37 gal column conversion to AIO with foam/rock wall
 

For this build I’m using a 4 year old 37 gallon ‘column’ aquarium measuring 20wx18dx24h. This will be an sps only tank when it is completed with a snail only CUC, various shrimp and a few fish. For me the enjoyment is in watching the reef come together; I could happily run without fish but adding them keeps the rest of the family interested.

This is not a ‘quick’ one week and it’s done build; I won’t be rushing anything. I’ll be trying a few things along the way that I’ve always wanted to do but never have. I thoroughly enjoy the ‘plan and build’ portion of each aquarium I start and the unique challenges each one brings, so I hope you enjoy tagging along as I document this one.

My plan is not fully hatched but here are a few of the steps I am committing to:
1) Clean up the front corner caulking. It has suffered from some overzealous algae blade scraping over the past few years and just plain looks ratty.
2) Converting it into an all in one tank.
3) Build a foam/rock back wall to hide the newly created bulkhead in step two.
4) Find and convert a unique cabinet into a functional aquarium stand.
The equipment list will be developed and detailed along the way.

As I type I am about 3 weeks in to this adventure and have been taking pics along the way. Stay tuned for some updates over the next couple of days.

So here is what the tank looked like to start with. Not a huge fan of the blue background (I prefer black) but there will be so little left visible once I'm done that I decided to leave it for now. Can always change my mind later.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...an007/tank.jpg

Here's a rather blurry shot of the silicone in the front corners. Nothing wrong with its functionality but it is less than desirable to look at. Here's some detail for the less experienced out there on how I went about cleaning that up.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...ldsilicone.jpg

The first requirement is a sharp blade or two.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...orsilicone.jpg

And a top down shot of the old silicone that has been removed. Note it was just the inner sealant that I removed not the structural adhesive between the panes.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...oneremoved.jpg

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...re-acetone.jpg

Next the glass was cleaned with some acetone and left to air dry.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...07/acetone.jpg

I ordered in a tube of good quality silicone that is used by many home builders of aquariums. I didn't need to do that for this part of the project as any old aquarium safe silicone would have done. However I will need some good stuff later when I do my all in one (AIO) conversion so figured I'd get it now.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...7/silicone.jpg

The corners were taped up using painters tape and I went to work with some good quality silicone and some gloves. I didn't actually use the tool shown for these corners as I prefer the control of my finger. However for silicone jobs that aren't visible afterwards (like bottom panes) that is what I would use.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...newcorners.jpg

And when it is all said and done this is the end result.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...stsilicone.jpg

Not something I would have cared about in my younger days but these little things matter to me now.

I have always run sumps on my larger aquariums but ambient noise and space are an issue for the future location of this tank. I therefore subscribed to the KISS method and decided to make the tank into an all in one. The front pane and the right side are fully viewable so I had to keep that in mind when creating the AIO area.

I originally was going to use acrylic to make the divider thinking it would be cheaper than glass. I went to a plastics shop recommended by a fellow reefer and came away with a quote of $135 for 5 pieces of acrylic and 2 holes drilled. 4 of those 5 pieces were only 4 inches wide so the price caught me by surprise. Thinking I had nothing to lose I went to Payless Glass in Langley (shoutout!) on the advice of another reefer and saved myself 50 bucks. 5mm glass, cut and drilled exactly the same as the acrylic specs, and no sharp edges. Couldn't be happier with the service I received there.

I designed the AIO area to cover 14 of the 20 inches across the back and be 4 inches in depth. This gave me enough room for my equipment (and future considerations), a clean viewing pane on the right side, and enough room to get my manly hand inside and to the bottom when needed.

