Quiksilver's Ultimate 29g Tank Thread
- Thread starter quiksilver
- Start date
- Status
quiksilver
New member
Once the stand was prepped and ready, I began the painting process. Kilz was used on the entire interior of the stand. 3 coats assured that all the wood was water sealed.
I pretty much just rotated the stand as I went to get in all the crevasses and corners.
The outside was painted black, the way Marc likes his women. The piece on the right in this picture will be explained in detail later.
The door was painted in the same fashion.
I think I went through an entire roll of paper towels keeping the black and Kilz from overlapping.
I pretty much just rotated the stand as I went to get in all the crevasses and corners.
The outside was painted black, the way Marc likes his women. The piece on the right in this picture will be explained in detail later.
The door was painted in the same fashion.
I think I went through an entire roll of paper towels keeping the black and Kilz from overlapping.
quiksilver
New member
No getting to the fun stuff. Keeping in mind many of these activities overlapped such as working on acrylic while the each coat of paint was drying.
The ÃÅ"œber sump was designed as large as possible for the given stand area. It is constructed of 1/4" thick acrylic and has sump, refuge and return section holding at around 25 gallons when running.
I picked up a Euroreef RS-80 skimmer at MACNA 2006 (so awesome) rated for +/- 80 gallons. Remember overkill is the name of the game here. It didn't fit in my old sump when replacing the Aqua-C Urchin and needed more room
We cut out all the pieces of acrylic we needed using Marc's table saw. Then I made the teeth for the baffle and the bubble tower.
Here you can see me soaping up the metal guide for the teeth. The soap allows the router to slide with less friction on the guide when cutting the acrylic.
The acrylic baffle is then clamped down below the guide and I cut the teeth with the router following the grooves of the metal.
The guide worked nicely for the baffle and the teeth turned out great.
The teeth for the bubble tower required a different guide but I used the same basic concept.
Marc thought is was hilarious that I would do all this in sandals with acrylic shavings falling between my toes. It was much easier to clean my feet than it was to get that junk off shoes.
The ÃÅ"œber sump was designed as large as possible for the given stand area. It is constructed of 1/4" thick acrylic and has sump, refuge and return section holding at around 25 gallons when running.
I picked up a Euroreef RS-80 skimmer at MACNA 2006 (so awesome) rated for +/- 80 gallons. Remember overkill is the name of the game here. It didn't fit in my old sump when replacing the Aqua-C Urchin and needed more room
We cut out all the pieces of acrylic we needed using Marc's table saw. Then I made the teeth for the baffle and the bubble tower.
Here you can see me soaping up the metal guide for the teeth. The soap allows the router to slide with less friction on the guide when cutting the acrylic.
The acrylic baffle is then clamped down below the guide and I cut the teeth with the router following the grooves of the metal.
The guide worked nicely for the baffle and the teeth turned out great.
The teeth for the bubble tower required a different guide but I used the same basic concept.
Marc thought is was hilarious that I would do all this in sandals with acrylic shavings falling between my toes. It was much easier to clean my feet than it was to get that junk off shoes.
quiksilver
New member
Once all the pieces were cut and prepped, the gluing process began. You can see the bubble tower that I had cut the teeth in, in the background.
The master of acrylic was then hard at work to remove all the bubbles in the glue. Sorry for some of these blurry pictures, I had just downed like 4 Redbulls and this is at about 2A.M.
The master of acrylic was then hard at work to remove all the bubbles in the glue. Sorry for some of these blurry pictures, I had just downed like 4 Redbulls and this is at about 2A.M.
quiksilver
New member
The euro bracing for the top was then cut using a wood trim guide and the router following it. Euro bracing isn't my favorite thing as it gets in my way but Marc made me make it to prevent bowing of the sides of the sump from water pressure. It can also aid in keeping splashes in the sump.
quiksilver
New member
After the euro bracing was glued to the top and the whole sump cured and dried for a bit, I cut off all the excess acrylic using the router and just following the outside of the sump as a guide.
