New Cabinet And Fake Rock Background

[noop]

i thought it'd be a fun & challenging project to build a cabinet for my new aquarium, and also a fake rock background. even taking into account the cost of the tools etc, the cabinet was still far cheaper to build than to buy new...

being my first ever piece of furniture i decided to go overboard on the strength of the cabinet as the consequences of it collapsing didn't bear thinking about. i used structural pine, 45mm by 70mm, and as you can see in the pic, i used 12 uprights. i used dowel and liquid nails (that's super strong adhesive if you don't know it) for the joints, and also added a few brackets to join the top and bottom frame sections to the leggy bits

to make a look a tad nicer, i added dressed pine. mostly i just stuck it on with liquid nails, but for some of the horizontal strips (which needed to be extra strong so i could carry the cabinet using them) i screwed them on from the inside aswell. on the top i put a big single piece of mdf. i had to sand the frame a bit before this step to make the top flatter so the mdf panel sat nicely

after sanding the whole thing i stained the wood with some stain & varnish (jarrah). never done staining before and unfortunately i kinda went over parts of the staining again after it had dried a bit, resulting in a rather patchy finish. after it dried i sanded it a bit more then applied another coat of the stain to make it darker and to help reduce the patchiness. it doesn't look to bad now. the hood initially didn't want to close fully so i bought a springy door catch thing which now holds it closed. here's a pic of it with the hood sitting on the cabinet

here's what i learnt from doing the cabinet:

- find out what sizes of wood are available, make a detailed design on paper
- make sure the framework is straight and square! ensuring this, will make the rest of the job a hell of a lot easier
- take your time picking out wood, both for the frame and for the nice-looking bits. it took me a very long time to sort through a lot of crap, bent, holy wood but it was worth it
- staining wood is harder than it looks. in future i might be tempted to stain the wood before sticking it all together, it would be easier to avoid drippy runny bits and patchiness
- after staining, leave the furniture in the garage for several days, cos right now my house smells of the stuff, has done for days

i'll post stuff about the fake rocks later

 

[noop]

i just realised i forgot to mention the size of my new tank. it's 36x18x19 inches...

for the rock background, i bought a slab of polystyrene, 120 x 60 x 5cm. i wanted to hide the heater and filter intake/output, so i doubled the polystyrene up in the corner. i made the background in 3 separate pieces, so it will all fit in past the cross-brace. i also made a flattish rock for the bottom of the tank, and a few smaller rocks which i may add too

this is the top/back view of the left hand piece. it has a big overhanging rock, through which i've put a hole. the filter output will come through here. there's a notch cut out of the back for the filter output support bracket

this is the back of the right-hand corner piece. i have cut out a lot of polystyrene from the back piece so i will be able to remove/replace the heater if necessary. i will be putting a shortened filter intake alongside the heater, so most of the water will pass directly by the heater. i will also be putting a small powerhead up at the top to draw more water past the top of the heater and return it possibly through the filter output hole (haven't decided yet). the black thing down the bottom is a bit of plastic netting which i will be fixing somehow, to stop the fish getting through the hole i've made (the hole through which the filter will draw the water)

i just painted these rocks with the first coat of cement. by volume i mixed 16 parts pre-mixed sand/cement (it's 60% cement), 10 parts water, 1 part silasec (that's some kind of additive which strengthens the cement under water), and added a bit of brown oxide for colouring. i applied the mix with a couple of old paintbrushes, a big one for speed and a small one for detail. they are currently drying in the garage. to slow down the drying (which hopefully will prevent it cracking and crumbling), i put them on a plastic drop sheet, and put another plastic drop sheet above, and did my best to seal any airholes. there's a couple of rips in the sheet but it needs to leak some water in order to dry

i'll add more later when there's more progress

 

[SJ2K]

Wow, first piece of furniture you say? Im incredibly impressed Cant wait to see the final product!

