my 104.72G Shallow Lagoon
 

In my line of work we have this thing/idea called a "sandbox". It is essentially a place where we get to play with things/ideas without worrying about harming vital systems. In this case the vital system is my 150g display tank, and so here is the story of my sandbox/tide pool..

The Plan (if you can call it that) for this tank is actually just for messing around. Often times I've found that I wanted to try something out but didn't want to nuke the 150g display tank that I have going. It will double as a frag/prop tank, or maybe morph into a "Shallow Paradise" .. who knows :biggrin: Ironically, I do not plan on putting any sand in this box at all :neutral:

So here's where it all began..

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1261119875

The Specs:
* Dimensions - 48" long x 36" wide x 14" tall.
* Volume - 105g (~90g actual?)
* Rear Right corner overflow, herbie style with 1.5" drains.
* two returns, one in the overflow box and one outside in opposite corner
* Eurobraced

.. sorry, I have no idea what else I want to use on the tank equipment wise (ie, sump, skimmer, lights, etc). Suggestions welcomed! I'm kind of just winging this one as I go..

Let There Be Glass!!
 

So the first "experiment" that I'd like to conduct on the tank is the tank itself! Yes, I'm going to see if I can put this tank together myself. I had the glass cut to my specifications, picked it up and here it sits, chilling out in my man room waiting for me to assemble it.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1261120460

Ever since I got the glass home and unpacked I've just been staring at it scratching my head while trying to formulate a plan of attack.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1261120506

No strange Swedish instructions here. No hex keys, dowels, screws, nuts or bolts.. Just glass and a tube of silicone..

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1261120529

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1261120592

This is either going to be a lot of fun or an EPIC gong show.. Or as Tony says, maybe a little of both.

Oh dear.. I just noticed that this is my 666th post :neutral:

Subscribed...

Will be following along eagerly to see where you go with this build Kein.
The bigger the gong show the more fun you will be having. :mrgreen:

You couldn't have made it a 104 or 106 eh?! :lol: At least mine is longer! Look forward to seeing what you do with this.

PS: Nice Home Theater.

Well, it is technically 104.7G ? :-) I was going to call mine the "105G Custom Shallow Paradisio". :-)

Ya, yours is much longer than mine, but mine is much girthier. :lol:

I too am curious to see what I end up doing with this tank! :biggrin: I'm hoping not to spend too much money on the tank (ya, famous last words). The glass was cheap, free labour, free bulkheads and silicone so far. Using left over lumber from my last stand build for the new stand. Probably try to run skimmerless for a while until I can find a decent used one.

If you need any 3/4" or 1" Sch 40 PVC, shoot me a PM.. I got a few feet of each left over you can have. I even have a 5x3 stand you could have, if you wanted to trim a foot off... :lol:

Who cut your glass?

I'm considering building mine as well...having learned a few lessons with the sump builds.

Look forward to seeing more =)

I'm still tossing sizes around but my aim is in the 106G ballpark. Want it to truly be a paradise ya know?

sweet I may take you up on that offer! Are you around this weekend?

I would rather not say in public.. I'll shoot you a PM.

Plenty of room on the wagon! :mrgreen:

I actually leave town tomorrow morning at 9, and not back till the 29th.

d'oh! Well, have a great trip :-) I'm hoping the tank will be done by the 31st. After that I'm off to Mexico for a week and then back to work and if the tank isn't done by then, then it will be a new entrant into the slowest build contest..

WHOOO!!!! Nice speakers dude :D

Ohh, and the tank is gona be Epic too

What maniac suggested you build your own tank man? :p Don't listen to him.

Oops, I mean.. subscribed ..

This guy at work gave me the idea. Said it would be easy as pie. He also tried to convince me that I should build the whole lighting system from scratch.. I'm starting to think that maybe he's a little loopy.. :crazy:

clean them with acetone, tape around your seams, clean the to-be siliconed areas once more quick and toss it together.

Wear an old shirt. Somehow I ruined 4 shirts building 2 tanks. The math doesn't add up! Next time I just want to build some jigs to hold things together better since i had panes sliding around on me and made what should have been pretty easy and very clean into a nightmare.

