WilsonsReef
Community Member
Hi all, this is my first attempt at saltwater, first custom tank build, first try at pouring resin, and first time making a thread so I'm sure there are many many mistakes. Please let me know what your thoughts are on how I can improve! My main goal with this tank was to learn the ropes of saltwater so that I can someday build an indoor shark pond (I know, I know they're challenging and expensive... but a boy can dream). I'll try and walk through the past few months as best I can and bring you all up to speed.
In early December of 2019, I saw my first infinity tank at a LFS in Chicago (shoutout to Old orchard aquariums). At the time I had a 50 gallon planted discus tank and had started to get an itch for saltwater. Everyone told me not too and said it would be too expensive. I knew that if I tried it, I wanted to go all out and learn as much as possible. I decided it was a great opportunity to also delve into woodworking and pouring resin which I think is absolutely gorgeous. After about a month of reading, I came up with this:
![Untitled-2 [Recovered].png](https://www.reef2reef.com/attachments/untitled-2-recovered-png.1583737/ "Untitled-2 [Recovered].png")
The idea was to suspend the tank so that water could flow under it and down into a refugium. I also knew that with my display only being 10 gal (a lot went into that decision, it was a combination of a need for rounded edges, cost, and movability). With an overall design and a solid foundation of knowledge, I decided to order my tank. I found a 10 gallon Penn plax on sale for $80 and ordered it to my house. This ended up being a small nightmare because I couldn't find out whether the glass was tempered anywhere! I called the manufacturer multiple times and tried all the polarized sunglass tricks that I could find. After a week of holding the tank, I finally decided to give drilling it a go. It took a painfully long 10 minutes to get through with my weak drill. Like all things saltwater... patience patience patience.
By this time it was mid-January of 2020 and I picked up some cedar 1x4s from home depot. I managed to cobble together a wood stand. If you plan on doing this, buy clamps. I tried to use my walls as right angles and the whole thing ended up being slanted about an inch to the right. ALSO, if I could do it again I would build some sort of leveling platform. I greatly underestimated how sensitive the overflowing aspect of the tank would be to sitting level. More on this later...
(I ended up tossing the black background on the tank. I used platidip and thought it looked awful.) The next step was building some sort of catch pan. Here's another place I tried to save money and paid the price later on. I could not find a decent, fish safe reservoir in the dimensions I needed, so rather than order an acrylic container (or make one myself) I made a pan out of pvc sheet and silicone, then covered it in drylock. It leaked. Then it leaked again. And again. Eventually, I used enough pond foam, silicone, additionally walls, and super glue to clog it but it cost me much more than a more solid acrylic base would've in mending materials.
Next, the fun part: plumbing. I realized pretty quickly that a single line wasn't a good idea. One clogged channel could quickly lead to A LOT of overflowing water on the floor, so I ended up drilling two bulkheads into the bottom of the drain pan. I used 3/4" pvc which has run smoothly thus far and doesn't seem to have any issue handling return flow (even when I crank 880 gph on my return pump). I also build a small pvc gate/box to sit over the two return bulkheads and keep out fish/debris from traveling down to the sump or clogging the pvc pipe. In the return line, I included a ball valve (to stop back flow) and a manual valve in case the ball valve failed and I was there to catch it (this also came in handy when trying to fine-tune flow with my non-DC return pump).
Next, I really wanted a nicer looking background. I toyed with the idea of leaving it see-through but I didn't like the look of the return line. I also had to remove the plastidip background because I needed to silicone on a small strip of acrylic over the back edge to make it slightly taller and keep the water from flowing that way. honestly, this could probably be accomplished by having a good leveling system and angling the tank slightly forward so the water only goes over the front 3 sides. Oh well, hind site 20/20. I found some cool looking rock formations made out of insulation and decided to give that a go. I think it turned out pretty well! I cut a piece of insulation down to size, carved up the surface a bit, and then sprinkled acetone across the surface for texture. Then I applied 5 or 6 layers of drylock with sand mixed in and siliconed the piece to the back of my tank. This worked well in my case because it was an internal, fish safe background so I could still affix acrylic on the back of the tank.
Finally, It was time for me to worry about the inside of the tank! It was late January of 2020 and I made my first (of many) trips to the LFS to pick up some rock. I splurged a bit and got the caribsea life rock, I love the purple look. The actual pieced I got were kind of clunky and large for a 10 gallon so I slowly chiseled away at them to get smaller hunks... be warned this can take a while and a lot of frustration. After playing with the pieces for a bit I found a scape I liked and epoxied it together. Don't buy reef epoxy, it's garbage. I should've spent the time drilling holes in the rocks and putting acrylic rods in them for stability. I'm almost certain my scape will break when I have to move in a few months.
I added substrate, got a cheap light from a friend (upgraded soon after), and finally filled the tank. This is where I learned how important it is to level. The first time I turned the tank on, all the water only overflowed on the left side. I found a few pieced of scrap acrylic to wedge under the stand and got a bigger return pump to bump the flow up but again, LEVEL YOUR TANK. Well, at least if you plan on having it overflow.
I tossed in a shrimp and some turbo start (dosed ammonia too for good measure) and waited for my tank to cycle (took around 12 days). While I was waiting I built the outer cabinetry of the stand which I think I'll gloss over. If you have questions about resin pouring please let me know! It's a blast and I've been doing it quite a bit since this project.
