Fish Tank Cabinet Diy Project

[Zikofski]

okay the lights are not made by myself but by steve and there is no wood in between the LED and the heatsinks, the heatsinks are directly connected to the LED's them selfs i did a few test runs, and there is no burning or marks left on the wood in regards to my cabinet, i mo i prefer the wood than the metal as it looks nicer in my eyes fits in better with all the wooden cabinet, i will be laquring the wood underside so that makes it shiny reflecting some lights, but the amount of LEDS i have was my preference as i want more light to trail with for more growth, i probably only need about 7 to 10 LED's to make this a high tech tank, so i guess this is an ultra high tech tank, i will be playing around with ferts and finding out whats best when i get starting with this when i do i shall make a new journal for the tank it self in the planted section as i want this tank to be mainly planted not so much fish 
 
but tizer no it is not a dumb idea, you are correct it would work and help with reflecting the light onto the water i just prefer wood and its how steve makes his lights he has been doing them for years and they do work a treat but he dose make some on metal bars that also look good but would look a bit odd in my cabinet tbh

 

[Lunar Jetman]

Still looking good Z!

 

[blackops]

GREAT JOB

 

[Zikofski]

okay a few more updates now, i think i have almost finished the structure and looks of the cabinet now
 
so onto the good
 
so this is the holes i cut for the pipes and cables

 

 
i have finally fitted my lights to the tank for good
started by modifying what steve gave to me and extended a few cables so the drivers can reach the back of the tank and fixed them here this allows me, if i ever haft to remove the lights i can do so without removing the drivers and main electrics

 
and here is the mains cable

 

 
okay so lights up and installed i also received my new Lids for the tank 3mm thick clear acrylic plastic i have ordered 2 just in case i break one
PS i am leaving the protective film on the lid's

image without the lid

 

 
that is it so far
 
PS all those that where worried about my lid not being able to hold it selfs, well it holds it self + my 3k 46" 3D Tv and ps3 and a speaker and bits and bobs so i am very proud of my wood working skills haha over time i will monitor for movement
 
Also the tank is fully painted now no more coats needed, looks ace 1000000000 times better than my black backing on my current 330L tank
 
so cant wait to start this tank up, over this week i shall be sorting out the pipes maybe test out my filter with some water to check flow see how flows goes and stuff and in a few weeks time i shall start to sand and stain the wood  oh and before i forget lacquer the lights

 

[dgwebster]

Getting a spare top = very clever in my opinion. Nope not because I broke mines once.... not at all

 

[daizeUK]

Looking totally sweet!  Can't wait to see this filled up.

 

[Tizer]

he has been doing them for years and they do work a treat

 
no he hasn't hes being doing it a few months
 
if you electrocuted yourself on them, burnt your house down,  he would be in the crap as far as i'm aware. lets hope it don't happen

 

[DrRob]

Watch that 3mm acrylic for bowing. It tends to move under heat and any lights will probably get it warping. My 6mm sheet starts to bend after a few weeks under a power compact and it's only 30x30cm.
 
The simple solution of course is to flip it over at every water change.

 

[dgwebster]

Watch that 3mm acrylic for bowing. It tends to move under heat and any lights will probably get it warping. My 6mm sheet starts to bend after a few weeks under a power compact and it's only 30x30cm.
 
The simple solution of course is to flip it over at every water change.

Been using 4mm acrylic on my 4' for about 8 years now. Sitting directly on it is a couple of 38W tubes, ballast, cleaning tools, food, water treatments & api test kits without any bowing.

The 3 gallon bucket i dropped on it once, that just broke it. Glued the two halfs back together with a hot glue gun. Ps those things burn like hell if you get glue on you, and i lifted a steel rod out a 220 degree oven bare handed once!

