DIY 10 gallon Diary

rabid frog

Active Member
Ok so our reef club is having a DIY Nano build off that is to run for the span of 6 months. The goal is to stay under $200.00 and 10 gallon or less
. Here is what I have so far. I used 1/4" acrylic for this tank. I am building my own "Canister" filter for the tank also.
I am using the old lights from my aquapod, but I still have to build a canopy for it. I have a huge drain 1 1/2" that I am going to use for a stand pipe to drain into the filter. I am using 1/4" pvc for returns , which I have drilled for bulk heads and lockline returns.
Hopefully I will use my mag 5 pump that I have laying around. I am putting a ball valve on the return side so I can choke down the pump if it is too much flow. Undoubtly it will be a little too much flow.
Enough bable onto the pictures.
The complicated autocad drawings


Showing the back chamber


Clamps i used to make sure the tank was square. Harbor freight 1.39 each.

Holes drilled for returns and back wall painted black. Krylon Fusion

With lock line returns and bulk heads installed. I ended up taking all but one link of lockline off. The returns were too long imo.

Hope you enjoy. I realize from the plans the actual dimensions of the tank are not 10 gallons. But I have the back plate moved up so the main tank is 10" from back to front. So the main tank size is 10x14x15 which turns out to be about 9.09 gallons. But I am running the tank with the water line to be about 1" low so that gives me another gallon to play with in the sump/canister filter.
I guess what I ended up doing was building a reef ready aquapod.. lol. Or an aquapod the it almost should have been built.
 

rabid frog

Active Member
actually I re-posted this thread in the DIY forum, you can follow it there.
Thanks for the compliments though!!!
 

bill109

Active Member
Originally Posted by rabid frog
actually I re-posted this thread in the DIY forum, you can follow it there.
Thanks for the compliments though!!!
nice
what is the build off for?
very nice i wish i could do tht is there more to come i hope?
-bill109
 

rabid frog

Active Member
ended up having to scrap this tank. The bottom cracked around where the uniseal was installed. I will go get more cut on thursday. The only problem I was having was with leaks. I kind of know what I did wrong. The next tank will be built and water in it by monday. I have to hurry only 5 months of contest left and I want to get my frags in there.
 

rabid frog

Active Member
Got the new tank built and it holds water!! Yey!!
Now to get the flow matched up. The mag-5 is too small for this project. I never would have thought that. So I am off to the lfs tomorrow to get a new pump.
 

rabid frog

Active Member
trying to get my wife to email them to me so I can post them. I am at work and she doesnt want to send them. I will get them up in the morning.
 

rabid frog

Active Member
Ok. This is the second tank, first one failed. The new tank is up and running and I will start its cycle tomorrow. Here are some new pictures!! Enjoy
The Stand Pipe I made for the drain

Kept the back chamber clear instead of painting it this time. Here you can see the water level behind the false wall

Tank with rocks, water and sand. Im not good at aquascaping I am going to get so me help with that part of it.

Drilled a hole in my table so that the plumbing could go through. Had a little issue with the bulk head, but the leak is fixed now.

My home made sump (storage container at walmart 2 bucks.)

The return pump
 
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