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  #1  
Old 12/31/2007, 02:49 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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Post 15g custom corian tank build

well im probably getting way ahead of myself here cuz i wanted to get some more stuff done before i started the thread. i dont want to leave everybody hangin forever while i make slow progress, but whatever...
the tank im using is approximately 15g, and i made it out of corian about 2 or 3 years ago. i have to dig up some pictures, and when i do ill give all the dimentions. right now its being used for some cardinal tetras and ghost shrimp. the tank was built to accomodate a 24" 2x65w coralife PC fixture. im not worried about having too little light because the tanks only 10" deep, so thoes lights will be fine.
im building a simple stand, and a simple sump. the sump will be a standard 10g tank with baffles, easy enough. ill be using a mag 7 for the return, and it will be split using a SCWD. the 2 return lines will enter the bottom of the tank in the back 2 corners, and then be split again using two 3/4" pvc 3 way 90* fittings. all that will be hidden behind rock work when im done. the only thing you will see inside the tank when im done is a thremometer, and maybe not even that? i might just throw it in the sump??? there will be no additional flow for the tank, only what is provided by the return. i have about 2' of head to reach the tank, and i will lose some more pressure due to the SCWD. im not sure how much ill lose, but im not really concerned about it at all. the tank is so small that the mag7 might actually be too much? i doubt it, but we'll see.
when im done the tank will be specifically for 2 clowns and a carpet. i will more than likely add a bunch of GSP to cover every thing else in the tank. (rocks, tank walls, ect...)
well i have alot more to write, but my wife is taking me to ricks caberet, so i gots ta go!!!
ill be back tonight
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  #2  
Old 12/31/2007, 08:04 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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alright, i got some pics now

here is the tank i will be using... corian blah blah blah I.D. is (lxwxh) 22.75"x9.5"x9.5" so thats 8.88 gallons... it is euro braced and the inside corners are all coved. it has a built on external over flow box that measures I.D. (lxwxh) 19"x5"x8", and thats 3.29 gallons , but, there will be a durso in that oerflow box so there wil probably only be like 2 gallons in there, depending... there is one thing i dont like about this tank and it is that the overflow wier is not notched like your traditional overflow weir is. it two 8.75x.5" slots routed horizontilly at the back of the tank. because its 2 open slots and not notched, i occasionally lose small fish into the overflow box. no big deal because i dont think a fish as big as a clown will go through, although they might? we'll have to see... here is the tank,

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  #3  
Old 12/31/2007, 08:07 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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that light that is on there now is a 1x65w pc. the new light that will be going on is a 2x65w. i will probably put 1 actinic and 1 10k... here is the dirty light. i need to do some cleaning...

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  #4  
Old 12/31/2007, 08:13 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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the skimmer is some off brand that i got used from austin aquarium for $40.oo it came with a rio 600 pump. its 20" tall and like 2.5" in diameter. kinda expensive for the actuall product, but at the time of the purchase i had the money and didnt care much. im kind of glad i bought it because thats just one less thing i have to buy now. here it is.
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  #5  
Old 12/31/2007, 08:22 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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the sump will bea standard glass 10g tank with 3 baffles for a bubble trap. no fuge, just a place for equipment. i might add some cheato if i can fit it, but we'll have to see... the water level will be about 8". so if its 8"x20"x10.5" in the sump then thats 7.27 gallons...which will be a total of just over 18g total water volume in the whole system. i dont have a pic yet, cuz i havent bought the tank. the 1/4" glass will cost me $44.oo, or somewhere in that range. thats the quote i got. the sump will have my heater (if i need it) the skimmer, maybe some cheato and a couple of rocks, theATO, and the return pump. simple enough...
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  #6  
Old 12/31/2007, 08:24 PM
McTeague McTeague is offline
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Interesting use of Corian! Is it pretty rigid material? Are you a Corian installer?
  #7  
Old 12/31/2007, 08:30 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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oh yeah, the 1/4" glass is for the baffles, duh... the ATO will simply be a kent float valve installed in the sump, and directly connected to my RO/DI... everybody says thats a bad idea because of some TDS creep or something??? i forget.
i want to make an easy mixing station with 2 5g buckets. one bucket will have a float valve and be a fresh water resivoir, and the other bucket will be for salt mixing, and be connected by pipe and a pump to the fresh water resivoir. i will probably then connect the salt tank to my sump. all the pumps will be connected to one of thoes dj strips. that will make things pretty easy. ill get into that more later when i actually get it going.
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  #8  
Old 12/31/2007, 08:31 PM
kar93 kar93 is offline
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Have you used any treatments in the tank?
  #9  
Old 12/31/2007, 08:39 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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McTeague, i used to install corian back in california. now i just install granite. more money and yes, it is very rigid material. as for making fish tanks from corian, its just a bad idea all together. depending on how you fab the tank, it could very easily come apart from the seams once running. obviously that would be bad! the material is .5" thick, and pretty heavy. the material also expands and contracts with tempurature. if you dont take extra steps in beefing up all the joints, that tank probably wont hold up for very long. it doesmake an awsome counter top material though... i have seen it used to build an extremely large (1000g +) sting ray tank at the monterey bay aquarium, but it was all backed by concrete, so the water pressure forcing the corian walls outward really have no effect. im actually always afraid my tank will pop apart, but i dont think it will because i coved all the inside corners.
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  #10  
Old 12/31/2007, 08:40 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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07kar93. what kind of treatments do you mean???
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  #11  
Old 12/31/2007, 08:48 PM
kar93 kar93 is offline
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any treatments with copper i thought with this being a FW you may have used them before
  #12  
Old 12/31/2007, 08:50 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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the stand will be simply framed out of 2"x4"'s, wrapped in 3/4" ply, and trimmed out in some cheap 1"x4" material. i want 1 door in the front, and 1 door on the left side. here is a lame drawing of my framing plan.

