the front of the sump.

I framed the stand out of scrap poplar I had lying around and assembled it to see how the equipment would fit together.

The skimmer and tank share an Iwaki 70RLT; about 75% will go to the skimmer.

 

[Bishop]

Originally I had drilled two holes in the bottom of the tank; but after seeing Tunjee's thread, I decided I wanted an external overflow.

I drilled two 1/2" holes in the back 14" apart using diamond point bits.

I then scored between them and the top of the tank with a standard glass cutter. Finally I fractured the piece out and used a belt sander to smooth the edge.

Meanwhile I painted the inside of the stand with Kilz Premium Oil Based

I cut an overflow comb on an endmill, the teeth are 1/4" wide and so are the gaps. I wanted it to be removable so I fashioned brackets with thumbscrews. The whole thing was bead-blasted to give it a dull texture.

The overflow box attached; three 2" holes are drilled into the bottom piece.

The whole thing was leak tested for like a month because I was too lazy to drain it; this left a nice mineral deposit on everything... got to love tap water.

 

[Bishop]

Obligatory shot of the plumbing.

I started thinking about how I wanted to setup the rock display early on. I decided to build a dam to keep a small portion of the tank isolated from the sandbed. I did this using GreatStuff foam and portland cement.

At this point I decided I wanted a black background, but simply painting the back was out of the question. I cut a piece on a tablesaw that fit inside the tank but around the comb I had already built. I also built a cover for the overflow.

I was happy with everything and sick of working on it. So I just let it all sit there for a month or two while I finished the stand.

 

[Bishop]

I originally thought a steel stand would be optimal, but it was going to take too much time to build; so I went ahead with the poplar, I used 1/2" baltic birch to skin the stand which I then veneered with 2-ply cherry veneer. After the veneer was applied, I put the entire box on the table saw and raised the blade through it to cut the doors.

The cherry was rubbed with boiled linseed oil and then sprayed with clear lacquer.

I cut the trim from a planed piece of pine and sprayed it with black lacquer.. I don't have many photos of this except early on and at at completion.

 

[Bishop]

I went to a muffler shop and had them bend a 2" piece of aluminized steel pipe to a 90deg angle on their hydraulic machine, the whole thing cost me like $10. I tossed it on a mill and cut holes to run the wiring through. I made a clamp out of scrap wood and mounted it to the back of the stand to hold the light bar. This allows the light to be raised up and down, and rotated left or right.

The light fixture is a PFO pendant which has been modified to run a 250 DE with the actinics. New end-plates were cut and riveted in place so as not to directly cool the HQI bulb.

All that was left was to wire the entire thing for cooling and electricitiy. I mounted cooling fans, and contained the majority of the wiring and switching in a NEMA enclosure. I also hardwired some timers to control the lighting.

All ready to go!

 

[Bishop]

In Oct. 2004 a friend of mine who could no longer keep his reeftank running gave me a vat of rock, sand, corals, and fish... where they remained for the following 9 months. This gave algae plenty of time to grow and, and also allowed me to go genicidal on the mushroom colonies. This picture was taken in Oct.; everything is under a 150w DE IceCap 10k bulb.

Adding it to the tank...

And there it is, my ongoing project almost to completion... I'll eventually make a cherry hood with a lumenarcIII reflector that mounts to the pole, as well as a reactor and some other random equipment. But for now, it's a frag quest and war on algae!

Thanks for viewing.

 

[bladze]

damn. You'll win the DIY crown for 2005 for sure. Very impressive.

 

[wahshk]

You are the MAAAN. Just amaizing...

 

[Chrisrush]

Wow, very impressive. Where did you find the NEMA enclosure for your electrical box? Looks very nice.

 

[H20ENG]

Very NICE build!!!

 

[alphaferret]

nice from the graphics in the beginning to the very end -keep the pix comin I'll be watchin this one
? did you let that great stuff and concrete leach out before final fill

 

[Carl_in_Florida]

wow

 

[skier06]

wow, very nice. I thought my recent rebuild was nice. but you win, very nice.

 

[Bamm Bamm]

I love it this is amazing what a great thread and tank.. Compleltely and totally overbuilt=) Just the way I like everything=)

 

[Bishop]

Thanks everybody, glad you like it.

I got the NEMA enclosure at an electrical supply store called Locke; there are 2 or 3 different styles, I opted for the cheapest one and cut the holes myself..

I did not let the concrete leech out more than about two days in DI water before I drained it; it did get to cure in air for a very long time, but there is not really that much cement on it, maybe about 5 lbs total.

 

[Timbo]

What I like the most is that you did certain things DIY and other things you bought. The IC ballast was a good choice, while you could have bought a bare ballast and installed it yourself, it probably would have added to much heat to the tank. Same goes for the tank itself; you could have made it yourself i'm sure but the Oceanic tank is really nice and not too expensive. You did a great DIY job without going over the top, everything you did was top notch.

Good job man, can't wait to see how the tank progresses.

 

[Bishop]

Thanks Tim

 

[Timbo]

you maverick renegade

 

[jamesonkh]

nice job - makes my DIY projects look like kindergarten crafts....