Glass is cut.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...assarrives.jpg

Using my best clamps :biggrin: I placed the 3 pieces of glass that touch the top rim first. Glass was nice and square so they stood by themselves really well.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...7/baffles1.jpg

I then placed the middle piece of glass for the bubble trap (top down shot here).
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...7/baffles2.jpg

And then used my biggest clamp :redface: to secure the front piece a day later when the others had cured.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...7/baffles3.jpg

And the final product.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...iocomplete.jpg

The next step was to start on the back rock wall. I actually started it while waiting for my glass to come in and the measurements turned out pretty well.
I started with the plastic lighting egg crate cut to size, joined with zip ties, and attached a base plate to help hold it down with live rock once it is foamed and in the tank.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/.../eggcrate1.jpg

I had previously given 3 pieces of old base rock a good cleaning and multiple freshwater rinses. I then smashed them up into suitable size pieces with a big hammer and gave them the high pressure hose treatment and set them aside to dry. Essentially I created small dead rocks from big old live rock. Here's what they looked like before and after.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...7/prerock1.jpg

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...erock2amp3.jpg

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...7/postrock.jpg

I then went about drilling holes in the rock big enough to push a zip tie through (smelled just like the dentist drilling a tooth!). I attached the rock to the egg crate using the lightest pieces of rock towards the top. The egg crate at this point is very flimsy and needs lots of support not to break. When closing the zip ties it is important to have the catch in the front and not the back of the egg crate. With the catches in the back it makes it difficult to get the egg crate to sit flat against the aquarium wall. I left enough space at the bottom of the vertical piece of egg crate to allow the placement of live rock up against the wall on the base plate. Here's what it looks like at this stage.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/.../rockhang1.jpg

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...khang1side.jpg

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...ckhang1top.jpg

More to come...

following along! Neat idea and great work

thanks subman - I hope my finished product looks as clean as yours

Looks good, this is exactly what I did as well.
The only suggestion I would give is use more rock.
I wish I had put a lot more on than I did, I used a lot of foam.
Thanks,
Bob

So the next step was to start applying the foam. For this I purchased a 20oz can of black pond foam which is used to make waterfalls and seal pond rocks outside. It is more UV resistant than the standard yellow "Great Stuff" foam and also has "fish safe" stamped right on the can. Nothing against the Great Stuff foam, it's a lot cheaper and has been documented as used for these types of backgrounds. It is also about 1/4 of the price of the pond foam. If I was doing a huge tank I might have considered it but luckily for me I only needed one can so went with the pond stuff for more peace of mind for me.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...7/pondfoam.jpg

I put the egg crate on its back and placed a garbage bag underneath. This would help stop the foam from pushing through and being wasted on the wrong side of the egg crate and also makes it easier to clean up afterwards. This is truly one of the messiest, stickiest substances to work with - gloves and old clothes are a must. I positioned the rocks to make them as prominent (least flat) as possible as the intention is to have them become shelves to place frags on when it is done.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...paretofoam.jpg

Then it was just a matter of spraying as little as possible for coverage knowing that the foam would expand somewhat. Here's a picture when it was first completed.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...afterfoam1.jpg

And here's a picture about 15 minutes later when the foam has almost completely expanded. If you look just below the bottom-most rocks it is a good comparison.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...lexpansion.jpg

Here's a look at the can afterwards. I couldn't un-stick the glove.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...terfoamcan.jpg

Up next is making it look real...the arty part!

I loving this. I would love to try something like this one day. I seen Bob's (Codfather) and it's spectacular. Your going to love it!

Good point The Codfather. I left the bottom part of the egg crate free of rock so that I could place live live rock in front of it on the base plate. I only have 14 inches of real estate front to back so didn't want to crowd it with two rows of rock. I read somewhere else that smaller pieces of rock basically get swallowed up by the foam so I didn't bother filling in between the big pieces. In the long run it gave me a more three dimensional outcome for the big pieces that are there. My build is quite a bit smaller than yours :biggrin: so I only needed the one can.

I gave the foam a day to finish expanding and cure and then took a sharp pointed knife and started cutting away the excess. I started with the back and sides because they don’t take a whole lot of thought. Before starting on the front I placed the frame in the aquarium to ensure the back/side fit was okay. It was good so bit of a relief there . The egg crate is no longer flimsy at this point because of the foam structure but is still subject to slight bending. Easy to carry around but still needed to be fully supported underneath when worked on.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...firstfit-1.jpg

While it was in the tank I trimmed the top because I could use the tank frame as a guide on how much to cut away. It was then back outside to do the front. I wanted my end product to be as 3 dimensional as possible with the rocks standing out so I carved out a lot of the foam between and above them. I filled ¾ of the bathroom garbage can with the extra bits.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...oamgarbage.jpg