 

[Zikofski]

chers for the input Tizer yes i know, but i am also an electronics technician and i have the ability to declare it safe, when i have been working with -32kv live on my normal day to day job fixing components far more complex than LED's it is safe to say the construction is safe far more safer than some would use to be honest
 
regards to the acrylic lid yes i am worried about this i hope it dose not bow my tan is very small but i can always double the two lids up to make 6mm but i will see how the 3mm goes with that i was going to go for 5 or 6mm at first but i thought 3mm would do who knows but thanks for the input i shall bare this in mind
 
no new updates as such but i have ordered my inline diffuser from HK hopefully its the older UP model which i reliable is more reliable and better

 

[Zikofski]

okay time for another major update

got pics of the lily pipes i made, altho i have since taking the pictures drilled the holes for the inlet il get them pics tomorrow hopefully

 
all i concentrated today is plumbing in the cabinet tbh nothing to structural
 
but here are the lily pipes 


 
i used a rod and some cable ties to seal the bottom of the inlet, steve did tell me a way but of doing with just the pipe but my plastic is different i think and it would not curl up on it self.
 




right, now when i install them there length was a bit of a pain in the but

 
but i squeezed them in and used B&Q 22mm pipe clips to hold them and the flexi pipe in place
 


 
the Aqua Manta 1500U a beast of a filter for such a small tank fits inside and will give me enough umph in the tank and more scope if i wanted to overstock the tank slightly
 

 
and the plumbing in behind it still got to add my inline diffuser when it arrives it will fit in between the two white clips after the heater tried to bend the pipes as much as i could without them pinching but the fact they are all in a fixed position will help a lot, i noticed with my current tank having pipes loose when the temp got to 26c the pipes became very flexible under the weight and was prone to pinching

 


 
i had to take this off again to drill the holes in the inlet but when they are in position and finalised probably when i get to ausi, i may super glue these tubes on, i would use jubilee clips but i am frightened they will crack the plastic as the lily pipes are very fragile
 



 
that is all for today hope you enjoy

i shall enjoy reading the comments all welcome

 

[ian_m]

Be careful, super glue might attack the acrylic and "craze" it as well as probably not sticking to the plastic piping (PVC ?). Test on spare pipe before gluing. A jubilee clip, done up gently shouldn't be an issue.

Also you haven't incorporated any way of removing the lily pipes for cleaning ?

The piping near the light will grow green algae and bits not in the light will acquire a brown scum. They will regularly need removing and simply brushing out with a say a JBL Cleany (or cheaper Hong Kong equivalent).

Some people fit Eheim quick release connectors at the end of their pipes, so they can quickly disconnect them for cleaning.

 

[Zikofski]

cheers ian, i don't think i will super glue i have some jubilee clamps spare and i will probably use them, i already have one of those bendy tube things as i know about this algae problem not going to like it haha but hey its gonna come so ye i did have those eheim stop valve things i have one of those quick release ones on my current tank but my god its to big for what i want in this tank so i have got one spare and did some tests as you can see in the above pictures my plan is just to turn the top to off and then unscrew it but sine this one was old i bought some cheap new ones of ebay they came today and i shall fit them soon also my new diffuser came after i used my original one on my current tank so i shall fit that at some point this week also bought some CO2 tubing bubble counter and a stop valve from AE, i have also bought some P clips for the Co2 tubing to make it all tidy, i have bought 3M of co2 tubing so i have plenty to work with and some spare
 
but onto the cabinet update i refitted the doors made up the new top lid and fitted that looks a lot nicer now, i also cut my plastic so it fits nicely in with my pipes fits snug now and it will prevent the pipes from moving too so time for the good old pics
 
but first the lilly pipe i forgot to post the holes tbh i am not happy with these holes i did kinda screwed that up and tbh i may buy another pipe and re doo them its cheap so its not an issue
 

 

 

 
i haft to admit there hast to be one big problem with plastic pipes they are cheap and nice but they scratch so easily the inflow pipe because its rubbing on the glass and scratching very easily it is a shame that lilly pipes are designed to come in from the side and i need pipes to come in from the back haha
 
so onto my lid i am still undesided on wether i want to raise it up slightly or have it flush with the tank at the moment i think i may leave it flush and see how things go when i put a lid on my current tank and had it flush i killed a few fish i guess due to oxygen but now i know what im doing better i think they stand a better chance
 

 

 

 
 
overall cabinet at the moment
 

 

 
oh and my GF felt bad it was sitting here with no fish in so she put a soft fluffy sting ray in there haha 

 

[Zikofski]

well things have come along way since my last post, in fact i have finished the cabinet so this probably will be my last update here
 
okay so lets get to it
 
okay so with the stuff i bought of ebay and AE i installed the co2 tubing using the P clips to run it around the inside of the cabinet, i also redid a few pipes for my inflow and outflow, i got my diffuser that i fitted as well
 
i also remade my inflow pipe altho sadly i cracked the dam thing but its not a major crack doesn't look to good but it wont effect it and it will be covered by plants at the end of the day my main priority was getting the holes right and they look a lot better more spaced out and a few more of them so the flow is better
 
okay so this is the picture of the back

 
i have changed this slightly in the fact i was not able to take out the outflow pipe once i had the back on so i cut it down and added more flexi pipe so now i can take it out from the front without undoing any panels i also cut a large hole in the bottom where the pipes go through, i did this because it was hard locating the smaller holes but i still left some of the smaller hole to use as a clip to hold the pipe in place works very well sorry i cant get a decent picture of that
 
okay so inside the cabinet from the back it looks like this
 

 
this is the co2 tubing obviosly the canister will fit on the right hand side, if you look from the front, so i left enough pipe for that added the check valve as close to that end as i could
 

 
used the P clips 6mm they are metal with a rubber lining hold grip well and perfect for this tube 
 

 
into the bubble counter and then into the new diffuser
 

 

 
and then this was my initial test of staining 
 



okay this is the wood stain that i am using light oak kinda like this colour gives a nice orange and old feel to the cabinet i hoped
 

 
so this is the first coat
 

 
obviously i stripped most things out and used tape to hide delicate areas
 

 

 

 
so after the first coat i waited 5 hours and then sanded it again and this time the second coat came out much darker to my delight
 

 

 

 

[Zikofski]

and sadly onto the finished product i only dude 3 coats of stain as recommended on the tin i only used around 4/5's of a tin as well even tho i bought 2 tins, i have my spare top lid to still finish and i may do a 4th coat on the front door's as they are a light lighter than the rest but who knows i also spray painted with clear lacquer that waterproofs that wood as the LED's are fixed in a cant take them out to stain that or waterproof it better but steve informed me that i could lacquer over the lenses as long as it was clear it would be fine so i did and it came out fine.
 
so here that is installed
 

 
it bows slightly at the back but that shouldn't cause any problems as there is no weight at there but if it gets worse i can put something inside to stop that light at the front
 
so here is the final piece
 

 

 
as you can see the door is a little different colour but it doesn't look so bad the more you look at it
 

 

 
and putting everything back together
 

 
this shows the new inflow pipe i made with the crack in it too i could have killed my self when i did that was going so well
 

 

 
inside cabinet with filter in place
 

 
diffuser heater and bubble counter thats hidden all neat and tidy on the left
 

 
co2 pipe check valve and space for the FE to go
 
not sure if a 5kg will fit but the 2kg dose fit
 
and so here it is the finished product
 

 
so what do you all think comments all welcome, 
 
just to note if i did this again and could improve it there is one thing i would do differently and that is make it taller as the space between the top of the tank and the lights is a bit tight will restrict me with rocks n wood unless i fit the first then put the tank in, so with raising the lid higher would allow me to maintain and put stuff in more freely other than that i am very happy with what i have achieved especially with the skills i have being almost zilch haha but i have learnt allot and i look forward to my next project but it wont be for a while i will start up a journal once i have moved and get this tank filled up cheers for watching and following again all comments and criticism welcome maybe i can still learn from what you folks say