I'm actually pretty stoked to try again. Basement tanks are the BOMB. Murphy has a little less power down there in the dungeon =)

Dryfit
 

So I picked up some supplies today and decided to monkey around with the tank/glass.

I think these little do-dads are my new favourite gadgets.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1261209158

They are made of plastic and rubber so are gentle on the glass. Also, spring loaded for one handed operation. Very handy when you're trying to brace two 1/2" panes of glass.

Also picked up some nylon tape. Will come in handy once it is time to silicone.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1261209287

I started to visualize my attack vector, mounted the panes of glass and braced them with those corner grippies.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1261209402

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1261209423

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1261209444

It actually wasn't that bad at all. I will have to make sure that the floor is perfectly even when I'm ready to commit. Probably a sheet of plywood or something. Carpet is not level. Or I will have to haul all that glass upstairs and work on the dining room table.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1261209566

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1261209669

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1261209604

Sounds like a fun project Kien!

I hate to be the downer... but those clips aren't going to work for putting that tank together. Because you have to silicon between the edges when you are putting it together, you wont be able to do with the clips on and I dont think its a good idea to put those on after you place siliconed pieces into place. Since they are just at the top corners they will pull the top corners in and at the same time rock the bottom outward, which will make the joints uneven, which obviously is bad. Also it infact might be easier to work on a surface while you are standing than on the ground. The first and last tank I built on the floor was much more inconvenient to do than working up on a 'bench'. - Toss down a piece of plywood on a table, then cover the wood with newspaper. Build the tank on the newspaper, and it doesn't matter if the silicon sticks to the newspaper.

Best of luck with the build!

Cheers,

Chris

P.S. - nice thread title :lol:

You pretty much listed everything that I ran into while dry fitting the tank and notes that I had to take. Those clips will interfere with the silliconing and do need to be removed prior to the actual application. I had planned to do that and replace the corner grip with an application of nylon tape on the outsides. And yes the bottoms tended to extend out a few millimeters every time I applied the clips. This was solved with an application of the nylon tap on the outside corners. What the clips are good for is a helping hand to hold the walls up while working. Kind of of like having someone hold those corners for you while you work. Tonight I'm going to see how well the nylon tape holds and if I'm not confident I will get those corner braces that sit on the outside corners. I saw those at Rona but I didn't really like them because they have vices that you have to twist to secure each side of the corner.

When I worked on a sump it was on my dining room table and I hated that. I'm not a tall person so putting things up higher is actually more inconvenient for me. I found it much more comfortable working with the tank on the floor because I could easily maneuver around, inside and over it. Other than that, I did end up doing exactly as you said, threw down a sheet of plywood and then newspapers over that so that the silicon can bleed out the bottom just fine.

wheeeeeeeee!

Ah ok, well, whatever works! Haha.

Just the nylon tape should do 'er. It will actually hold it very well, and you dont want to squeeze the seams too tight, so the tape is your best bet! This is from personal experience building tanks at a shop.

Cheers,

Chris

Since I had nothing better to do on Christmas eve I decided to tackle the tank. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. However, I did find it a bit time intensive. Like painting, I found most of the grunt work up front. The cleaning, taping, etc.. Alright, on with the show!

So the first thing I did was collect all my tools and bits and bobbles that I'd need for the construction. Tape, vices, silicone, etc.. I then started to clean the glass with acetone and then another round of cleaning with water and vinegar. Next I taped off all my seams like so.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1262165843

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1262165943

After doing some dry runs (ie, pretending to put the tank together), I came up with an approach that seemed to work best for me.

First I applied strips of nylon tape to the front and back panels, top and bottom in preparation for securing the panels once they were in place and the corner vices removed. More on this later.