I left the most foam at the bottom of the rocks to provide extra support for their weight and just gently carved the foam shape to match the rocks a bit better than the ‘intestine’ look. In a couple of spots I carved too much and exposed some small pieces of the zip ties which would have to be camouflaged later. Here’s a close up of the foam once it is carved; no longer smooth skinned but rather exposed air pockets.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...oamcutaway.jpg

The next step once I was happy with the shape was to epoxy and sand. In preparation for this build I spent the most time researching the epoxies that other people had used. I know nothing about epoxy so had to reduce my search to 1) products that had been successfully used in a reef 2) products that were reasonably easy to locate and 3) products that didn’t only come in gallon buckets. I ended up following some European reefer advice and went to the locally hobby shop to buy epoxy that would be used on model boats/planes. I used 1 ½ packages of this 30 minute epoxy to complete the job.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...nkbuild054.jpg

This same epoxy comes in different curing times like 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes etc. labelled prominently on the package. When I compared the small print on the packages the curing time was directly proportional with its ability to used with water. E.g. the 5 min is no good for any water application, the 15 minute was water-resistant, and the 20 minute was the first one to state water-proof. Adding a little bit of security in my mind I went one better and bought the 30 minute blend. Then it was off to the dollar store to buy some bulk throw away paintbrushes to apply it with. Once you have used the epoxy the brushes are absolutely ruined so buy the cheapest ones you can find of suitable size. I ended up using 3 just to get this job done as they harden and become difficult along the way. The big brush on the right was not the right tool for the job - the smaller ones worked much better.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...07/brushes.jpg

I had some sand from an old reef setup that I had rinsed a couple of weeks prior. It had been drying on a Rubbermaid lid in anticipation of this step. I mixed the epoxy a little bit at a time, coated it on to the foam one section at a time, and then liberally sprinkled sand all over it. Because of the shape of the background I had to keep rotating it in order to be able to sprinkle the sand and get it to stick. This was the longest part of the project taking me the better part of an afternoon but was also the most satisfying.

Here it is drying on the back steps.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...007/drying.jpg

Next up is the installation and in tank shots.

I think that looks good. Any chance of a side shot of the front panel to see the relief you were able to create?

Thanks and Absolutely. I took a bunch of shots from all angles when I installed it. Just need to organize and resize the pics but work is getting in the way :biggrin: They'll be on here in a few days.

I've now got the background in place in the aquarium. I put a light bead of silicone around the back edge to hold it in place and gave it a couple of days to cure. Here's some pics from all angles of it in the dry tank.

From left side
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...7/leftside.jpg

Top down angle
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...pdownangle.jpg

Close up shot
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...07/closeup.jpg

Looking straight down
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...07/topdown.jpg

I forgot to mention that I had cut out overflows. Here's a close up look at them.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/.../overflows.jpg

Here's a front on shot. The bottom portion will be covered by live rock placed on the base plate.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...n007/front.jpg

Overall I am pleased with how it turned out. Now looking forward to getting it wet.

I can't wait to see it up and running as well!

Very cool. I've been toying of doing this for my 210 instead of a painted background. Looks good, well done.

Wow that's a lot of work in a 210.

Hence me not having started it yet :p

So I've finally got some salt water in the glass box and it is cycling on a coffee table while I work on the stand. I built some tall live rock structures to stand in front of the wall using this:
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...coralepoxy.jpg

I don't have any lights yet so had difficulty getting good photos but here's a couple of wet ones using an Ikea bedside lamp.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...007/cycle1.jpg

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...007/cycle3.jpg

And top down so you can see that there is actually some swimming room. And even though it looks like the top of the bommie is close to the front glass it is at least 2 inches away.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...7/cycle2-1.jpg

Here's where I am at with the equipment for this build:

Aquarium specs:
37 gallon Marineland column aquarium. 20’’ long x 18” wide x 24” deep, black trimmed. Converted to an All in One (AIO) with a 14” x 4” equipment/filter area with 2 returns along the back left wall. This leaves 32 gallons of tank space.

Return pump:
Tunze Silence 1073.008 (210gph). This specific pump was purchased for its extremely quiet operation and low electrical demand (8W).

Flow:
Not purchased yet. Thinking of 2x Hydor Koralia 550 on timers.

