Innovative Marine 40L aquarium build

[SnaI1993!]

Hello all,

I'm new to the forum, but have followed as a non-member over a long period of time to soak in a lot of the great advice people have provided over the years.

My goal with this thread is to showcase my "last" tank, so I've told the girlfriend, and to receive feedback and or suggestions from the community throughout the process to help me along the way.

My plan is to design and build my own stand out of aluminum extrusion, using 30/30 profile, white acrylic or Lexan to skin, and I am currently on the fence about what to top the cabinet with and to use as shelving. The tank I am set on is an Innovative marine 40L to replace my current 33G long tank. I currently live in a condo, and am planning this build to takeover my current tank but in a better spot with more practicality for the long run. I hope to build off of the aquarium stand with more extrusion to create shelving/storage space to fill the whole wall to the depth of the tank.

The stand will be in the range of 36"x20"x36" and will be placed in the middle of a 7' wall in our den, either the left or right side will consist of a 24"x20"x108" "bookshelf" and the opposite side is open for discussion or to simply be a mirror.

I will update with photos as time passes and am looking forward to anyone's opinions and suggestions!

Let this be my official build thread and we will see how things pan out.

Thank you for your interest,

Ian

 

[JoJosReef]

Sounds like a great start! Will you be going with the 40L EXT or the 40L AIO? Sounds like you'll have the cabinet space for a good sump to go with the EXT.

 

[SnaI1993!]

Sounds like a great start! Will you be going with the 40L EXT or the 40L AIO? Sounds like you'll have the cabinet space for a good sump to go with the EXT.

I've always liked the idea of an AIO, I started in the saltwater scene with a Fluval 13.5 at my parents place which has been going steady with two clowns for about 4 years now, my goal is to bring them over to this new build and triple their real estate. My current tank is a standard 33L which I built a false wall out of smoked acrylic to make it into an AIO. I feel as I am comfortable with the AIO setup and am not sure if I want to stray from that?

 

[JoJosReef]

I've always liked the idea of an AIO, I started in the saltwater scene with a Fluval 13.5 at my parents place which has been going steady with two clowns for about 4 years now, my goal is to bring them over to this new build and triple their real estate. My current tank is a standard 33L which I built a false wall out of smoked acrylic to make it into an AIO. I feel as I am comfortable with the AIO setup and am not sure if I want to stray from that?

Sounds great. I just got the IM 40L AIO for my office, but only had time so far to unpack the stand. Looks like a great tank!

 

[day_sx]

Looking forward to seeing yours! I just set up my IM 40L EXT last week!

 

[SnaI1993!]

Work has unfortunately been busier than normal so my project has been pretty slow coming.

An update to where I am now since my last post is that I've been able to cut, mill and tap all of my extrusion for the tank and have done a dry fit, I am in the process of testing out painting the extrusion to a white finish to see its durability with a high quality spray paint as opposed to having it stripped and re-anodized.

I've purchased a sheet of white acrylic which I will be cutting down to skin the tank stand and doors, and trying to find a white glazing to hold the panels in place, if not I am stuck with either black or grey which wouldn't be too bad for the overall look.

I hope to have some leveling feet shipped in by the end of the month and am still looking into what to use as a shelf on the inside for some storage capabilities.

I was able to work with a local company to give me a quartz off cut from a previous kitchen job they worked on which I think will work great as the tank stands top.

I've attached some photos of it's current state (mind the fingerprints) but am a long ways away from a finished product.

I do plan to add some cross braces within the stand to add more rigidity to the overall structure, but will see how the stand sits once I have some leveling feet and get it on a level surface to test.

 

[SnaI1993!]

Looking forward to seeing yours! I just set up my IM 40L EXT last week!

How has your IM 40L EXT been coming along over the last month? What kind of equipment and lighting are you running on your setup!

Would be nice to get some feedback/advice for when I finally get my tank up and running although you've got a bit more water volume and real estate to work with with the external. Hope to hear how it's running!

 

[day_sx]

How has your IM 40L EXT been coming along over the last month? What kind of equipment and lighting are you running on your setup!

Would be nice to get some feedback/advice for when I finally get my tank up and running although you've got a bit more water volume and real estate to work with with the external. Hope to hear how it's running!

So far so good! Ended up going with two g6 xr15s pros and I’m happy with them!

 

[SnaI1993!]

So far so good! Ended up going with two g6 xr15s pros and I’m happy with them!

Awesome!

Those are very nice lights, how high are you suspending them from your water surface level? Are you planning on an SPS dominant tank?

Would love to see some photos of the setup if you don't mind.