At this point, my tank was about ready to rock and roll! If you got all the way through my build, thanks for reading! I learned a ton throughout this process and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I'd be more than happy to hear what you all think! I also have lots of little update projects/stocking footage since I finished the build that I plan on posting in the near future (fuge updates, adding new lights, converting sump to frag racks, adding ato to the system, making a mangrove garden, and of course fish/coral etc.) Stay awesome R2R!
In early December of 2019, I saw my first infinity tank at a LFS in Chicago (shoutout to Old orchard aquariums). At the time I had a 50 gallon planted discus tank and had started to get an itch for saltwater. Everyone told me not too and said it would be too expensive. I knew that if I tried it, I wanted to go all out and learn as much as possible. I decided it was a great opportunity to also delve into woodworking and pouring resin which I think is absolutely gorgeous. After about a month of reading, I came up with this:
The idea was to suspend the tank so that water could flow under it and down into a refugium. I also knew that with my display only being 10 gal (a lot went into that decision, it was a combination of a need for rounded edges, cost, and movability). With an overall design and a solid foundation of knowledge, I decided to order my tank. I found a 10 gallon Penn plax on sale for $80 and ordered it to my house. This ended up being a small nightmare because I couldn't find out whether the glass was tempered anywhere! I called the manufacturer multiple times and tried all the polarized sunglass tricks that I could find. After a week of holding the tank, I finally decided to give drilling it a go. It took a painfully long 10 minutes to get through with my weak drill. Like all things saltwater... patience patience patience.
By this time it was mid-January of 2020 and I picked up some cedar 1x4s from home depot. I managed to cobble together a wood stand. If you plan on doing this, buy clamps. I tried to use my walls as right angles and the whole thing ended up being slanted about an inch to the right. ALSO, if I could do it again I would build some sort of leveling platform. I greatly underestimated how sensitive the overflowing aspect of the tank would be to sitting level. More on this later...
(I ended up tossing the black background on the tank. I used platidip and thought it looked awful.) The next step was building some sort of catch pan. Here's another place I tried to save money and paid the price later on. I could not find a decent, fish safe reservoir in the dimensions I needed, so rather than order an acrylic container (or make one myself) I made a pan out of pvc sheet and silicone, then covered it in drylock. It leaked. Then it leaked again. And again. Eventually, I used enough pond foam, silicone, additionally walls, and super glue to clog it but it cost me much more than a more solid acrylic base would've in mending materials.
Next, the fun part: plumbing. I realized pretty quickly that a single line wasn't a good idea. One clogged channel could quickly lead to A LOT of overflowing water on the floor, so I ended up drilling two bulkheads into the bottom of the drain pan. I used 3/4" pvc which has run smoothly thus far and doesn't seem to have any issue handling return flow (even when I crank 880 gph on my return pump). I also build a small pvc gate/box to sit over the two return bulkheads and keep out fish/debris from traveling down to the sump or clogging the pvc pipe. In the return line, I included a ball valve (to stop back flow) and a manual valve in case the ball valve failed and I was there to catch it (this also came in handy when trying to fine-tune flow with my non-DC return pump).
Next, I really wanted a nicer looking background. I toyed with the idea of leaving it see-through but I didn't like the look of the return line. I also had to remove the plastidip background because I needed to silicone on a small strip of acrylic over the back edge to make it slightly taller and keep the water from flowing that way. honestly, this could probably be accomplished by having a good leveling system and angling the tank slightly forward so the water only goes over the front 3 sides. Oh well, hind site 20/20. I found some cool looking rock formations made out of insulation and decided to give that a go. I think it turned out pretty well! I cut a piece of insulation down to size, carved up the surface a bit, and then sprinkled acetone across the surface for texture. Then I applied 5 or 6 layers of drylock with sand mixed in and siliconed the piece to the back of my tank. This worked well in my case because it was an internal, fish safe background so I could still affix acrylic on the back of the tank.
Finally, It was time for me to worry about the inside of the tank! It was late January of 2020 and I made my first (of many) trips to the LFS to pick up some rock. I splurged a bit and got the caribsea life rock, I love the purple look. The actual pieced I got were kind of clunky and large for a 10 gallon so I slowly chiseled away at them to get smaller hunks... be warned this can take a while and a lot of frustration. After playing with the pieces for a bit I found a scape I liked and epoxied it together. Don't buy reef epoxy, it's garbage. I should've spent the time drilling holes in the rocks and putting acrylic rods in them for stability. I'm almost certain my scape will break when I have to move in a few months.
I added substrate, got a cheap light from a friend (upgraded soon after), and finally filled the tank. This is where I learned how important it is to level. The first time I turned the tank on, all the water only overflowed on the left side. I found a few pieced of scrap acrylic to wedge under the stand and got a bigger return pump to bump the flow up but again, LEVEL YOUR TANK. Well, at least if you plan on having it overflow.
I tossed in a shrimp and some turbo start (dosed ammonia too for good measure) and waited for my tank to cycle (took around 12 days). While I was waiting I built the outer cabinetry of the stand which I think I'll gloss over. If you have questions about resin pouring please let me know! It's a blast and I've been doing it quite a bit since this project.
At this point, my tank was about ready to rock and roll! If you got all the way through my build, thanks for reading! I learned a ton throughout this process and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I'd be more than happy to hear what you all think! I also have lots of little update projects/stocking footage since I finished the build that I plan on posting in the near future (fuge updates, adding new lights, converting sump to frag racks, adding ato to the system, making a mangrove garden, and of course fish/coral etc.) Stay awesome R2R!
great job