Marc thought my legs were mantastic and wished he had enough hair on his legs to get this amount of acrylic stuck to them. He felt it necessary to make sure I included this picture to show you just how much more manly I am than him.
After completing the sump and water testing it, I took a torch and flame polished all the exposed edges. This process is simply following the edges with a torch and heating up the acrylic enough to melt it just enough to make the edges smooth. It's very important to not stop moving the torch during this process as heating up any one part of the acrylic too much results in ugly bubbles. Also its important to not flame polish near any glued pieces, as the heat can ruin the glue and cause leaks.
Marc thought my legs were mantastic and wished he had enough hair on his legs to get this amount of acrylic stuck to them. He felt it necessary to make sure I included this picture to show you just how much more manly I am than him.
After completing the sump and water testing it, I took a torch and flame polished all the exposed edges. This process is simply following the edges with a torch and heating up the acrylic enough to melt it just enough to make the edges smooth. It's very important to not stop moving the torch during this process as heating up any one part of the acrylic too much results in ugly bubbles. Also its important to not flame polish near any glued pieces, as the heat can ruin the glue and cause leaks.
quiksilver
New member
LOL! I watched the Tucker video today and reminisced about how long that stupid video took me
Don't worry, I'll use this new video and remix it soon and have a field day.
new_world_disor
Active member
good work guys. its nice to see a tank from the very very begining 
ill be following this along
ill be following this along 
quiksilver
New member
Now it was time for the star of the new system! My prop tank. I never heard of anyone doing a propagation tank on a 29g before, so Marc and I really pushed to make this one creative with the small space we had to work with.
We through a bunch of ideas back and forth and I really wanted an infinity prop tank. So Marc and I came up with a way to do it with a "drip tray". The issue is it was way too cool an idea to just hide in a stand, hence the window in the door of the stand.
The key to a good infinity tank is the flow and keeping it level. The middle shelf in the stand was built to hold the whole tray. The flow would come from the T-ed off return line of my Mag7. A gate valve would be added to control the flow going into the prop section.
It would be lit by a 65 watt power compact 50/50 bulb (50% actinic and 50% daylight).
I wish I had a million more pictures of the construction of this thing but it was extremely late at night before we got to this step and I was literally passing out on the carpet as Marc finished gluing the drip tray.
The most important piece to the entire infinity prop tank is the drip tray seen here.
The back of the drip tray is very high and will rest against the back of the stand. The shelf will hold up everything and the bulkhead in the bottom is what sticks through the giant hole in the middle of the shelf that you saw earlier. I screwed a piece of spa flex tubing to the bulkhead and led it to the refugium as you will see later. The front of the drip tray is made with a thin piece of black acrylic so that you can't see the water flow underneath to give the illusion that it's just disappearing.
It was important to be able to remove the prop tank from the drip tray to clean underneath. For this reason the legs are attached to the top of the drip tray to lift the tank up and allow water to flow freely to the bulkhead underneath. The tank simply rests on the legs and can just be lifted out to clean under.
The prop tank itself is just a simple box that is about 1/4" shorter on all sides that the drip tray. The back and sides at the top are 1/2" taller than the front of the tank. As it fills the water will continue to overflow off the front of the prop tank. It will go in the 1/4" space between the drip tray and the prop tank and underneath. It will go to the bulkhead and drain down the spa flex.
Here you can see the sump that was slid in from the back of the stand and the prop tank. The left side of the sump is the skimmer section with the drain line's bubble tower in the back. The middle is the refugium and the right side is the return section.
We through a bunch of ideas back and forth and I really wanted an infinity prop tank. So Marc and I came up with a way to do it with a "drip tray". The issue is it was way too cool an idea to just hide in a stand, hence the window in the door of the stand.
The key to a good infinity tank is the flow and keeping it level. The middle shelf in the stand was built to hold the whole tray. The flow would come from the T-ed off return line of my Mag7. A gate valve would be added to control the flow going into the prop section.
It would be lit by a 65 watt power compact 50/50 bulb (50% actinic and 50% daylight).
I wish I had a million more pictures of the construction of this thing but it was extremely late at night before we got to this step and I was literally passing out on the carpet as Marc finished gluing the drip tray.
The most important piece to the entire infinity prop tank is the drip tray seen here.
The back of the drip tray is very high and will rest against the back of the stand. The shelf will hold up everything and the bulkhead in the bottom is what sticks through the giant hole in the middle of the shelf that you saw earlier. I screwed a piece of spa flex tubing to the bulkhead and led it to the refugium as you will see later. The front of the drip tray is made with a thin piece of black acrylic so that you can't see the water flow underneath to give the illusion that it's just disappearing.
It was important to be able to remove the prop tank from the drip tray to clean underneath. For this reason the legs are attached to the top of the drip tray to lift the tank up and allow water to flow freely to the bulkhead underneath. The tank simply rests on the legs and can just be lifted out to clean under.
The prop tank itself is just a simple box that is about 1/4" shorter on all sides that the drip tray. The back and sides at the top are 1/2" taller than the front of the tank. As it fills the water will continue to overflow off the front of the prop tank. It will go in the 1/4" space between the drip tray and the prop tank and underneath. It will go to the bulkhead and drain down the spa flex.
Here you can see the sump that was slid in from the back of the stand and the prop tank. The left side of the sump is the skimmer section with the drain line's bubble tower in the back. The middle is the refugium and the right side is the return section.
quiksilver
New member
The next concern was the display tank. I ended up buying the drilled 29g tank from Marc to replace my old one (I wanted black silicone instead of clear like my old tank).
It was drilled but not yet "reef ready" and I was sick of using the weir overflow box in my old tank. They are awesome temporarily but not something you can just leave and never check on. I leaked 5 gallons of water all over the floor on a regular basis if I didn't check/tinker with that old overflow box all the time. So it was time for an internal overflow.
I used some scrap black acrylic (left from building all you guys' sumps in Melev's garage MUAHAHA) and made the teeth just as before. Marc glued the three pieces together to make a nice little corner overflow.
From the inside you can see how it will be set in the back upper left corner of the tank over the hole that we drilled shown earlier in this thread.
I went to get the silicone out of Marc's garage and it wouldn't come out when I squeezed hard. I wonder why :rollface:
After a quick trip to Home Depot we were back on track with silicone galore. I attached the bulkhead and siliconed the overflow box into place around drain guard.
It was drilled but not yet "reef ready" and I was sick of using the weir overflow box in my old tank. They are awesome temporarily but not something you can just leave and never check on. I leaked 5 gallons of water all over the floor on a regular basis if I didn't check/tinker with that old overflow box all the time. So it was time for an internal overflow.
I used some scrap black acrylic (left from building all you guys' sumps in Melev's garage MUAHAHA) and made the teeth just as before. Marc glued the three pieces together to make a nice little corner overflow.
From the inside you can see how it will be set in the back upper left corner of the tank over the hole that we drilled shown earlier in this thread.
I went to get the silicone out of Marc's garage and it wouldn't come out when I squeezed hard. I wonder why :rollface:
After a quick trip to Home Depot we were back on track with silicone galore. I attached the bulkhead and siliconed the overflow box into place around drain guard.
Justinandkrista
New member
How thick is that acrylic. The stuff iv seen at home depot looks thin any numbers you can give me or where you get if from?
TCU Reefer
Premium Member
Marc is cool? I'll let you decide.
Definitely not cool.
Great concept and build.
quiksilver
New member
All the acrylic I used was 1/4" thick. Marc can correct me if I'm wrong here but I believe he orders all his acrylic from Regal Plastics, or at least he used to and may have a new provider now.
The stuff at home depot actually isn't the same type of acrylic and is more brittle and way way more expensive.
- Status
Similar threads