the measurements are (lxwxh) 29"x22"x30". i got lumber for framing earlier today



i did run into a huge problem when i went to start cutting wood tho. my saw which is 6+ years old, has the same blade on it as when i bought the dang thing.
you will see from the pics that most of the teeth are broken off. i guess i shouldnt have cut that pvc with it huh?


im going to go get one of thoes DIABLO blades from FREUD at the home depot tommarow
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  #13  
Old 12/31/2007, 08:58 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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07kar93, oh, nope. no treatments. ive had that tank running fresh water for like 3 months now, and i havent had to battle any ailments. and this will sound awfullly cruel and irrisponsible, but if i had an outbreak of ick (or anything) in that tank, i would cut my $10.oo losses and throw everythnig in that tank in the garbage. i know that sounds wrong, and i will probably get alot of heat from people here about not being a responsible fish keeper, but spending all the time and money to battle disease in that tank just isnt worth it to me...
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  #14  
Old 12/31/2007, 09:13 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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here is a pic showing the tanks current, and future location, and a pic of the 50w ebo-jager heater. i might not even need the heater cuz the tank temp stays at like 80* but im going to put it in anyways. (who doesnt put aheater in thier tank?
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  #15  
Old 12/31/2007, 09:24 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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oops here.

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  #16  
Old 12/31/2007, 09:30 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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these first two pics show the overflow wier looking from the back of the tank


this is just a sht loking down on the whole thing
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  #17  
Old 12/31/2007, 10:45 PM
Zestay Zestay is offline
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ok so you think your tanks going to fall apart every day and yourstill using it?
  #18  
Old 12/31/2007, 11:21 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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haha. yeah Zestay... kinda. i had my doubts at first. but if it were going to fall apart it would have done it already. at first i wasnt sure if it wouldbe able to handle the temp variations when the lights were turning on and off. if it were going to happen like that it would have happened the very first time the lights turned on. its gonnabe fine. if i actually thought it was going to fall apart at this point then no, i wouldnt use it...

here are some more pic tho.. these are with the light in place. this is the actuall light that will be used.



this is a couple of angles of the tank




and this is the tank with water displaying the use of a mag7 pump, which is the pump i will be using for the return. notice the surface aggitation and keep in mind that the return for the pump, as it is in the picture, is pointing straight down. thats an insane amount of flow for a tank this size. i will be losing pressure due to head, and the SCWD, but im sure its still going to be plenty of flow! and if it isnt i have a plan for an extremely easy CL with the use of another SCWD. but realistically, i dont think it will be neccessary..


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  #19  
Old 12/31/2007, 11:25 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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oh, one thing i do like about this overflow is that the back side of the wier has a 1/8" roundover edge, so even with a powerfull pump, water doesnt cascade over the edge, it just forms a sheet, and makes almost no noise at all.
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  #20  
Old 01/01/2008, 12:46 AM
socalchris socalchris is offline
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i like that tank. what's the material called? i think yours is the first i've seen like that.
  #21  
Old 01/01/2008, 02:27 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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its called Corian, and its a regstered trademark of dupont... its basically just an acrylic solid surface material used for making countertops and shower walls. it comes in 1/2" and 1/4" thicknesses
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  #22  
Old 01/01/2008, 02:53 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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ok.more progress
i got my new dang blade, so i got to work on framing the stand up.



here i have the lumber cut for the first two legs of the stand
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  #23  
Old 01/01/2008, 03:00 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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there it is


i clamped two 2"x4"'s together square to form each leg, then i drilled pilot holes and screwed them together.


and here we have a leg


and here we have 4 legs


here we have the lumber for the base laid out... the top will be the same thing
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  #24  
Old 01/01/2008, 03:02 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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and the stand comes together as so...




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  #25  
Old 01/01/2008, 03:11 PM
chrismunn chrismunn is offline
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i have to wait till this saturday (1-5-08) to get the 3/4" ply to skin, and the trim boards. i think i need to get a few hinges and a couple of handles. the finish work going into this stand is going to be primative and haggard at best. im not exactly sure whats gonna happen, but there is no written plan for this step. i figure ill just wing it and see what happens. ive determined that i need 1 sheet of ply, and like 45' of trim board, 1 gallon of white enamel, 4 hinges, 2 handles, 2 latches, a quart of stain, and a case of beer... it will probably take me like 1 day, then i can start figuring out what i need to do for plumbing. at that point ill need to get rid of these fish. anyone want some cardinal tetras? you canhave them for free with all the live plants and sand thats in the tank. just p.m. me and let me know when you wanna pick it up!
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