Lighting:
Not purchased yet but am going LED with this one.

Filtration:
I have an old Red Sea Prizm HOB skimmer which has sat in the garage unused for 10 years. I designed the AIO compartments to accommodate this and like its very slim profile. I will be using it until it gives me a reason not to. My stocking is very light compared to most so the skimmer is hardly a requirement for this tank.

1x Two Little Fishes Phosban Reactor 150 with phosphate removal media.

Controller/Monitors:
Reef Keeper Lite

PinPoint pH and Temperature monitors

Heating/Cooling:
500W titanium heater controlled by the RKL. Seems like overkill but i) I already had it on hand ii) my house gets cool (mid 60s F) at night iii) the return pump circulation is quite low

Pacific Coast Mini Chiller (1/13HP) with 80gph throughput. Digital and adjustable so no need to run off the RKL.

Nice job , I'm impressed !!!

Hey thanks Mark - might be coming to you for a purple bonsai frag :biggrin:

if you are planning on running LEDs will you need the chiller? tank might be fine without it :smile:

Got me tagging along... I want to do a similar set up on a 40g bow front.
Love the fact your doing tons of pics!


Sent Via The Pirate Ship...

House faces south and the tank is on the second floor so it gets pretty warm in the summer. Probably don't need it but the corals will be happier with the smaller temp swings. Anything to keep the coral happy :lol:

Thanks Salt2Death. I used to have a 46 gallon bowfront; great size tank with that little bit of extra depth in the middle.

So the tank has been cycling in a spare room while I worked on the stand. My wife did not want the standard black Marineland stand that is made for this aquarium so I spent a few weeks browsing Craigslist for any piece of suitable furniture. I ended up buying what looked like a beat up 30 year old cabinet for $50 that looked like it could use a good refinishing job. Imagine my surprise when I got home and took a good look at the construction and found out what I had just purchased was actually an antique made in China in the late 1800's. Yep, I had one of "those" Craigslist finds!

Anyway I still needed an aquarium stand and knew that this one would have to be "modified" with a saw to open up the back if it was to fit the bill. Knowing full well this would de-value it I stared at the bloody thing for 2 weeks trying to get up the gumption to chop a hole in the back. Well I finally had a rotten day at work and out came the tools once I got home.

Here's how it went in pictures:

The cabinet, untouched on the outside except for a hole in the back, which is now being used as of today.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...07/cabinet.jpg

The first bit of work I did on the inside was to cut an access hole and start reinforcing the frame. I thought the cabinet was sturdy enough but being as old as it was didn't want to take any chances. So I glued and screwed a bunch of supports around the existing framework and then stained the new wood dark so it matched a little better. You'll notice in this picture the doors are off and there are little shell shaped pivots where they fit into - no metal hinges at all, just all carved out of wood. This was at about the half way done stage.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...70f3a95a36.jpg

After I did the framework I put in a false back, side, and bottom (on the inside) so I would have something to screw my equipment to. There's not a lot of room so it's just holding 2 dosing pumps, Calcium and Alk containers, a Reef Keeper Lite, and a small chiller which is vented through the back.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...007/inside.jpg

I also cut a 3/4inch piece of plywood and stained it to help support the tank and protect the top of the cabinet from salt water. Here's what the finished product looks like with the tank in place.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/.../fulloncab.jpg

Not to everybody's taste I know but the wife got a unique piece of 150 year old furniture that she is happy with and I finally got the aquarium in its ultimate resting place so I can continue with the build.

Looking good actually! Can't wait to see some wet stuff in there :)

Always nice to keep the wife happy as well as work for your project !

Let me know when your ready & I could probably part with a frag !

That's half the secret to being able to spend money in this hobby is buying stuff the wife likes. Always end up buying more pretty things when she tags along :biggrin:

I'm now using a couple of Koralia 750's for circulation and have placed them both right at the bottom of the aquarium in the back corners. They're hooked up to a digital timer so they take turns being on independently and simultaneously as well as both off for a few hours. The small base footprint and the large turnover creates a great upwelling of current from bottom to top.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...07/koralia.jpg

The problem this much bottom current created is I couldn't use my existing Fiji pink sand as it was too fine and would be stripped bare in certain spots and piled up in others. I picked up some coarser reef sand yesterday and because I only needed 20lbs the difference in price between live and dead was negligible so I picked up the live.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...an007/0012.jpg

The tank was pretty cloudy for the rest of the day but was crystal clear 18 hours later. Left a bit of a "bathtub ring" around the top edge but that was easily cleaned with a filter sponge.

the wall looks awesome i really like it. lends itself perfectly to column tanks.

and that shelf piece looks sweet just don't mount any sps at its edge or you'll be fragging in a month lol.