With the tank held together with the corner vices as pictured above. I then un-viced one of the side panels and prepared it for siliconing. I laid that panel on the floor and applied a continuous bead of silicone at the bottom of that pan of glass ONLY.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1262166050

I lifted that side panel into place and reapplied the corner vice to hold it into place (not the nylon tape!). I repeated this procedure for the other side panel.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1262166250
http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1262166172

I now had both side panels siliconed to the bottom glass only. Next I un-viced the front panel and applied a bead of silicon to the sides and bottom of that pane of glass.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1262167044

I then lifted that pane up and instead of using the corner vices, this time I secure it with the nylon tape that was sticking to it.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1262167006

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1262167025

As you can see, silicone oozes out but that's okay. I avoided rubbing it off because once the silicone dried, I could easily run a blade down it like so.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1262167174
http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1262167191

And here is the main tank all done up.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1262167224

Next I tackled the euro-bracing and overflow box. There wasn't anything special to note about those pieces. Just apply silicone and hold into place with nylon tape. Lastly I ran my finger down the inside corners to push down all the silicone that oozed out. Were silicone did not ooze into the tank corners I applied a little bit and pushed that down.

So here she is, waiting for silicone to cure.

http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1262167321

looking really good! Cant wait to see it full of corals.:mrgreen:

Great Build thread so far. Looking forward to more

OHHH I see a SG1 box there :D One day I will get the WHOLE series. Seen every one on TV, but would love to own.

Tank looks awesome BTW

Tank looks awesome kien! Good job on it.

So Santa left you a tank on X-mas eve? Looks great man....did you let the silicone set before you pulled the tape?

Ya, I guess Santa was busy building a tank that night but couldn't be bothered to stuff it under the tree :-)

I tried to remove some of the tape before the silicone fully dried but that was a mistake. Even after scoring the silicone along the tape edge I found that it sometimes tended to lift a bit. I decided to leave the tape until the next day and it the removal worked out a lot better.

K.

Looks like you could still use some free plumbing... I figured this would be done and plumbed by now!

You and me both! Unfortunately the reality of the holidays set in..

I would love to grab some of your pipe :biggrin: But again, the holidays has set in at the household so I doubt I'd be able to make it up that way anytime soon. :cry:

Great work with the assembly Kien. I'm really itching to try that whole process again...with a crappier shirt next time lol. Seeing it so wide...sitting there on the floor...sure looks like an appealing size.

Which is why I'm not going to stare at it anymore =)

grabbing his pipe not a good thing to do around glass hehehehhehe
hmmmmmmm grab sorry boys had to do it. oh ya
the tank is looking stellar man, some one here did a shallow long tank i want to put acans and feed the heck out of them...... \

oh ya this is your thread.

It's not going anywhere anytime soon.. haha:lol:


BTW: Update?

WHAAT!?:confused:

I wish I had that kind of freedom with my wife.:wink:

Get a new wife? LOL! Just kidding. (sort of, maybe).

Nah! She's a keeper.
She hates my current tank. It is my first, and it was an experiment for me. It's a 5 gallon nano with a sump in an open stand. The pump is noisy, and she doesn't like the look of the sump, so I made her a deal that I would get rid of it...

...on condition that I build another showpiece tank, (the 5 gallon is too small anyway) so I'm doing a 40 breeder, shallow tank on a homebuilt stand (I like making furniture) with a 24" geismann infinity. I got away with justifying the expense by promising to make it bootiful, and she bought it!

I'm watching this build closely, because I want to see what you've got in mind for aquascaping and stocking. I've seen some beautiful shallow tanks posted elsewhere, but I want more ideas before I plan the layout of my own.

I'm debating a closed loop. Are you planning on one?

If your sump is wide open for everyone to see then I would agree with your wife that it is probably quite unsightly :lol:

I'm still planning (in my head) how I want to aquascape this tank. At first I was just going to dump some (live) rocks in there and be done with it since this wasn't really meant to be a display tank. However, now that I've seen the tank on its stand I'm starting to really fall in love with it and am wanting to put more effort into making it more of a display(ish) tank and have some fun.

I am not personally a fan of closed loops. I appreciate their benefits but every time I try to formulate a closed loop system (a few times for my 150g tank, and a few times for this tank), I am never happy with how it turns out for various reasons. That's just me though :-)

We need pics of it on the stand...please. :wink:

Anybody who's ANYONE runs Vortechs. I've always believed that.

liar!!

The first part is true though.. ;)

I do love the idea of Vortechs.. however, every time I pick up the box and drool over it, my euphoria is quickly squashed by the price tag, then I start to twitch a little.. :lol:

I guess I will never get to sit at the cool kids table :(