Austinchao98
Community Member
Other images here, I get a parsing error when I try to post more:
This was actually my first ever woodworking project - over the past month, I acquired far more tools and diy consumables than I care to admit. And honestly, if I knew it would take this much time, effort, and money, if have said screw it. But I didn't, I kept learning, and here were are!
The tank: 90 gallon peninsula, 24x48x18, with 50 gallon sump
The stand frame: RocketEngineer design assembled from 2x4s and deck screws
The skin: 1/2 sanded pine plytanium, with one side as a pair of 36x24 removable panels, affixed with neodymium magnets to the frame. Primed with sealcoat or CoverStain, sanded, then two coats of rustoleum (white inside, black outside)
The lights: 24x48 T5 fixture that I'm fashioning into an led hybrid setup
The canopy: Pair of 65" 14ga unistrut fastened to the frame with lag screws, and pair of 48" horizontal unistrut assembled to the vertical fixtures with both a 90° bracket and a 8" 45° support bracket via spring nuts and bolts. Cut from 10ft strut with a metal blade on a circular saw, patience was key :) Skinned as above. The T5 fixture rests on the unistrut rails, and the canopy skin actually rests on the T5 fixture through a rectangular frame of wooden rails attached to the skin with deck screws
The overflow piece: 68" of plywood skin, fastened at 90° on one side with deck screws into a wood block cleat; the other vertical strip is attached via magnets.
Honestly if I could tell myself one thing looking back:
Measure the bottom bracket of the tank, not the rim. And give yourself more wood than you think you need. None of my measurements came out perfect and my bracket adds about 0.5in to the width, so I actually had a part of the bottom bracket floating unsupported, and the other side was resting entirely on plywood extended beyond the frame. I had to make an extension of the frame with 1x2s to support it. Same with the canopy - I had to make thin plywood extensions to account for human error as the T5 fixture didn't fit initially.
Overall, it was a blast, and I'm proud of the result! Slowly filling with RODI as we speak.