 

[shelaghfishface]

i like that a lot!, i think you should make some for profit, if you were in this country i would be banging your door down for one, it looks excellent, bet you have quite a feeling of acheivement, i would ,well done an ace job
shelagh xxx

 

[MoondustBob]

Great job on the hood and cabinet, very nice

 

[doresy]

Great cabinet/hood

Sure I saw something like that go on Antiques Roadshow for half a million squid

Hey, you could park a car on that thing

 

[noop]

thanks for the kind comments

3 days after the first coat it was dry enough for the second. before applying it i checked the rocks still fit in the tank as i had planned (it was ok). not much to say about the second coat, except i didn't do a very good job of mixing the cement so it came out rather wetter than i intended. i experimented by sprinkling oxide on the newly cemented rocks, but it didn't work very well. never mind, it's ok to experiment like that when you know you're gonna add further coats

this is a couple of the rocks after coat number 2 dried. you can see the plastic grill i siliconed to the back of the intake hole

i was going to do a third coat prior to putting the rocks in the tank but my patience is wearing thin so i decided not to bother. i cleaned the tank inside and out with meths and laid it on its side, and i prepared the rocks by scraping away excess cement from the back bottom and sides. taking care (not enough) not to get silicone all over the sides/floor of the tank i stuck the rocks in place, put paper towels on top and weighed them down with some heavy stuff. i waited until the next day before bringing the tank upright again and sticking the extra rocks on the bottom of the tank, again weighing them down

i used a lot of silicone (selley's window/glass/aquarium-safe sealant). i just about completely covered all surfaces to be stuck with it. i don't think any water will get through behind the rocks

i have just applied the final coat of cement and it's now slowly drying. will post more later...

 

[BigC]

Nice thread this, its always interesting to see how things progress,
Tank stand was amazing. I was in Queensland last month and visited a few local establishments. Their wooden stands were not of the standard of yours by a long way. Ever thought of building a few and offering them for sale or place an advert for bespoke wooden aquarium stands in your LFS.
Nice job though. are you coating the cement with some sort of polymer sealant or aquatic varnish to seal the cement.
Regards
BigC

 

[noop]

Ever thought of building a few and offering them for sale or place an advert for bespoke wooden aquarium stands in your LFS.

i'm not sure - given the time taken - it would be worth my while. maybe when i'm retired, if that ever happens

are you coating the cement with some sort of polymer sealant or aquatic varnish to seal the cement.

i added something to the cement mix called bondall's silasec. it's a cement waterproofer, suitable for fish ponds amongst other things, and should hopefully prevent the cement from crumbling when underwater. i was considering also using pond sealant but i think i will just do a large number of water changes until the cement is cured (before i put fish anywhere near it). i guess if the pH remains high i'll have to reconsider the pond sealant

 

[doresy]

I agree, good thread this Being in the labour side of design myself I LOVE a project with imagination and skill.

Look forward to seeing this project all the way to fish.....keep up the good work and thread

 

[dave_paton]

Nice work im a builder/cabinet maker and you have some really good skills. Im guessing you are a tradesman of some sort aswel? just call the 'wood' timber and ur a pro

 

[BigC]

I'm suprised at you with all those boats around your shores.
Try Yacht Varnish.
Regards
BigC

 

[noop]

Try Yacht Varnish.

on the cement?? i thought that was for wood (sorry, timber (i'm a software developer not a tradesman))

 

[noop]

where was i? the final coat of cement...

having made a bit of a mess of the mixing for the second coat, i decided to mix the final coat in the wheelbarrow, a less confined space. so i threw all the ingredients together and started mixing it and noticed little flecks of orange. you can guess what colour my wheelbarrow is. i was hoping that maybe the orange bits were just sand grains catching the light but i couldn't really ignore it when i saw a big fleck of orange paint floating about. whilst the fish might like the orange colour, i'm not sure they'd be so keen on the chemicals in it, so i ditched the load over next door's fence and started a new mix in my old mixing container...

i applied the final coat, and as i'm going to have a sand substrate i decided to put a thin layer of cement on the bottom too in case the fish decide to move the sand around. i don't really want to see the bottom of the aquarium. to do this bottom bit i just added a bit more water so the cement would flow around and cover the surface

i covered the tank with a plastic sheet and poked a few holes in it. it took a long time to dry. in fact, it's 7 days later and i still wasn't 100% sure it was dry but i kinda lost patience and filled it with water today anyway

here's some pics of it before i filled it just now:

the bottom looks like chocolate

i placed the tank on polystyrene sheets (which will later be used when i put the tank on the cabinet) and filled it with the garden hose. with all the water changes i am probably gonna have to do i thought it'd be sensible to leave the tank in the garage for this stage. i put a small powerhead in there to make sure the water circulates a bit, though it's a pretty weak powerhead... pH of my tapwater is 7.8. i'll be testing daily to see what happens...

 

[BigC]

Provided its sealed correctly... That looks pretty damm amazing.
Green plants will set that off no end.
Just got a phone call from your neighbour, about some gunk you've thrown over his fence, he's not a happy teddy bear.
BigC