A little less permanent than your 93g rock wall but much snappier to look at than a painted background. Now if I could just take photos like you too!

One of the problems that has presented itself is one of the cords from a power-head. It was my intention to tuck the cords between the glass and the rock wall but one side was just too snug so it ended up looking like this.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...ordproblem.jpg

Not wanting it to remain as visually distracting I took an old 18inch Eheim spray bar that I'd held onto for over a decade for just this exact reason and cut a slit in it lengthways.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...an007/pipe.jpg

I applied the same epoxy and sand treatment to it as I did to the back wall making it look like this.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/.../cordcover.jpg

I then squeezed the powerhead cord through the opening so it eventually slid freely inside the spray bar and placed it in the tank.

Close up of bottom cord entering spray bar from powerhead.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/.../cordclose.jpg

And the whole thing in place.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...07/cordbig.jpg

Obviously looks a little artificial right now in the newly set up gleaming white tank but figure once there is some coralline on it and a few corals in front of it I will be happier than if I'd just left the bare cord.

Nice job on hiding the cord ;)

Thanks - nice of you to leave the bright lights of nano-reef and visit the quiet end of town :wink:

The 500W titanium heater I was using has turned out to be too much heater for the water volume so I have downsized. Every time the heater turned on it got so warm so quickly that the temperature would rise 0.3-0.5 degrees and then slowly cool off again. Not exactly the steady temp we shoot for so I picked up a 100W Jager. I set the Jager to 82 degrees while the Reef Keeper Lite that controls it is set to 79. This way when the RKL calls for heat the Jager is always on but if the RKL temp control sticks on then the Jager's internal mechanism should stop the tank from overheating.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...an007/0062.jpg

I had Payless Glass cut a 5mm glass top to cover the display portion of the aquarium. This leaves the all in one box free for gas exchange and I also have a small gap in the back right hand corner for feeding. To help with condensation and salt on the underside of glass top I decided not to place it on the lip inside the frame. Instead I had the glass cut to the external dimensions of the black plastic frame and placed little rubber supports on it. This keeps it up off the rim allowing a bit of air exchange but still prevents fish from getting out. The rubber legs have the added benefit of not wanting to slide so it will be difficult to accidentally knock the glass top off. It's a bit of a sacrifice with the aesthetics but I can live with that if I don't have to clean salt off the top every week.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...an007/0023.jpg

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...n007/005-1.jpg

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...an007/0042.jpg

Cord/flex-hose management behind the aquarium was the next task as the whole mess could be seen easily from the side when sitting on the couch. I bought an 8ft section of pipe insulating foam from the hardware store. It's cut lengthways when you buy it and comes in several different diameters.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...man007/013.jpg

I routed all of the cords and hose through it then I zap strapped the pieces of foam together. A definite improvement over seeing the 5 cords and 4 hoses that were hanging there before.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...man007/012.jpg

Yes I know there is one cord hanging out by itself in the background that stands out but that piece of equipment is temporary :smile:

Pretty good day in the Cubeman household when you come home from work and find this on the table with a Reef Supply Canada label.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...n007/001-1.jpg

And if you didn't already guess from the first picture this is what was inside.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...man007/004.jpg

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...n007/003-1.jpg

The tank is only 20 inches wide and the fixture is 16 inches so no need for any height above the tank for spread. The better half absolutely does not want it hanging from cables in the front room so it's just sitting on some plumbing elbows for now while I figure out some DIY legs.
http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...n007/005-2.jpg

http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/...man007/006.jpg

I imagine I will be playing with the settings a lot over the next few days. I'm no LED scientist but I'll let you know how I like it. It also is not that blue so apparently I'm no photo surgeon either :biggrin: