Hi everyone, just wanted to share my tank build with you all. The tank is already done and running, took a little over 6 months to finish everything. (Poormans build DIY), but here is the journey I took doing this build. Had some help from good friends, had to do lots of research and planning for optimal conditions and maintenance planing. Figured if I was going to upgrade from my 50g, I might as well go all out and stay try to stay affordable lol. (Incoming long post)
Tank Stats:
125g Long w/ Custom coast to coast external overflow.
The tank started off rough, got it for about $100, had lots of scratches.
But with the help of some Novus and tons (2 weeks+) of elbow grease and some light belt sanding (btw belt sanding sucks, just use sand paper and your hand), I was able to get a majority of the scratches out, and had the tank looking close to brand new.
Next came the over flow box & drilling the tank, the box was fairly simple, used a thick acrylic from Lowes, they were nice enough to cut it for me. Smoothed out the cuts and heated the edges of the long panels using my stove top, to help give it the clear, flat finish. Using weldon combinations, I welded half the box onto the back of the tank, using a rotary I placed the marked holes, I was clenched the whole time LOL. Using a high powered rotary on the back of a tank while shards of molten plastic spew about is nerve racking.
With box in place and the holes drilled, I applied the final outer wall of the overflow and started the painting/ silicone sealing process.
Here is the box finished. I added braces along the top of the tank that connected to the back walls of the overflow, just for extra support. To keep fish from getting sucked in, I simply added small sheets of acrylic to the braces, that hung over the overflow openings. These allowed more than enough water in, while keeping fish/snails/shrimps along with big chunks of macro algae out. The overflow box consist of 3 outlets, 2 regular overflows, and 1 emergency (just in-case). I added a durso for one tube that would later be flowing slowly into the refugium area of my sump, I left one drain fully open with a vented cover to flow into the skimmer area.
-Continuing on next post :bigsmile:
Tank Stats:
125g Long w/ Custom coast to coast external overflow.
The tank started off rough, got it for about $100, had lots of scratches.
But with the help of some Novus and tons (2 weeks+) of elbow grease and some light belt sanding (btw belt sanding sucks, just use sand paper and your hand), I was able to get a majority of the scratches out, and had the tank looking close to brand new.
Next came the over flow box & drilling the tank, the box was fairly simple, used a thick acrylic from Lowes, they were nice enough to cut it for me. Smoothed out the cuts and heated the edges of the long panels using my stove top, to help give it the clear, flat finish. Using weldon combinations, I welded half the box onto the back of the tank, using a rotary I placed the marked holes, I was clenched the whole time LOL. Using a high powered rotary on the back of a tank while shards of molten plastic spew about is nerve racking.
With box in place and the holes drilled, I applied the final outer wall of the overflow and started the painting/ silicone sealing process.
Here is the box finished. I added braces along the top of the tank that connected to the back walls of the overflow, just for extra support. To keep fish from getting sucked in, I simply added small sheets of acrylic to the braces, that hung over the overflow openings. These allowed more than enough water in, while keeping fish/snails/shrimps along with big chunks of macro algae out. The overflow box consist of 3 outlets, 2 regular overflows, and 1 emergency (just in-case). I added a durso for one tube that would later be flowing slowly into the refugium area of my sump, I left one drain fully open with a vented cover to flow into the skimmer area.
-Continuing on next post :bigsmile: